Sony's turntable for audiophiles is now on sale for $599.99

Sony's PS-HX500 turntable, which was a standout at CES back in January, is about to launch at retail. Today the company announced that it's taking orders for the $599.99 turntable, and the device will be hitting stores on May 22nd. If all you're looking to do is relax, lean back, and listen to some records, well, there's not much setting Sony's new unit apart from a slew of great alternatives. (And the Technics table we saw at CES definitely looks cooler.) What does make the PS-HX500 a little special is its built-in analog-to-digital converter; you can convert your vinyl collection to lossless, high-res audio files in "either native DSD (up to 5.6 MHz) or WAV files (up to 192 KHz/24-bit resolution)." Those files can be played back on many recent Android smartphones and dedicated audio players — and support is only going to expand from here.

Along with the turntable details plus the audio receiver we covered earlier, Sony also revealed pricing and availability info for its latest Bluetooth / Google Cast speakers due for release this month. The SRS-ZR5 will run you $199.99 (two of them can be paired for a wider stereo effect), and the louder, more powerful SRS-ZR7 costs $299.99. That one is capable of playing the high-res files you record from the turntable, so they'd make for a fun — albeit expensive — pair.

• SourceSony (PR Newswire)