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Recommended Component 2025 - Stereophile
"Recommended" Award – Hi-Fi Choice Magazine
Acclaimed Automatic Tonearm Lifter Helps Protect Your Stylus from Unneeded Wear
The Little Fwend LOW automatic turntable lift is designed for Rega, Linn, Thorens, Pro-Ject, MoFi Electronics, and many more turntable brands. It is a most necessary accessory.
A serious turntable is almost always manual. You are undoubtedly a person who listens to music in a mindful and focused fashion, and that is great. But sometimes life happens. A drifting thought or someone calling on your attention can suddenly distract you, and two hours later you wonder if you turned the turntable off.
The precious diamond at the end of the cantilever has a useful life of 1000-2000 hours before it needs to be retipped, if it is a hi-end model, or replaced. There is no point in wearing it out prematurely if you can easily avoid it. That's where the Little Fwend automatic tonearm lifter comes in.
The Little Fwend is mounted on your turntable and set up to trigger a lifting mechanism that raises your tonearm and stylus above the surface of the record after the music inevitably fades out. It is 100% mechanical and will not affect the audio signal in any way.
"This is beautifully machined item available in three sizes," observes Michael Fremer at analogplanet.com. "The lift cylinder is smooth-operating and well-damped, which results in a gentle rise, free of bouncing or 'violent upheavals' as the arm rises, regarding of its mass or tracking force. Little Fwend provides excellent set-up instructions and includes both magnetic and adhesive ways to fix the base to your turntable."
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the Little Fwend by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2025.
"From Norway comes the Little Fwend, an automatic tonearm lifter in the tradition of the fondly remembered Audio-Technica AT-6006 Safety Raiser: a damped, spring-loaded cueing platform that lies in wait for a tonearm to pass overhead and trip its trigger—an event timed to occur when the stylus is done playing an LP side and has entered the lead-out area. AD [Art Dudley] described the Little Fwend as 'one of the most well-conceived, well-packaged, well-made audio accessories I've encountered.'"
Hi-Fi Choice "Recommended"
"A beautifully made precision, damped lifter, it is triggered when the arm touches a delicate spring/antenna at the end of a record," is how Hi-Fi Choice describes the Little Fwend, honoring it with the magazine's "Recommended" Award.
"The damped lifting mechanism is super smooth and results in a gentle rise that is free of bouncing or jerking as the arm rises. This is a superb device that’s beautifully crafted and will make an elegant and useful addition for many turntable users. "
"I Recommend It Without Hesitation," Raves Stereophile
"I recommend it without hesitation," raves Art Dudley in Stereophile, January 24, 2017. "Since the first day I tried it, a few weeks ago as I write this, the Little Fwend has performed reliably and smoothly, sparing my styli untold minutes of wear—and every minute counts."
"It does what it says on the box, it’s an automatic tonearm lifter that is extremely well finished, looks the part, and simply lifts your tonearm when you get to the run-out grooves – groovy," notes Oscar Stewart, HiFi Pig Magazine, June 3, 2024.
The Lowdown on the LOW
If you own a Rega, Linn, Thorens, Pro-Ject, or MoFi Electronics turntable, the Little Fwend LOW is for you. It is compatible with and many more turntable brands, too. The LOW works with turntables with 1.26" to 1.93" (32-49mm) from the mounting surface and up to the underside of the tonearm, measured while the stylus is in the groove.
The LOW model has been sold to more than 2000 happy customers since 2016. It fits most turntables with regular thickness platters (Linn, Rega, etc.) or where the LOW is mounted on the armpod instead of on the plinth (Brinkmann, Michell Gyrodec, etc.).
For the Little Fwend LOW to work, you need a flat mounting surface between the edge of the platter and the base of the tonearm to adhere the magnetic mounting disc. Point the stylus towards the middle of the run-out groove of a 12” record and measure to see if you have at least 1.10" (28mm) diameter free space straight under the tonearm tube.
"So Reliable, I Could Even Relax and Sunbathe"
"Little Fwend works so well and is so reliable that I could even relax and sunbathe in a hammock while listening to my turntable and I didn’t have to worry a second about my sound box," notes Germany's fidelity-magazine.com. "[I]t has huge benefits, looks great, and doesn’t interfere with the sound whatsoever. Conclusion: I get by with a little help from my fwend!"
