Basis Audio 2200 Signature Turntable & Vector 4 Tonearm

By a stroke of pre-pandemic luck, at the close of 2019 I purchased a Basis 2200 Signature turntable and Vector 4 tonearm, a serious upgrade to my playback system that has helped keep me at least semi-sane, positive, and grounded during this seemingly forever time, and that has proven to be continually revelatory. 

Although Basis Audio products have been thoroughly covered in these pages—most recently in Issue 295, wherein Robert Harley reviewed founder A.J. Conti’s posthumous masterpiece, the Transcendence—it’s been ages since the items I’m revisiting here were initially reviewed by Paul Seydor. [Issue 180, 2008]. 

It’s extremely rare in any field for products to remain current a decade and a half after release. But then A.J. wasn’t the type of guy to spend his time designing, perfecting, and producing gear—nay, works of audio art—that was unable to stand the test of time. He was famous for bringing a “fanatical precision” to all he did, and his tireless research and strict adherence to physics resulted in record players that remain state of the art, while so many others have come and gone. 

Sadly, we met but infrequently at audio shows, but Conti’s drive to create the finest gear lives on, as, notably, does his company. 

As A.J.’s widow Jolanta expressed in a recent email: “You are asking me about the challenges I faced after A.J.’s passing. Wow, where should I start!” 

A stay-at-home mother with two kids, then ages 9 and 11, Jolanta was thrust into a business she admittedly knew little about “while grieving the loss of my husband and my kids’ father, and at the same being a sole caretaker of our family, and I mean sole since my family lives in Australia.

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