our years ago, I traded e-mail with Robert Kahn, head of Reliable Corporation, a Canadian company that manufactures and sells all manner of intelligently designed home and industrial products -- from ergonomic chairs to steam cleaners, sewing machines and irons. Kahn is an audiophile, and we were e-discussing his company's latest product, the UberLight Flex, a gooseneck light that the comes with a clamp ($79) or stand ($129), in white or black. My audio system is complicated, especially my analog setup. I have a four-tier, double-width Silent Running Audio rack, which is necessary, because I also have two turntables: a TW Acustic Raven AC with Graham and Tri-Planar tonearms, and a Grand Prix Audio Parabolica with a Kuzma tonearm. Both just fit side by side on the rack's top shelf. Finding space for a light on the shelf with the turntables is difficult, and clamping a light to the rack is impossible, because of the rack's extra-thick frame. The UberLight Flex is an attractive and very useful light that unfortunately wouldn't work for me, so I decided, four years ago, that writing about it would be more an act of speculation than a discussion of the experience using it.
Reliable's newest light, the UberLight Frame ($399), is wholly different from its predecessor. Kahn and his team began work on it in 2022, experiencing delays in its development because of COVID. While there are two models of the UberLight Frame, the difference between them is only cosmetic: the 7100TL is white and the 7200TL is black. In either finish, the light comes with a clamp, a round base and a square table mount, so the user can decide how to mount it after purchase, not before, as with the UberLight Flex. The features of the UberLight Frame also go far beyond those of the UberLight Flex. "We decided to produce what we thought would be the ultimate light for audiophiles," Kahn told me. My study of the press materials convinced me that he might be very close to that goal. While the UberLight Frame isn't a new phono stage or preamp, I was immediately interested in writing about it. Do audiophiles need special lighting? After all, so many of us listen in the dark or near dark, with eyes closed. If your system is digital only and you choose music to play with a remote control or tablet, a light like the UberLight Frame is probably just another audiophile accessory you won't often use. However, if you play records, good lighting is important for so many reasons: to examine each record before play; to dust off records that need it; to see what you're doing, so you don't bump or drop the tonearm and damage your cartridge; and finally to install and align a cartridge. For all of these tasks, the UberLight Frame has great utility. Its placement is flexible, and it looks great as well.
As mentioned, you can mount the UberLight Frame with its base, stand or clamp. With any of these options, the light itself slides onto a long rod that keeps it firmly in place and allows easy swiveling. The table base, which I use, reminds me of that for my LG OLED TV: it's thin, heavy, and doesn't slip or slide once put in place. This is important, because you will want to turn the UberLight Frame, as well as adjust its lighting. If the stand is easily moved, you will have to be as careful using the light as you are with your tonearm, and who needs that? The included universal power supply with a USB C input jack is said to be low noise -- the UberLight Frame draws a maximum of 6 watts -- but fitting it in some power conditioners with recessed outlets will be tricky or impossible. However, with an inexpensive adapter that converts female USB C to male USB A, you can power the UberLight Frame from a standard USB receptacle. This is what I do, and it works perfectly. For any such product, the lighting it provides is the most important feature, and the UberLight Frame's lighting is definitely its main selling point. The horizontal arm has six banks of LEDs that provide up to 600 lumens of light. They can be individually turned off and on, allowing tailoring of the light's spread. There are five levels of illumination and, best of all, three levels of color temperature: from bright white to yellowish, with a stop in between, which I prefer. The banks of LEDs can also be tilted right or left, to focus light exactly where you want it.
Most of these functions can be controlled from the included remote, which tucks into a recess behind the banks of LEDs, recharging on the UberLight Frame itself. It's also a flashlight, which is useful for reading liner notes in a dark room or inspecting your stylus. Very smart. The remote may seem like a superfluous extra, but it is so useful that I now use it instead of the controls on UberLight Frame. When the side of a record is finished, I turn on the light from my listening seat, so I don't have to fumble in the dark around my turntables.
I have wondered if it was possible for the UberLight Frame's horizontal arm to be vertically adjustable, so it can tipped up and further out of the way. Kahn addressed this during development: ". . . we decided that for reasons of aesthetics as well as structural integrity, the Frame would not be height adjustable. . . . [W]hen we compared the structural integrity and the beautiful clean lines of the fixed height light vs. the adjustable one, it was an easy decision to make." In use, the swiveling action pretty much makes height adjustment moot, because you can simply turn the entire light left or right and out of the way. Upward adjustment would also aim the light away from the equipment beneath it, which reduces the UberLight Frame's utility. I also wondered if the UberLight Frame could be rechargeable, so it doesn't have to be plugged in along with the audio equipment it's illuminating. Amazon sells all manner of rechargeable lights; I use some of them to light stairs, where no outlets exist. However, none of these provides nearly the same amount of light as the UberLight Frame. Also, rechargeable batteries would have to be fitted somewhere, compromising the UberLight Frame's sleekness and making placement more difficult. I plan to investigate using a USB power bank with the UberLight Frame -- maybe one with solar panels, so I can use outdoor light to create indoor light. In the end, these are insignificant quibbles about a
product that's brilliant in its design, execution and function. Robert Kahn's experience
as an end user for the UberLight Frame clearly guided its development. We audiophiles are
conditioned to trust engineering solutions, but in this case, a team of engineers couldn't
have done half as well as the CEO of a manufacturing company who is also one of us. |
