Reliable Uberlight Frame desk lamp
Back in the carefree days of 2021 when all we had to worry about was the return of a certain virus the Canadian light company Reliable sent me an Uberlight Flex ‘task lamp’ because they had discovered that it worked well with turntables. This solidly built LED illumined lamp can be adjusted to a wide variety of angles and can also be clamped onto a table or shelf next to a record player, it turns out that Reliable president Robert Kahn is a keen vinyl spinner who had started using the Flex in this way.
Four years on Reliable have created a lamp that is specifically for those of us who want to see where each track starts on an LP in a darkened room, which as you will know, usually sound the best. The Uberlight Frame is a rather elegant design with a fixed right angle shape and a flat, slimline lamp with considerable versatility. For a start there are three mounting options supplied in the box: a table mount that can be fixed to most level surfaces with screws, a stable base that is heavy enough to anchor the light without fixings and a clamp which is probably the most suitable for hi-fi racks unless there enough space for the six inch square stable base.
The lamp itself is a 45mm aluminium bar section with a fitting that holds the 260mm long by 15mm wide LED lamp, this lamp can be tilted to a degree and offers variable brightness and temperature, the latter producing whiter or warmer light. You can pick from six levels of brightness and three temperature options using touch sensors on the lamp or with a remote handset that fits into the light itself. The Uberlight Frame has been really well thought out, that much is clear.
This attention to detail even includes the power flex which plugs into a supplied 5V adaptor, rather than being stiff and plastic covered this is a fabric covered slimline cable that doesn’t seem to kink. Adapters are supplied for most of the world’s AC outlets and the cable has a USB C connection, something that is quickly becoming genuinely universal.
I fitted the Uberlight Frame to the corner of my equipment rack using the chunky clamp, the lamp fits over a pin that allows it to swivel and has a magnetic coupling to damp movement, a nice touch. I plugged the cable into the adaptor supplied, selected the lowest brightness and the warmest temperature and have been using it every time I play a record. Even at this setting it reveals how dusty some vinyl can be and encourages me to get the brush out, but more importantly it makes it very easy to read the titles and find the start of a track. I haven’t used the remote a great deal as the one setting seems good, but I can imagine turning the brightness up next time I need to change a cartridge.
The Uberlight Frame is a beautifully designed and executed lamp that takes up minimal space (445mm high on the clamp and 435mm long). The price is notably higher than the Flex at £499 ($399/€499) but this is a very nice lamp with a broad range of features and fitting options.
I particularly like the way it manages to shine light down but not sideways, so I can sit below it across the room and not be distracted by it when the rest of the room is relatively dark. I generally avoid putting anything superfluous on the rack because the nature of reviewing life is that stuff is always being moved around, connected and disconnected, and having extra things is a nuisance, but this lamp is so good that I am not planning to move it.
Jason Kennedy
Reliable Corporation
uberlight.com