Traditional solid wood appearance! Oh Boy!
Whenever I see good sound quality reviews for these things I can’t help but wonder what they are playing it through (speaker/amp/etc) and what they are comparing it to.
I would expect any kind of wireless transmission to be thoroughly shunned by a large proportion of the potential audience for record players – or at least some sort of fantastic woo to be spun about getting the right kind of artisanal receiver.
I would also have thought the technology for laser turntables would have come down in price by now, thus paving the way for the next opportunity to persuade people to throw all their old equipment away, but it doesn’t look like it.
I would hanker after a turntable that used frickin’ lasers, I’ll admit.
Laser turntables are just too cool of an idea. It’s a real shame ELP went under.
I think the bigger issue is the crappy $7 stylus. And heinous internal amp to produce line level audio.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the new style crappy battery powered record players, they’re awesome for playing thriftshop vinyl, but they’re a far cry from legit turntables.
Folks it’s better to just set your money on fire than spending it on the crapola.
This turntable, much like all the recent Crosley turntables has a crystal pickup. They sound awful. Get a turntable with a magnetic pickup (most dj turntables and hi fi systems have them) and you will realize why people fetishize the quality of vinyl. I don’t necessarily believe vinyl is better than cd, but with the right equipment it was leagues better as a format than tape. And new clean vinyl can come very close to cd quality.
Bluetooth audio for audiophiles? That would be hilarious.
/snark
I think it’s ceramic, not crystal, stylus?
I wonder if it’s possible to convert my old vestax to a magnetic stylus.
No kidding. I’d not be as advisarial to vinyl if we used a non-damaging way to read the damned things.
Part of the allure of vinyl is the uncompressed nature of the sound- the whole waveform is right there, pressed into the medium.
So in theory you can pull more fidelity out of it etc etc.
Instead this thing compresses the bejesus out of it to send over Bluetooth?
Look, I’m not a “must use interconnects” audiophile. I’m not really an audiophile at all, actually- but if the point of vinyl is that’s it’s analog, then what’s the point of this?
The reason for bluetooth is indeed puzzling; but I"m gonna guess it involves the word hipster.
But if this appeals to someone for the digital conversion feature…please don’t. Ripping an LP to MP3 is…silly. Using a ceramic cartridge to do it is…dumb. Spend more to get real features: direct drive so no worries about belt replacement; real phono cartridge; phono pre-amp built in; line or phono out; 16/44.1 WAV out; $300
(specs and features here)
Aren’t most soundcards 48KHz?
Not really
Still, bluetooth isn’t going to improve the sound.
Why? I currently have about 300 records (and no working turntable, sigh). I have replaced some of them digitally over the years, but many are not available as commercial MP3s, even if I could afford to replace them all. Naturally I want to get a decent turntable so I can listen to my records at home and not destroy them, but I also like to listen to music in the car and at work.
Of course, there is always the time factor; I can’t imagine taking the time to digitize my entire record collection, modest as it is. But I can imagine picking some favorites.
Ripping it to FLAC (or another lossless format) would be better for long term backup. You can easily make lossy copies from that.
RIAA Eq curves aren’t the same thing as compression- so there’s still an analog waveform there. And, indeed, there has been historically less compression applied to older records.
There are also plenty of records that have been released with flatter Eq curves- records pressed on heavier vinyl spun at higher rpm.
Not to be confused with ELO.
