Vinyl has always been about ritual: the act of lifting the needle, the warmth of the sound, the physicality of a record spinning in front of you, but Dutch brand Miniot has pushed that ritual into new territory with the Wheel 3, an upright turntable that uses light instead of magnets to transform grooves into music. It is still unmistakably analog, yet the way it gets there feels like a quiet revolution.
The most innovative part of Wheel 3 is a new optical stylus that abandons the usual magnets and coils in favor of light. A diamond needle still sits in the groove, but instead of dragging magnetic weight across the vinyl, a feather-light piece interrupts a beam of light, and sensors capture those movements with extraordinary precision. Because nothing holds the stylus back, it can follow the groove more faithfully, especially in the deepest bass and sharpest highs, creating sound that feels at once detailed and fluid.
To match this innovation, Miniot has built the entire system around it. A custom-engineered preamplifier was designed specifically for the optical stylus, delivering clarity and balance without compromise. The axial flux direct-drive motor, developed in-house, is controlled optically to keep speed exact, while the rigid linear tonearm moves with whisper-quiet stability. Instead of layering on unnecessary complexity, all of this is hidden within a body that looks almost impossibly minimal, letting the records themselves appear to float as they spin.
The result is a turntable that is as much an object of design as it is a piece of audio engineering. It sits in the room like a sculpture, yet the moment the stylus drops into a groove, you are reminded that its purpose is simple: to make records sound alive.
Wheel 3 is being delivered as a high-end audiophile turntable, with early preorders already reaching listeners who wanted to be first in line. By using light where others still use magnets, Miniot has moved vinyl playback into a new space without losing the tactile ritual that makes the medium special.
Photos courtesy of Miniot
