Turntables & Accessories Reviews

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Does what it does (better than you'd think!)
Well I bought this just because dust is everywhere and tends to collect on my vinyls. The first time I used it I took out an old jazz album that was pretty dusty, and surprisingly it picked up a lot of stuff! I then got a newer vinyl that is kept very clean (yet had a little dust on it) just to see how it works with that. After a few spins, it seemed to collect like 97% of the dust! The design is nice, but it could have been made out of metal or something. Still it works great, and I use it all the time (sometimes on my computer screen too). I hate you dust...

Under performs for the money...

At this price, I would have expected more from the product, especially considering it loses (micro thin hair like) bristles easily, which can be difficult to remove from the record using the brush itself.

good brush but can be found cheaper
I bought this same brush under a different name at a local record store for 10 dollars. It works as good as any brush. Like it has been said you push it with the bristles facing towards the driection your pushing to get all most of the dust out.

AudioQuest LP record cleaner
The AudioQuest LP record cleaner brush does an excellent job of dry cleaning records and also reduces static levels. Previously used the Discwasher brush and liquid cleaner system along with a pizo-electric antistatic "gun" to accomplish the same tasks. AudioQuest's brush is quicker and easier to use and accomplishes both tasks with one product. If your records have not been well maintained, you probably will need a product that includes a cleaning solution to get satisfactory results.

does the job
I got this to clean my records prior to digitizing with a USB turntable. First I used a swiffer duster to get most of the dust off, followed by a couple of passes with the Audioquest.

The right balance
Cost/benefit curves typically have a "knee" in them. Below the knee you pay a little more and get a lot more. Above the knee you pay a lot more to get a little more.

As far as I can tell this turntable is at the sweet spot slightly above the knee. A rock solid heavyweight, impervious to vibration, bulletproof, sounds great...what more could you ask for?

It's just wonderful.
This thing is great. I really don't understand why anyone would want/need to spend more. It has all the alignment tools needed. It can do anything and everything. Most of all, it sounds great. The cartridge that comes with it will get you started, but mate this turn table with a Shure M97xE Hi-Fi Phono Cartridge and you got yourself a wonderful sounding turn table for the audiophile on a budget and more really. I've been in to audio for a long time now, and money doesn't always equal great sound. I favor the sound of this turn table with the upgraded cartridge and good vinyl to my SACD player. It's softer, but it just seems to have more detail and life to it. I hate most audio reviews that abuse words, so I'm not going to bother. Norah Jones voice sounds AMAZING!!!! Hows that for simple? I have her on SACD too. I like the 200g vinyl and this turn table with the upgrades better.

Only down side. Don't use the internal amp. It has no bass. FYI, one of your older HT amps might just have a gem of a phono amp, and preamp outs on it. :)

Fantastic bang for the buck
Finally had to put my old Philips 212 to rest. Upgraded to the Technics after much research and reviews from other users. Absolutely satisfied with my purchase. Highly recommend.

This Turntable is All You Need
The SL-1200MK2 turntable represents an amazing value for audiophiles that want to get back into the fun and charm of spinning vinyl. I paired mine with a Denon DL-160 cartridge. It sounds nice, really nice. Warm, many times better than many CDs.

The fact is, there are a lot of good turntables. When you consider how relatively small the market it, there is an amazing amount of offerings. The problem is, the industry likes to complicate matters. If you read enough audiophile blogs, getting the sound right is almost impossible.

I have never seen such a nice piece of equipment, not matter the price. The quality to everything on the Technics SL-1200MK2 is outstanding.

What you want in a turntable is what the SL-1200MK2 has. It's heavy duty, I almost dropped to my knees when the Fedex guy handed me the box. You want the platter to spin at a very accurate rate, and thanks to the silent DC motor and heft of the turntable, you can place the Technics right next to a subwoofer and the cartridge is still isolated from any rumble. Now, I wouldn't suggest doing it, but it just illustrates how well designed this piece of equipment is.

Simply put, for thirty years this turntable has spun records at a constant speed, period. The tonearm is fine, just match it with the best cartridge you can afford,follow the installation instructions carefully, then sit back and enjoy.

Just a DJ turntable? No way. It spins the record at incredible accurate speed. Thats any turntables main task, simple as that. Check the wow and flutter specs, they're excellent.

The other question is, are there better turntables? Sure, but who wants to pay thousands of dollars to listen to used records that you're picking up for 1-3 bucks a piece at a dusty record store? Pair the Technics with a decent Shure cartridge and you'll be satisfied. There's no better turntable at this price. Yes, you can spend ,000 for a turntable (there was one at a just concluded Consumer Electronics Show, it had four tonearms and looked really cool) but that's just foolish. There are audiophiles, and then there are people who will never be happy with what they hear, not matter what they spend. And once they have spent lots of money, they have to justify the purchase.

I wish all makers of equipment offered this kind of value. Technics should be lauded for keeping this model in production.

My girlfriend and I are having lots of fun buying old records, then sitting and listening to music instead of hearing all the negaholic banter on television. A record player is a great, inexpensive way to have fun during this recession. You will get hours of fun with this turntable.

Technics SL-1200 MK2 Turntable
Price was great delivery was even better since it was free. Ordered 4/1/09 rec'd 4/4/09 excellent delivery service from FedEx. Turntable seems fine for my 40 year old vinyl collection. This was recommended by a company that offers extreme high end McIntosh products. I do wish I would have taken their advice and bought a Stanton cartridge instead of the Shure M97xE.

Good but not Great..
The Ion TTUSB05 turntable was my first turntable. Right off the bat I noticed the RCA cables were too short, and the usb cable is long which is good. The first time I got it, the manual didn't give information of the needle. Which I didn't know you have to take off the protective clip. I personally prefer Audacity over E-Z vinyl converter since you can make your vinyl to MP3 quick and edit. The only thing i didn't like was the lack of information, very cheap needle, the fact that it's really cheap plastic, and the short Rca cables. I paid 80 dollars for it and I found a website that had it for 50 dollars, and I feel 80 dollars is too much, for this turntable. I guess it's just fine.

A Great Turntable

I have been using this turntable to convert LP records to CDs. It works very well, particularly for the modest price. I didn't like the included software so I have been using Roxio Easy Media Creator 10.

Works well
This works pretty well, I have to baby sit it though to get it to record different tracks on the computer.
If you want one track per album side it is fine, but I want each song on its own track.
This is the program I am using though and not the turntable itself.
Would it have been cheaper to just buy the songs I wanted and been done with it?
It is kind of fun to go through all of the old albums and listen to all those songs you have not heard in a long time.

Vinyl Recovery
I must admit,I was a little skeptical when I first saw the ION TTUSBO5 and the modest pricetag online. I have over 1500 lps, most of which are in pretty good shape. I wanted something that would let me recover some old albums that are not available in CD format.I unpacked the item and it was already put together and ready to use, unlke a few reviews I read that told of assembly required. I used the Audacity software that came with the unit and found it to be easy to use and install. After a few days, I got a stream of white noise occasionally, when copying an album. After a brief exchange with the ION technical support team, I was instructed to plug directly into the USB port on my PC and not in a hub as I'd had it. This solved the problem and I'm continuing to recover my vinyl collection as we speak. The handy click removal tool that came with Audacity is all that I need to fine tune some of the recordings. In my opinion, it is well worth the price. (around 0.00 for me)

EASY TRANSFERS FOR DUMMIES
I bought the ION TTUSB and have loved it, although my wife thinks I'm an idiot sitting in here doing these recordings with everything else I have to do. I had a problem with my Logtech videocam taking over during my second session. I unplugged it and haven't had a problem since. My unit came with two programs, 1 for Dummies and the other to mix, clean static, etc. I haven't progressed into the better program yet. It's great fun, get cha' one!!

Skips and only manual
I have over 300 LP's that I wanted to transfer to audio files and this device seemed like the answer to my problem. It works, but requires much more effort than I expected. The turntable is completely manual, so you have to put the tone arm in place and remove it when you are done. Thus, you have to stay next to the unit to remove the arm when the recording is done. That would be OK, but there is an excessive amount of skipping. To overcome this I had to weight the tone arm and eventually I had to wedge up one side to force the arm not to repeat the same section over and over. Skipping is an annoyance when you are listening to music, but it is even worse when you are trying to make a copy. This skipping required at least two tries per side to get an acceptable file. The software is OK, but you end up with a new file per track or all tracks per side in a single file. I also have my doubts concerning the long term reliability of this unit. The motor is connected to the turntable by means of a rubber belt and I expect that eventually this belt will break or stretch, making the turntable slip or cease operation altogether when it breaks.

There is also a problem with the software interfering with the audio output. It takes over and only the ION will play through your speakers. The instruction booklet explains this problem and the solution is easy, but nonetheless annoying. In fact, I was stymied for a while when I had my computer repaired and I reinstalled this unit. I forgot about this problem and could not figure out why my speakers no longer worked (but did work when I applied the diagnostic check). I eventually resolved the problem, but it was a pain.

At 0 this unit is OK and worth 3 stars. (I am giving it more than one star because it does work and will do the job if you are not too particular. A true audiophile would probable give it only one star because the overall mechanical quality of the turntable is marginal and I found that the resulting audio quality was only acceptable.)

Quick, Easy, & Oh So Cool!
This products makes me want to go out and buy more LP's! It is so easy to transfer my whole collection of LP's into MP3's directly into my iTunes library. Great product!

VERY SATISFIED
I RECEIVED MY TURNTABLE IN LESS THAN A WEEK AND IMMEDIATELY I OPENED THE BOX TO FIND EVERYTHING WAS THERE. I HAD TO ASSEMBLE A FEW PARTS BUT IT WAS A SIMPLE PROCESS.....IN FACT, IN LESS THAN 15 MINUTES I WAS LISTENING TO MY RECORD ALBUMS AND 45'S....THE QUALITY WAS EXCELLENT. MY UNIT WAS CONSIDERED A "SCRATCH 'N DENT" UNIT BUT I HAVE YET TO FIND A SCRATCH OR DENT ANYWHERE.....YES, I'M VERY SATISFIED AND RECOMMEND THIS TURNTABLE TO ANYONE.....AT THIS PRICE HOW CAN YOU GO WRONG.....

EASY TRANSFERS FOR DUMMIES
I bought the ION TTUSB and have loved it, although my wife thinks I'm an idiot sitting in here doing these recordings with everything else I have to do. I had a problem with my Logtech videocam taking over during my second session. I unplugged it and haven't had a problem since. My unit came with two programs, 1 for Dummies and the other to mix, clean static, etc. I haven't progressed into the better program yet. It's great fun, get cha' one!!

Skips and only manual
I have over 300 LP's that I wanted to transfer to audio files and this device seemed like the answer to my problem. It works, but requires much more effort than I expected. The turntable is completely manual, so you have to put the tone arm in place and remove it when you are done. Thus, you have to stay next to the unit to remove the arm when the recording is done. That would be OK, but there is an excessive amount of skipping. To overcome this I had to weight the tone arm and eventually I had to wedge up one side to force the arm not to repeat the same section over and over. Skipping is an annoyance when you are listening to music, but it is even worse when you are trying to make a copy. This skipping required at least two tries per side to get an acceptable file. The software is OK, but you end up with a new file per track or all tracks per side in a single file. I also have my doubts concerning the long term reliability of this unit. The motor is connected to the turntable by means of a rubber belt and I expect that eventually this belt will break or stretch, making the turntable slip or cease operation altogether when it breaks.

There is also a problem with the software interfering with the audio output. It takes over and only the ION will play through your speakers. The instruction booklet explains this problem and the solution is easy, but nonetheless annoying. In fact, I was stymied for a while when I had my computer repaired and I reinstalled this unit. I forgot about this problem and could not figure out why my speakers no longer worked (but did work when I applied the diagnostic check). I eventually resolved the problem, but it was a pain.

At 0 this unit is OK and worth 3 stars. (I am giving it more than one star because it does work and will do the job if you are not too particular. A true audiophile would probable give it only one star because the overall mechanical quality of the turntable is marginal and I found that the resulting audio quality was only acceptable.)

Quick, Easy, & Oh So Cool!
This products makes me want to go out and buy more LP's! It is so easy to transfer my whole collection of LP's into MP3's directly into my iTunes library. Great product!

VERY SATISFIED
I RECEIVED MY TURNTABLE IN LESS THAN A WEEK AND IMMEDIATELY I OPENED THE BOX TO FIND EVERYTHING WAS THERE. I HAD TO ASSEMBLE A FEW PARTS BUT IT WAS A SIMPLE PROCESS.....IN FACT, IN LESS THAN 15 MINUTES I WAS LISTENING TO MY RECORD ALBUMS AND 45'S....THE QUALITY WAS EXCELLENT. MY UNIT WAS CONSIDERED A "SCRATCH 'N DENT" UNIT BUT I HAVE YET TO FIND A SCRATCH OR DENT ANYWHERE.....YES, I'M VERY SATISFIED AND RECOMMEND THIS TURNTABLE TO ANYONE.....AT THIS PRICE HOW CAN YOU GO WRONG.....

Genuine ion needles
The genuine ion needle package was manufactured by ion & came promptly. I highly recommend this seller.

Replacement Needles for ION record player.
Ther needles were received on a timely basis and work as expected. What was unsettling was that three weeks later I received a duplicate invoice from what appeared to be the same company, indicating they were shipping the needles. Price was twice what I was originally charged. I replied with a copy of the original invoice in a sharply worded email. I never heard back from them, nor was my credit card charged for the duplicate order and the order appeared never to have been shipped. I was wondering if someone broke into their order system and was phishing for information. Most disturbing!

Good product, good service
These hard to find replacement needles for my ION USB Phonograph were priced reasonably and arrived quickly. Since they come two to a pack, I'll have a spare!

QUALITY and SIMPLICITY
Whenever one buys a product that performs as stated in the ad or
better, one looks up to see if there is a star shining in the East.

This ION turntable made me look upward.

Works with 78s
Just wanted to add that I was able to successfully replace the stylus with a 78 rpm stylus that I got from LP Gear (ordered the one for the Ion iPTUSB turntable), so the turntable's playing 78s just fine. Also, I didn't have any problems with buzzing. Thanks.

Wonderful Unit For Converting Old Lps To Digital form.
well all i have to say is that Ion Turntable is great for converting your old LP's (Vinyl) to Digital form. so if have tons of out of print titles you want to hear again. then this ticket it works great. i'm still trying to understand the adacity program but oh well . this unit is first rate in my book. read the booklet for problem solving tips. Oh hint: shut off the speaker on the turntable when recording your Lp's to digital form because it will record your voice along with the thing that you are recording to digital, it pick up everything. just thought i'd pass that info along.

Highly Recommended.

ION Audio iPTUSB Portable USB Turntable
Very nice unit. Good sound plus very
portable and very compact to stow on
a shelf. I love it.

exactly what I was looking for
I've just finished completely converting my first vinyl album. With all of downloading sw, connecting, reading, re-reading, saving PDF instructions to my documents, saving in windows media player, etc...whole project took about 1 hour. I am using Audacity SW. I anticipate next albums will go much faster.

When I first received product, I was concerned because I didn't realize the "i" stood for iTunes. Being staunch, anti-iPod, i was dreading having to download proprietary software and thought about returning. As it turned out, I didn't have to use iTunes SW.

The greatest thing about this, is that I saved files as WAV files, and played in Windows Media. I used WM to identify the album. It came up immediately. Labeling each track was as easy as could be. I did have to be a little careful, as the tracks did not come over in the order recorded but other than that, it was EXTREMELY easy.

Crosley Keepsake USB Turntable
Sound isn't to loud. Plays records very good. Prouduct was well protected I give 'em credit for that though they know how how to package the product pretty sturdy. I just wish the speakers sounded louder. I can record my vinyl LPs with my computer to make MP3 files using the USB setup pretty good. The neat thing about this turntable is that it looks like a traveling case. Well for one thing the neighbors aint gonna complaint that much because of the low noise polution.

Pretty Good
It's a good turntable. It is exactly what it says it is, it plays well, and so far is reliable and durable. One thing that would have been nice is if the lid could close while playing a record. As it is, most records are too big, and the lid must remain open.

Better Than Expected
Great product for playing your old vinyl records. The Sound quality is better
than expected and you can download to your computer and transfer to cd which is
even better than listening on the phono.

Would definitely recommend this product.

A nice record player.........
.........but, certainly NO SounDesign {the BEST record player EVER made, imho}. Now, I already have 2 record players {both a SounDesign}, but I was thinking it'd be neat to "save" some of my records to a cd {via uploading to my computer}. Sadly, this was NOT to be the case. I went -step-by-step- w/the instruction manual on how to set it up and upload my music - not even close! Oh, well.............

......at least I can still listen to my records on it. But, it was a very expensive way to do this, since I already have a couple of record players to begin with. Very well-made, and very heavy {about as heavy if you remember ever carrying around 1 of those massive school portable record players?}. However, my tone arm is excessively VERY sensitive! The 1st 3 months I've had this record player, no problems. The past 2 days, however, when I put on either my Hawaii record or my Space record, it jumps the beginning wax - and, the needle jumps to the middle of the 1st song, on any album. It feels like the tone arm somehow got itself wound tight, and I'm not sure how {if even possible?} to loosen it???

If your wanting a record player w/the possibility of a problem or 2, this is the 1 to get - I mean it's great, but then again, it's not either; you know? If you really want a good {reliable} record player - just to 'play' your records on, search your local thrift stores - that's where I found my 2 lovely SounDesigns!!!

Amazingly easy to use, perfect sound
Having seen 1-2 cautionary reviews, I crossed my fingers ordering this turntable. It's proven to be AMAZING. It took about 30 mins. to set up, looks great (LOVE the dust cover), and recording was a BREEZE. The sound was absolutely perfect - no hum, no buzz, nothing. I'm a classical music lover and have pretty high standards, but I have no complaints at all for this product. Compared to the old days (complicated connections, having to record to the computer, edit the recording, then burn to CD) this is the height of technology making life worth living. I'm in LOVE!

Works fine, instructions a little lengthy
Just got around to setting up the Ion. Took a while to wade through the instructions the first time. Only did vinyl to CD this time. The CD turned out very good. Have to spend more time getting to know the machine and trying with the computer. The machine appears substantial, the Flash Player worked as stated. Wonder how long the rubber belt will last. Not very substantial. All in all, it worked as advertised.

E-Z !!!!
Let me tell you , it doesn't get any easier than this ! I bought a usb turntable that works with your computer , and after about a month of trying to figure out how to use it , I gave up . Then I saw this machine . I LOVE IT !You can record and edit your tunes in the internal flash drive , and when you have it like you want it , push one button and bingo ! High quality cd's that sound great ! And you can use your computer to clean up pops and hiss if you want to . If you want to archive your vinyl , this is what you want !!!

Great Idea, Great Product Thus Far
I have had this turntable/cd burner for about one month at this writing. I have recorded 20 LPs into the on board hard drive and then burned 10 cds thus far. The machine is easy to learn and easy to use. I have read other reviews and some of the people who have purchased this machine have had some problems with the cartridge balance and hum. I have not had any such problems. If you follow the directions closely you will be able to balance the cartridge arm properly and as long as you plug the machine into a grounded outlet you should have no hum. The machine has thus far worked exactly as it should have. The fidelity is clear and therefore you won't need to purchase an expensive cartridge for it.

Crosley bought as a gift
I purchased the Crosley Entertainment Center for my husband as a birthday gift. He was very happy when he saw his present. All the records that he has had stored can now be played. He is a musician and is just really enjoying this record player. He also, was excited to see that it also played CDs and tapes. We are satisfied with the quality.

Does exactly what I bought it for
I purchased this product to one thing: play LPs. I've had it for a little over a week, and I couldn't be happier. I briefly checked out the CD player, radio, and cassette player and all functioned, but I will never use these features. For the price it does everything I want it to. I have read the other reviews, and they are either really positive or completely negative. I really just wanted a turntable that had speakers and this product combined both of these features, and while I could have gone with a standard turntable and plugged it into my surround system it just wouldn't have been the same. This unit triggers the nostalgic feelings I had listening to my parents records as a child in an all on an all-in-one unit in the early 80's. Yes, there are better turntables available with lots of bells and whistles but NOT at this price.

Good for an office or a bedroom
This is a nice little system for a bedroom or an office. It is a turntable, or course, which is the main reason for most people to purchase this unit. Many of us in the 40+ age range still have large collections of LPs from the 1980s. I personally have some underground heavy metal and punk records from the 80'S that have never been reproduced in CD form. On top of that, the LP is going from a "dead" format to the "hip new" format. Stores such as Best Buy have been making room on the old CD shelves for sparkling new LPs, complete with digital download codes to get I-pod equivalents of the records. So there will still be a need for the old turntable yet, and for many years to come. Dont worry though, kids, because this also has digital formats including CD and input for I-pods and the like.
I haven't messed with the CD player yet, and I no longer own any cassettes, so I haven't tried that either. The record player seems to go at a decent speed, but I haven't really played too many records on it yet. Still, if everything works here, this is a good secondary stereo. It is not a living room primary system. For that you would want to get a higher grade, specialized turntable as well as a better speaker system.
Overall, however, it is a way to dust off all those old LPs and enjoy the past, or a fairly risk-free way for young'uns to enter the world of vinyl, since the digital formats provide a way out of the fear of owning a system that will not support music in the future if the LP trend turns out to be just a brief trend.
Personally, I think LPs are here to stay, at least amongst audiophiles.
Enjoy!

Nice unit for the price!
I bought this as a starter record player while I work my way up to saving for an antique one. I haven't had a record player in many years, and needed something decent (and moderately priced) to start buying and listening to vinyl. So far so good with this record player. The CD function works great too. I am impressed with the speakers, as they have a very strong output that bounces nicely off the walls for a true "old timey" sound. It's also a nice looking unit and fits in well with my decor.

I was surprised to see so many negative reviews for this piece. For I am happy with it as a nice foray into listening to vinyl again! I'm not sure how well it will hold up longterm, but for the price I don't expect it to last a lifetime.