Argon Audio TT-4 MK2

A gorgeous belt-drive turntable with a pre-fitted Ortofon 2M Blue and a carbon tonearm

The TT-4 MK2 is the second-generation version of Argon Audio’s TT-4, a manual belt-drive turntable. The TT-4 MK2 is pitched as a serious, ready-to-play deck rather than a budget starter. It ships with a genuine Ortofon 2M Blue moving-magnet cartridge already fitted, a carbon-fibre hybrid tonearm, and a built-in switchable phono stage so it can plug straight into any amplifier or active speakers.

The headline question is whether the upgraded components it bundles, the 2M Blue in particular, justify the step-up over the classic entry-level turntables from the likes of Pro-Ject, Audio-Technica and the new competition coming out of China. There is no Bluetooth and no USB; this is a pure analogue record player aimed at sound quality, but it does include a decent built-in phono preamp.

A quick note on the gap since I first set this deck up: part of the delay was deliberate. I wanted to see what else was around at a similar price before publishing a final verdict, and Vienna High End gave me a good chance to do exactly that — walking the show floor and looking closely at turntables in and around the TT-4 MK2’s price bracket. The short version is that I did not find a similarly-specced deck at this price.

There were plenty of turntables around €800 that looked the part, but I feel the TT-4 MK2’s combination of a well-finished cabinet, a real Ortofon cartridge, the carbon-fibre tonearm and other features that I will get into in this review make it pretty compelling at this price. It is really only once you move past the $1,000 mark that can get more advanced options that will genuinely open up the sound further — e.g. direct drive instead of belt drive, for instance — while still keeping the nice looks and the other important features.

Forn this review, I set the TT-4 MK2 up in my new retro listening space and ran it through a proper set of subjective comparisons against several other turntables. The short version, which will not surprise anyone, is that the Ortofon 2M Blue is where the money goes but the AB testing definitely helped make that difference easy to hear.

The obvious upgrade from your first turntable

Before getting into the deck itself, it’s worth placing the TT-4 MK2 within the broader turntable-buying journey, because I think that’s exactly where it sits. The “United States of Analog” YouTube channel has a good video on turntable upgrades that lays out this progression well, even though Argon Audio doesn’t sell into the US and so never gets a mention on this US centric youtube channel — the sentiment in that video holds up regardless, and he covers plenty of the TT-4 MK2’s direct competitors.

The way its framed: your first turntable, if you’re just “vinyl curious,” should be something simple and functional — the Audio-Technica LP60X is the classic choice and it’s exactly what I started with myself, though these days I’d point to some chinese newcomers like the FiiO TT11 just as readily, since it does the same job to that basic Audio Technica turntable. But once you decide you’re “in it for real,” there isn’t one single next step so much as two different directions you can go, and which one suits you depends on what you actually want more of. If you like what your first deck already does and just want it done better, FiiO’s own TT13 keeps all of the TT11’s convenience — full automation, Bluetooth, the lot — while upgrading components to sound subjectively better. If instead you’re starting to care about the cartridge and future upgrades you might want something like the Fosi Audio Luna3 that trades away some of that convenience for a proper Audio-Technica VM95E and a genuine upgrade path. Which of these paths you take is really about whether it is the ceremony of Vinyl or the sound quality that is a priority. But the next obvious upgrade is you have decided you’re a genuine vinyl audiophile and effecitvely you want both the looks, the ceremony and especially you want the subtle analog upgrades that you will want a deck like the TT-4 MK2: it isn’t strong in just one area, it has the high-quality components all at once, the pre-fitted Ortofon cartridge, the carbon tonearm, the proper built-in phono stage, the tracking adjustment, and an overall class of turntable you’re happy to show off to friends rather than quietly apologise for.

But before I get into my sound impressions and comparisons, let’s take a look at what’s in the box.

Unboxing and Packaging

The TT-4 MK2 arrives well protected in a sturdy shipping carton, with the deck and accessories cradled in moulded foam:

Opening it up reveals the inner box and the turntable held in foam with the manual:

The deck is wrapped with a safety warning about the transit protection, and unwraps to reveal the plinth and tonearm:

Setup and Connections

Setup is the usual turntable routine of fitting the platter, setting the counterweight to the recommended 1.8g tracking force and dialling in the anti-skate. The supplied accessories cover what you need:

Connection is via a detachable RCA cable with a separate ground lead, and the deck is powered by an external supply that ships with UK and EU adapters:

Usefully, the TT-4 MK2 has a built-in switchable MM phono stage, so it can run straight into a line input on an amplifier or a pair of active speakers — and that stage can be bypassed if you would rather use an external phono preamp later, such as the one built into Argon’s own Fenris A55 active floorstanders.

Design and Build Quality

The TT-4 MK2 is a substantial, well-finished deck. The plinth here is a real-wood walnut veneer over a rigid MDF body, and with the platter removed you can see the clean layout and the bearing hub:

The platter is a 1.73kg aluminium unit with a damping mat on top and a ball-bearing spindle underneath. It was stored separately underneath the turntable:

The tonearm is a carbon-fibre hybrid with an aluminium headshell and Argon’s patent-pending ATS (Anisotropic Torsion Stabilizer) — the kind of arm you would normally expect on a dearer deck.

The four feet are independently height-adjustable, so the deck can be properly levelled on an imperfect shelf rather than propped up with packers or shims — a small detail, but one that budget decks in this bracket often skip entirely.

The Upgrades You Would Not Expect at This Price

A few things about the TT-4 MK2 go beyond what I’d normally expect to see on a sub-€800 deck, and they are worth calling out on their own rather than burying in a general design overview.

The first is the tonearm engineering itself. Carbon-fibre tonearms are prized for stiffness and low mass, but that same rigidity tends to introduce its own resonance mode, typically sitting somewhere around 500Hz — a known trade-off of the material rather than a manufacturing defect. Argon’s ATS system is specifically engineered to damp that mode. This video review of the TT-4 MK2 backs this up with actual bench testing, and it’s also where the arm/cartridge resonance calculation below comes from — my thanks to that reviewer for doing the instrumented testing I haven’t got the equipment for myself.

The second is VTA (vertical tracking angle) adjustment — the ability to raise or lower the arm’s pivot height. This is not a feature I’d expect on a deck anywhere near this price, and it matters more than it sounds: different cartridges sit at different heights on the headshell, so if you ever move up from the stock cartridge to something like a 2M Black, VTA adjustment is what lets you actually get the geometry right afterwards rather than leaving the new cartridge tracking at a compromised angle. Without it, a cartridge upgrade on a lesser deck can end up being a sidegrade rather than the improvement you paid for.

The third is a hidden one: behind the bottom plate, small cut-outs give access to individual fine-tuning trimmers for the 33 and 45 RPM speeds, adjustable from outside with a small screwdriver. Popping the bottom plate off shows exactly what you’re dealing with — two labelled trim pots, one per speed, sitting right on the main board:

My own unit’s speed was close enough to spot-on that I never felt the need to touch mine, but having that option there at all — properly labelled, not some unmarked internal pot you’d be guessing at — is the kind of thing you’d expect to find on a much more expensive deck, not a feature Argon needed to include here at all.

Cartridge and Tonearm

The single biggest reason to consider the TT-4 MK2 is fitted at the end of that arm: a genuine Ortofon 2M Blue moving-magnet cartridge with its nude elliptical stylus, pre-mounted and aligned from the factory:

Zoomed right in, the nude elliptical stylus and the “Ortofon” branding on the cantilever housing are unmistakable — this is not a generic cartridge wearing a familiar name, it’s the real 2M Blue:

The headshell mounting is conventional, so the cartridge can be serviced or upgraded later:

With the cartridge removed, the standard two-pin connector on the headshell is easy to see — a conventional mounting standard rather than anything proprietary, which is exactly what makes servicing or swapping the cartridge later a realistic option:

Sound Impressions

To get a real sense of the TT-4 MK2’s character I ran a direct AB comparison against the Fosi Audio Luna3 turntable. I bought two copies of the same record — Dave Brubeck’s Time Out, a classic jazz album — so I could play them mostly in sync on the two decks and switch between them, listening for the subtle differences rather than relying on memory. I also did further subjective listening comparisons against the FiiO TT13, the FiiO TT11, and my original " Pragmatic Audio" turntable pick, the Audio-Technica LP60X. Here is the comparison setup, with the two copies of Time Out loaded on the two decks, and a video of the test in progress below:

Here’s the wider rack shot of that same comparison setup, with the Argon’s orange platter mat on the right-hand deck and the Fosi Audio Luna3 alongside it on the left:

It should be no surprise that the Ortofon 2M Blue on the MK2 made all the difference. Through my KEF LS50 Meta speakers the Argon had a noticeably lower noise floor than the more affordable decks, and I felt it presented a more linear, even response — cleaner and more composed, with less of the haze and grain that the budget cartridges on the LP60X and the FiiO decks bring.

The differences are subtle in absolute terms, which is exactly why the synced AB test was so useful: switching between two copies of the same pressing made the lower noise floor and the steadier tonal balance of the 2M Blue obvious in a way that sequential listening would not.

I also spun the Ortofon test record through the TT-4 MK2 for a listen, purely by ear rather than with any measurement gear — I haven’t yet had the chance to properly bench the deck’s distortion or frequency response myself, but I have some more measurement equipment so I will be including objective comparisons in a future update:

What I Saw at Vienna High End — and Why the TT-4 MK2 Still Holds Up

Two of the decks I spent time with on the show floor are a useful yardstick, because both land in a similar price bracket to the TT-4 MK2 and both are attractive, well-known names.

The first was a Thorens, styled in the brand’s classic wood-veneer look with a conventional counterweighted tonearm and dust cover:

The second was the ELAC Miracord 50.2, on display with its full spec sheet and a €799 price tag — the same ballpark as the TT-4 MK2 exactly:

Both are nice-looking decks and I don’t want to dismiss either. But looking at what each actually bundles at that price, neither matches the TT-4 MK2 on all three fronts that matter most to me: a properly finished plinth, a carbon-fibre tonearm, and — the big one — a cartridge from a serious name like Ortofon rather than a house-brand or unbranded moving-magnet unit. It’s an unusual combination to get all three at once around the €800 mark, and it’s the reason the TT-4 MK2 still looks like good value even after a walk around one of the best hi-fi shows in the world.

Where the picture does change is once you’re willing to spend meaningfully more than $1,000 — that’s where direct-drive decks with the same level of finish and cartridge quality start to appear, trading belt-drive simplicity for the tighter speed stability direct drive offers.

Specifications

Some figures differ slightly between Argon’s spec sheet and retailer listings (notably wow & flutter and weight); the values above follow Argon’s official specification.

Rating Explanation

The Pragmatic Rating of 5 reflects a turntable that spends its budget where it counts. The pre-fitted Ortofon 2M Blue is the star — it gives the TT-4 MK2 a genuinely lower noise floor and a more linear, composed presentation than the budget decks it competes around, as the AB test made clear — and it is backed by a proper carbon-hybrid tonearm, a heavy aluminium platter, a real-wood plinth and a built-in switchable phono stage. What pushes it further, though, is the handful of details that genuinely belong on a more expensive deck: the ATS-damped carbon tonearm, VTA adjustment that keeps a future cartridge upgrade honest, independently adjustable feet, and even hidden speed-trim access most owners will never need but some will appreciate having. It is a deck you can plug in and enjoy at a real hi-fi level without buying anything else, with genuine room to grow into if you do.

The Price Rating of 5 acknowledges that €799 while getting into serious money this is a serious turntable, but that you are getting a 2M Blue, a carbon tonearm and a flexible phono stage in a well-built package. The main caveats are the absence of any modern conveniences (no Bluetooth, no USB) and the fact that, like any turntable at this level, it rewards careful setup. The Measurements score is based on the manufacturer’s own wow-and-flutter and signal-to-noise figures plus what I could hear by ear rather than currently any bench measurement of my own.

Conclusion

The Argon Audio TT-4 MK2 is a well-judged step up the turntable ladder, and one that offers a real, audible step up in vinyl experience rather than just a nicer finish on the same basic formula. It puts its money into the things that actually change the sound — the Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge above all — and in my AB testing against a few cheaper turntables like the Fosi Luna3, the FiiO TT13 and TT11, and the Audio-Technica LP60X, it had a much lower noise floor and more subjectively, a linear response easy to hear through the KEF LS50 Metas. Underneath that, the ATS-damped tonearm, VTA adjustment, and adjustable feet are the kind of engineering details you don’t expect to find until you spend considerably more.

It is not cheap and it skips modern conveniences, but as a plug-and-play analogue turntable with a genuinely good cartridge and tonearm already fitted, the TT-4 MK2 is an easy recommendation for anyone ready to move beyond their first turntable.