98 MACWORLD AUGUST 2019
PLAYLIST REVIEW: YAMAHA MUSICCAST VINYL 500 WI-FI TURNTABLEupdate with button-press combinations on
the turntable itself. There was no clear
indicator of the firmware update’s
progress, which non-technical consumers
will find confusing. Yamaha’s on-screen
prompts said that once this firmware was
completed, all future firmware updates
could be performed via the app. I hope
that by the time you read this, Yamaha will
have performed that update at the factory
to make things less confusing for all.
With the firmware updates completed, I
added the Vinyl 500 as a source and
assigned it to a room in my home (in this
case, the living room). Once assigned to a
room, I could integrate the Vinyl 500 into
an entire MusicCast ecosystem. If you’re
not familiar with MusicCast, you’ll find a
great primer here (go.macworld.com/mcst).
The Vinyl 500 is also compatible with
Apple’s AirPlay ecosystem.A WORLD OF MUSIC
POSSIBILITIES
For purposes of this review, I tested the
Yamaha in a variety of different setups. For
a minimalist setup you can pair the Yamaha
turntable with a pair of MusicCast-enabledYamaha sent me the Vinyl 500 with two of its MusicCast 20 speakers.