PSA - The cheap record player mechanism to avoid
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 พ.ย. 2024
- This £5 component (or variants of it) is used in most novelty budget record players. That’s fair enough when you’ve paid only £30 for a player to listen to some worn old records as a bit of fun. Perhaps not so great when this same £5 component forms the heart of your £100+ record player bought to play new limited edition £25 vinyl albums.
It’s your choice how to spend your money - but it’s also nice to know exactly what it is you’re paying for and just how much care and attention as well as respect for you as a customer has been put into making the thing you’re paying your hard earned money for.
This video originally formed the end of this review of a budget 'DJ' Record player
• £89 Dual ‘DJ Turntable... - a few people asked for it to be uploaded separately.
Music from - bloomypetal.ba...
This £5 component (or variants of it) is used in most novelty budget record players. That’s fair enough when you’ve paid only £30 for a player to listen to some worn old records as a bit of fun. Perhaps not so great when this same £5 component forms the heart of your £100+ record player bought to play new limited edition £25 vinyl albums. It’s your choice how to spend your money - but it’s also nice to know exactly what it is you’re paying for and just how much care and attention as well as respect for you as a customer has been put into making the thing you’re paying your hard earned money for.
Techmoan moaning about tech, I can finally rest in peace.
"Eee, they don't make 'em like they did when I were a kid! There ain't nowt like a Garrard!"
More like bemoaning. It ain't like he's having an orgasm about this one.
Huh, this whole time I thought his channel is called 'Technoman'.
@@hermannabt8361 I thought the same for quite a while
This should be a new series - seriously proper "Moan" videos.
Me, looking over at the mechanism on my record player: ...Uh oh.
Me, looking over at my scratched up Technics SL5... Yea, keeping that one until it breaks beyond repair :)
Don't despair. I agree with Techmoan that they're inexpensive and kind of nasty, but...! You *CAN* improve them, or at least, inexpensively move upward. This is a segment from a longer video he produced about a Dual-branded turntable that you could buy for very little money. He's in the UK, so he spoke of it being 89 British pounds, but a Crosley C100 here in the US is the very same thing and it goes for about $150. Target (yes, the department store) has their own brand of turntable called the Heyday that's also quite good for just a hair under 100USD.
Both, of course, require an external amplifier and speakers (the Heyday also features Bluetooth 'transmit' capability).
If you've been happy with it, that's all what matters. It can sound better, yes. And it does wear out your records a bit faster. But if you're not collecting rare stuff and are happy with its performance, don't let anyone talk you into not being happy with it when you previously were. Just know that if you ever get annoyed by its quality, there are better options available.
Hahaha
@@jonathanchampagne7683 No, they really don't. VWestlife has a video on it, and my friend has one with a few minor modifications and it sounds fine.
"The record that they bought is worth more than the record player that they put it on."
That's LPL levels of savagery.
Made me think of Street Fighter the movie. "This money isn't worth the paper it's printed on!"
“Okay folks, obviously this is a product that should be avoided. In any case, that’s all i have for you today...” 😄
@@pokehybridtrainer from the film that isn't worth the celluloid its printed on.
@@benholroyd5221 Surprisingly went plus years later with cable TV airings giving royalties to Capcom. A "good bad" movie for sure.
@@benholroyd5221 Wdym? It's such a cult classic full of culture, you have to be blind to not see it's real potential.
got stung on this one: gave my sister a record player for her birthday and didn't want to cheap out so thought I'd spend a little money. 200€ later this piece of garbage arrived in a shiny silver housing with a dead brand name on it. I wish this video existed a few years ago because I still curse that plastic joke every time I see it at her place.
Burn it...
@@ptonpc I'm not worried, the way it's shoddily built it will probably self-combust and burn her house down anyway
@@warci Probably for the best.
200€!?!
@@bend1483 yup, thanks Denon!
Good idea to have this as a separate video, so it's easy to send a link for it.
PSA: In cases lacking such convenience, find your timestamp, right-click the video, "Copy video URL at current time". This is also a quick way to get the shortened URL in general (youtu.be/etc.)
th-cam.com/video/1YIX5-CwhqM/w-d-xo.html
Heavy tracking weight, el cheapo ceramic cartrige not good. But the disaster that awaits is more subtle. One of the ways that makers pull cost from these units is to fit a sapphire tip to the cartrige rather than a diamond. Diamond = expense, sapphire = cheap alternative that initially performs just the same. However, a sapphire tip can exhibit noticeable wear after only 20 hours of use and slowly turns from a smooth groove rider into a sharp edged chisel for vinyl. Back in the 80's these sapphire equipped units were derisively known as cheese graters for their terminal effect on anything played on them. There is no easy way for a average punter to distinguish easily what tip is fitted so best to assume the worst. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.
@@andygozzo72 Where do you get these? Would love to replace mine!
On the other hand, we have all the information we need, before I bought and started using my TT I read for a few days so I knew about styluses, carts, tracking force etc. Its a crime to say "wow I din't know" in the 21st century
@@andygozzo72 The better suitcase players had stacking record changers that could play 6 to 12 records at a time. Same as those big, heavy, credenza consoles, still, with a ceramic cartridge tracking around 6 grams. Think of a Stack-O-Matic, only made of metal parts.
Bought an ion deck from Best Buy with this same tonearm over a decade ago as my first turntable. Playing the records I had on heavy rotation back then on my technics now are unlistenable, skips all the way through
Usually the tracking force on these ain't too bad (at least within manufacturer specs for the records themselves.) But yeah, the carts are ATROCIOUS. Swap that out when you get it, not too bad.
Wouldn't spend more than £20 on anything with that mechanism tho
I love Matt's withering distain for poor-quality stuff. As others have said, this is a PROPER MOAN. Great stuff!
We need a second channel called "Proper Moans" with just the short edited rants in it.
My dad was Going to Buy one..He has All Original PRESSINGS. I was Like NO NO NO NO... Ended up finding a decent one with a Set of Speakers. 89usd
Original pressings!! OMG.
Surprisingly so many people from the era of vinyl don't know much about different types of turntables. I guess it wasn't that different back then. So many cheap crappy record players with ceramic cartridges. There should be more better ones now when it's a niche market.
4 minutes of unedited rant, what a wonderful treat !
It's not a rant, it's a public service anouncement.
It's a peaceful protest against junk audio!
The immense idiocy of your comment is almost scary. You're wrong on every part.
1. The video is 4 minutes, the rant is not.
2. It very much isn't unedited, that's seriously astounding how you fail to understand that.
3. Your grammar is so bad it's cringe inducing. Especially the space before the exclamation mark... Just, why?
@@MuscarV2 :
"You're wrong on every part"
That's called "advertising hype".
"...the space before the exclamation mark... Just, why?"
Because I'm not from the UK and not all countries follow the same typographic rules. That's why. You say Pot-Aye-to and I say Pot-A-to, and all that sort of things.
@@craigjensen6853 I don’t know if you’re talking about ranting or...
You know what, never mind. I’m not gonna ask
The vinyl-playing cousin of that one last cassette mech. Pops up everywhere in a ton of disguises, always the same crap inside.
These cheap players remind me of the Fisher-Price record player we had as kids. It was a real record player and built to about this level of quality, but it was explicitly marketed as a toy. Now they're being sold to adults who want to get started collecting vinyl and are too young to remember the Fisher-Price record player. :)
Was it tan on the outside and white inside with an orange platter?
@@computeraidedworld1148 Mine was blue but yeah, it's the same one.
I don’t even mean this sarcastically, the fisher price mechanism is a far sturdier piece of engineering.
@@JG-to8sp I was going to say. We still got ours. It's not bad at all for a toy.
Computer Aided World I hadn’t realised Fisher Price had built an actual real record player, I was referring to the proper kids toy, with the chunky plastic discs, the arm on that was hefty!
Vwestlife made a similar video about these previously. He did mention part of the problem is the cartridge. They're like a cheap ceramic, which there are old pre-amps for, but they otherwise sound like crap with the imcompatible pre-amp.
Exactly. The one in my 1988 Philips midi system actually sounds good. It's sprung mount too.
Also they mounted the cheapest needle ever made, a sub par chuo denshi clone!
That's really useful to know. Thanks.
You can hear the difference in audio quality from an LP if you have used it on a good deck, and then play it once on a bad deck and finally play it on a good deck again. The difference in sound is the damage that the nasty cartridge and deck have done. I have around 500 LP's, some of them from the 1950’s, and in near perfect condition, and wouldn't play any of them on one of those nasty decks.
He also tried to defend the turn table as not being "junk" and the fact the stylus/tone arm was on the upper end of way to much tracking force wasn't an issue and wouldn't destroy records. Which of course is complete 'rubbish' statement. All the local vintage vinyl stores will tell it's customers never to buy one of those "crap in a box" for that reason. But VWestlife said "no problem...." and sense he's got a following, people believe him.
Main reason why I un-sub'd from his channel. He lost a lot of credibility. That's like telling people that the "YUGO" was a decent car!
"This record player mechanism is rubbish! I bought ten of them to demonstrate..." hhaha
It’s a part unit, so you can mod a tonearm into one of the those vintage kiddie record players to play it. I have my GE Show ‘n Tell where the cartridge is shot, and the tonearm doesn’t have any screws, so I decided to replace it with a decent tonearm to track records pretty well.
If you pay low money you get low product. Quit whining.
Good rule of thumb is avoid ceramic / piezo pick-up cartridges. A moving magnet cartridge (usually evidenced by the two retaining screws in the head-shell) really is a minimum standard.
Not all moving magnet cartridges have the standard 2 screw half inch spaced mount. Some turntables with similar thin aluminium tonearms and non adjustable counterweights have the magnetic cartridge glued, screwed or clipped to the headshell.
Segment at 3:11 was the best thing ever! Still laughing out loud.
Yep hilarious. Had to rewind and watch it again. Hilarious and I'm sure very true.
i remember the old cheap 70s compact stereos that would include a relatively inexpensive phonograph mechanism from BSR, but they were worlds away better than this. Thanks for making people aware.
Even the last cheap BSR idler drive decks had a spring to adjust the weight and the arm had a metal sleeve bearing. I remember we bought an Amstrad tower in the early 80's and chose the Belt Drive model. The deck was no better than the crap shown here and lasted about a year before the speed switch went flaky.
I would go to a second hand store and buy an old 1970s BSR compact unit before I would EVER throw money away on a "Crosley" or 'Victrola" POS. It's an insult to those respected old names (How did RCA Trademark Management or Sony Music Entertainment manage not to retain the Victrola trademark?).
The quality and strength of the metal in those old BSR decks was amazing.
Two Techmoan videos in one day. 2021 is bound to be a good year!
Yea the second is really just a clip show. 😉
Aside from Techmoan, no it's been shitty and worse than 2020 already.
I agree completely! :-) I only 'liked' this comment as someone had taken it over 42 - it would have sacrilege to me to mar the ultimate answer, but it had already been done, so I took it to 44... ;-)
Unpopular opinion: 2021 was pretty good
I get that the mechanism is cheap, but with so many vinyl enthusiasts dissing on them, I’d love to see a thorough breakdown of how their cheapness impacts audio output, and ideally a digital recording of the audio output from one of these cheapos and from a better turntable so we could hear the difference for ourselves. Kinda surprised nobody had done that already, but I can’t seem to find one.
I've been looking for the same thing. Everyone says these things are bad, but no one explains exactly WHY these things are supposedly so bad. The one I have works well enough. It's not amazing but it does what I need it to do.
Thank you. I have reposted it on my fb page to warn people adding that: if you are on a tight budget is to buy some thing second hand ANYTHING but of of these! (Even the autochangers from the 50s &60s were 10x better!)
The auto changers often had better arms especially on the top of the line models. Better cartridges too. Some magnetic.
well great just checked my record player and guess what it has. What a lovely thing to find out on my birthday! I've been wanting a better one anyway, now I have a good excuse.
Was about to buy my first record player because it looked nice, I found this video and realized that it had this mechanism. Thank you for saving me!
I always thought these existed to take advantage of hipsters who want a "vinyls player" just for cred.
@James Doolittle Or LPs, but yes. I also HATE when I find out the record I just bought is bright purple or green or whetever. So dumb.
Probably why a lot of girls buy them.
Might be the final time they play their vinyls if they keep skipping or worst still get scratched up.
@@ccadam internet is full of sexists and you are one of them
You have pretty much nailed it, I do like vinyl because they are always in junk shops, car boots or house clearance. I like a lot of genre's so getting stuff that's not on CD, I get a for a few pounds and very easily. However, charity shops have now caught up with Ebay and Discogs, so getting 80s rock music cheap is almost impossible. These cheap turntables are more than adequate if you playing old 60, 70s and 80s pressings.
New vinyl is another matter, sometime the stylus can bounce across the record, but I was told new vinyl almost sounds the same as new CDs because everything is recorded or remixed digitally. So I get new albums on CD and it's about £20-£30 cheaper than vinyl. I did see students buy record players for about £40 from The Works when they sold them, then buy a £60 deluxe vinyl album.
Watched the original video, but it was worth to be watched again. If not just alone to convince the algorithm.
Same here
Superb rant and great information for people who didn't grow up in the golden age of hifi (1970's/80's).
"A turntable so bad, you shouldn't even play a chocolate record on it, because it'll leave a bad taste in your mouth!" 😉
Thank you for this video. I have some limited edition vinyl from a little-known artist shipping from the States to here in the UK and I’ve never owned my own record player before. I’m not looking to spending a huge amount of money on a vinyl record player & speakers and saw some great looking suitcase-style players on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. The prices fit what I wanted my budget to be very well and came on here to look up reviews on them. Your video was the first one I tapped on and I’m very glad I did as the last thing I want is for the records to be damaged in any way.
Again, thank you so much for making us less-knowledgable folk aware of the issue.
*unless you enjoy disappointment
HAH, joke's on you! 2020 turned me into a masochist.
Funniest comment on the interwebs for the day LOL
I got one of those 8-in-1 players because it's what I can afford and it works well enough. I never expected it to be top of the line and I don't want it to be. It functions and that's good enough for me.
I can't believe I never ran into this video in the years I've been using one of these. My mother got me one of these all in ones from Amazon and I just never questioned the skating or bad quality.
man.
I got a Victrola-Crosley as my first record player, I was a poor kid and that was high quality. But 5 years later, I bought a much better turntable... I don't know why I've been missing out all this time!
My first (and only) record player uses one of these. I got it for about $30 Canadian, including shipping. It's served me well and I think I got value for my money, although my hearing isn't great having spent just a little too much time in drumlines, so I'm just as happy with a terrible cassette player as the best hifi systems. It was just neat seeing how the mechanism works, and gaining experience using one.
I've never agreed with a rant so much
I found a linear tracking Technics for spares or repair for little more than that. Threw the cracked top away and put the belt back on which had come off, gave it a good clean and a bit of clean grease and that was all it needed. It sounds better than my ears. It somehow makes how it works visible to the children - they can see and feel the music on the disc - that is magic.
Me, looking over at my Victrola:
"Aw crap..."
I'm sure you'll be happy to know your that your trust in a long long long dead brand name helped make one chap become a millionaire www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2018/08/06/vinyl-visionary-how-a-digital-dealmaker-revived-victrola/?sh=dea3abe4dee2
Craptrola radiotvphononut calls them
So glad you made a video on this that's short! Now whenever I say to someone, don't buy something cheap and bad I can show them this!
It IS a "toy" isn't it? Its like an RC car. Yes it drives, but it you shouldn't actually try to USE it for transportation!
thank you for creating and editing this short-form PSA.
This is the linkable sort of thing that can help rebut against the garbage recommendations.
Thank you so much for making this! I will be sending this video to many people in the future haha
Well, I can't complain too much. I own 2 Technics TTs that I love but I also own some albums that I can't play on those due to slight warps and imperfections that I missed seeing when I bought them at secondhand stores. Wife bought me a Crosley Cruiser and I did find some benefits out of it because I play those records without a care in the world. Those imperfections don't seem to matter to that cheap mechanism Techmoan talks about. And you can get some decent sounds out of it when it is paired with decent electronics. My first stereo when I was a kid had slightly more tracking force than those cheap mechanisms and my vinyl collection then was fine, no damage.
Show this to every would be vinyl buyer. Glad you made it a separate thing as well.
Wow, what comments! It's a shame that the older models like BSR went away from England & later sold to China! The later equipment that you reviewed cheapened the quàlity of the former brand. I fortunately saved a metal platter version that survives to this day with a much better quality tone arm chrome metal plays well. Not a Technics or Audio Technica but 3 adjustable record sizes. I didn't pay much for it but it was well worth it, oh I forgot to mention it's a convertible record changer minus the umbrella spindle. A good cartridge heavy motor but I love it! Believe me I collected them for years. I respect your opinion on this chassis model believe me I understand that 100%.👍
Thanks for pointing this out!
The thought of putting one of my records on one of these makes me cringe.
When you recognise your beloved little record player in the video and it's trash...
I have a lot old 45s wich are all worn out and scratched.i will never play them on my Technics .
But this cheap thing is made for this!
Its a lot of fun for me, to use this for my old 45s and it does not so bad sound at all.
I've got one built into a suitcase with Bluetooth functionality. Sound quality and speakers are all right for just listening to music while cleaning or doing stuff around the house. What I did like though is that you can adjust each of the records speeds individually. So I was able to get it dialed in by just pitch correcting a record against a digital version of the song.
It's definitely not hifi but it does the job.
Shame that we dont have the 80/90's tech these days anymore in manufacturering, and most products being designed for tossing away when a new model comes out.
Turns out this one was designed mid 80s. Who woulda thought?
@@daftbence looks to me like they just recycled the design tho and kept cheapening it out more and more till we got to... this.
I mean, not like they didn't have awful cheap crap back then either, just the race for the bottom never ends.
The Sony (of all people!) one I had in the mid 90s was one of these. That telltale line on the top of the head section of the tonearm. It was like listening to an AM radio underwater. Probably.
Would you want a smartphone made with 80/90s *superior* manufacturing? No, it would be the same size as luggage and need it's own set of wheels.
Other than certain companies, like Apple, it's not that things are being made with the explicit intention of being non-user serviceable it's that not even the smallest Chinese child labor hands can service modern stuff outside of replacing complex components entirely.
@@donpalmera Well of course complex components like processors or memory ICs or touchsreens must be replaced entirely. That's not new, a dead vacuum tube had to be replaced in its entirety too. And by 1980s we already had mass-market microprocessors and FL displays that were just as "serviceable" as iphone processors or touchscreens.
My first record player had this garbage mechanism. I bought it at the local electronics store (Mediamarkt in Germany) and it cost me a 150 euros brand new. It couldn't play a new record because it kept skipping on a small little scratch. I'm now the proud owner of an at lp120 and it's just so much better with anti skating I can finally hear all the old records without them skipping. BTW use a blank cd to set your antiskating, my dial on my audio technica was quite a bit off from the optimal settings for my tracking weight.
The night before this was posted I saw a turntable with this mechanism in a bin by the curb outside someone's house. I considered dragging it home and trying to fix it. Glad I was too lazy to bring it home.
I cannot tell you how many of my friends I see posting on social media about their records and they have a Crosley, which I just looked on their site and HALF the units they sell have this exact piece of trash in them. OOooofff.
For me I just buy old record player since those record players are time tested and doesn't feel cheap luckily in my country there are still people selling their record player in good condition(there's even one that is selling his 30s record player at a low price). For now I'm happy with my National SL-N15 and Sony MJ-550k
Two techmoan videos in one day. It’s a New Year’s miracle
Couldn’t agree more... the amount of people who are like “omg I just love vinyl, CDs and tapes and streaming are awful I only listen to vinyl blah blah, look at my record deck...” and it’s one of these effin things built into some retro box with tiny useless speakers.
Literally would have been better off with a couple of cheap second hand reasonably sized speakers and an amp streaming music from your phone.
I was giving a GPO all in one for a wedding present, the built in speakers are so tinny. I had to use old computer speakers that plugged in to the mains to get the more bass, treble and clearer sound in general. The last songs on the record are always muffled or distorted. I can't wait to get an upgrade. I did research my model, I wouldn't call it cheap to buy as such but it was cheap to make. Playing new records on it is not wise as they skip.
'Least you vinyl enthusiasts have a choice.
Meanwhile, us audiocassette enthusiasts over here are stuck with the nasty Tanashin mechanism.
It's true, I have a new Sony boombox (the one you will find at walmart) as well a sony walkman (made mid 90's I assume) I am hoping with tapes continuing to grow year after year that it a decent player will surface. Unfortunately by the time that happens (if it does) the tape bubble will crash and labels will quite making tapes...
This is a cost reduced clone of a 1980s turntable by BSR.
Do you know which model BSR? They made some bad players but I don't remember seeing one as bad as this.
@@chickenfizz Have a look here - suggested it's a P284: th-cam.com/video/1YIX5-CwhqM/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/1YIX5-CwhqM/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=VWestlife
Oh damn I think my record player has one of these mechanisms 😅
Watched this despite watching the original, do like a good TM rant, and in this case will save you wasting your money, bonus!
That turntable you reviewed, was a pretty decent for the money.
No, it wasn't. That was the whole point of the video.
@@Sun-ut9gr OP is talking about the turntable from the previous video, the Dual one
I got one of those as a Suitcase player. Why ?, just so that I can digitize my old 78rpm shellac records. It's working quite good and I'm happy with the result.
I've been watching Mat for a number of years never seen you so frustrated! And fair deuce! These are the most common christmas/birthday gift record players bought and they absolutely destroy vinyl.
So funny. When I saw the original video and thought it would be great to have a separate video with the psa. I had people reach out to me during the holidays to buy record players. Thos sums up why not to be the cheap ones.
I had one of these mechanisms in an Amstrad "hi-fi" in 1988, except it was even cheaper and nastier than this one. The "tonearm" was completely plastic instead of the metal tube shown here. Alan Michael Sugar obviously keen to save even more pennies. That was the last time I wasted money on crap hifi. Bought a cheap set of proper components from Richer Sounds and have never looked back. Depressing to see these cheap mechanisms so abundant today, they should've been consigned to histories dumping ground.
Got a “suitcase turntable” for about 50 USD as a Christmas gift a couple years back with one of these mechanisms. And around 3-4 months later, the thing just died. I took the thing apart and discovered that the motor had burnt out, so I just threw it out at that point. And, around a month later, I find a turntable/radio/equalizer/dual tape deck from ~1986 with speakers for 40 USD while out thrifting. It works way better than that old mechanism ever did, with the only positive (though rather small) being that my current turntable is 2 speed, while the old one was 3 speed. Definitely agree with the points made here.
This video would be perfect for some kind of second PSA channel called "Technoman"!
I like what you did there. 😉👍
I almost forgot he's alreeady got his "TH-cam Pedant" channel with the HD material of New York City from 1993 in HD (DTheater DVHS Demo Tape).
As soon as I saw the thumbnail, I knew what this was about. I have a older Pioneer turntable that needs a bit of adjustment and a new cartridge, and my wife bought a (fake) Crosley from a Goodwill, had it shipped to the house, and the moment I put a record on, I knew it was rubbish. Granted, I wouldn't told her not to buy it, even without knowing about this, because you know it's going to be some cheap Chinese rebadged cludge, but she didn't ask me. First, either my ears weren't working right, or the entire Chicago Symphony Orchestra was flat, or the thing wasn't playing at the right speed (only one guess). So, I had to take it apart, which required removing the tiny turntable and popping off the drive belt, adjust a screw potentiometer on the bottom, put it back on (including the very fiddly drive belt), and see if it's in tune. Took a couple of hours altogether to get it to play, and the stupid thing still won't turn on half the time because the switch in the base that shuts it off when the arm reaches the center of the record refuses to turn it back on again, for absolutely no reason. I've used it exactly once and I'll go back to getting my old one repaired, the one with the adjustable counterweight and arm-lifting lever and stroboscope speed calibrator.
My parents bought me a record player with this cheap mechanism as a Christmas present for 2022. My heart sank.
There's nearly nothing better selling this video than the thumbnail! Excellent!
3:16 - "and they go: HufFuhH, aNd thEY'r beING veRy caRRefoul witH IT"
I love how he just puts it down haphazardly after that.
good idea making this into its own video. good info given how common these scat platters are.
I saw fellow YungBlud fans in Facebook complaining about their new records from the band's shop skipping I guess their players had those mechs in and the records were fine! I bought the CD.
Saw one myself a while back saying new record skipping. When asked what he was playing it on he replied GPO.
And now show them a video of the (real!) Dual taking the cigarette test and "off center" test and a Dual playing in a vertical or even upside down position...
th-cam.com/video/DNC6C9YTvlQ/w-d-xo.html
As many would know to stay away from Crosley and other cheap turntables, the only justification I can see for them is if you're just going to raid the $1-$5 area. But I would recommend pairing it with a decent pair of speakers, even if you just get an auxiliary cable and your Bluetooth speaker, and not a cheap Bluetooth speaker either.
At home, I do have what I think is a decent setup with a Technics turntable and Ortofon Red and some Pioneer speakers, (I think from the 90's?) Anyway, it works for me.
"The record that they bought is worth more than the record player that they put it on.". Me with a record player with that exact mechanism: yeah that's about right
yep youre quite right Matt, im not worried, i still have my orange looking TEAC record player from back then, the best record players however are the ones that have quartz direct drive motors, but these now cost an arm and a leg,i keep my turntable until all my records are converted in digital format,preferably FLAC,cheers
My daughter bought one in a “suitcase”. Measured 9 grams of tracking force. Ouch!
I bought an ion bluetooth player about 6 years ago for £100 with the same crap mechanism. I didn't know about them then. It plays my dad's old Satus Quo just fine but anything new with deep bass has it doing it's best Torvill and Dean impersonation, skating all over my expensive new records. I tried a DIY tracking force adjustment with pennies as weights but it doesn't work. Stay well away unless the last record you bought was in Woolworths in the 70s dressed in full denim.
First thing my mom bought from her first wage was a Dual record player. She always tells me they builded the best record players here in germany.
Nice, great TT. They were called Dual because they had a wind up motor as well as an electric. They're an excellent and overlooked TT. I had about 5 of them. They're fun to work with. I know the ins and out.
An excellent PSA.
Vwestlife recently did a video about the origins of these. I've got a 1988 Philips Midi System that has one of the original ones of these. It's most like a BSR. The thing is, it actually sounds rather good. It helps that mine is even sprung mount.
Yup, knew someone that has one of those, so they wanted to upgrade and I found them an 80's nice toshiba turntable, it's not the best but it's much better than what they had before
80s midrange turntables are generally pretty good
Great PSA! I work in the bicycle industry and it’s the same thing- if you buy the cheapest thing, you will always get the cheapest quality!
Thanks Techmoan!
I just bought Denon 47f from Japan because of your past review. 👍 Strange package smelled like fine Cigars when it arrived lol!
this made me love my philips 222 even more.
Very valid warning. The other thing I hate about those dreadful things is that they advertise the ability to play 78s. Most unsuspecting consumers have no knowledge of what is needed to play a 78 record properly. The speed is one thing but the stylus needs to be much different, fatter and a different shape, to sit in the much larger groove of a 78 record. Then there is the problem of playing a 78 in stereo where one of the channels will pick up nothing but noise and the record will sound dreadful. Talk about exploiting the musical nostalgia craze. Good grief! Sorry, rant 😄.
We clearly need more vintage techmoan family photos
Boy! I am glad to have my Realistic turntable from 1985 in great working condition!
I actually have one of these (or a very similar model, looks nearly identical but has a few subtle differences), and while yeah it works fine most of the time, there's a few things that really urk me. The sound quality, usually is very tinny, however sometimes it sounds completely fine. May vary by the record, I don't entirely know. However, the needle itself is utter garbage and feels beyond flimsy. It's served me well but I'll be ditching it in the coming months for something a little nicer now that I actually have some money
What annoys me most about these Crosley-style mechanisms is the fact that some portable record players dating as far back as the 1960's have superior mechanisms. Sure metal tonarms weren't a thing yet, but some players would come with tracking force adjustment and diamond stylus factory fitted around 1962 already. Meanwhile it's 2021 and these mechanisms still have diamond stylus as optional, as far as I know (at least some variations of this design come with a saphirre) and no force adjustment. Not exactly a progress
*It's about time someone called pieces of trash these out.* Thanks for the rant. They're as bad as the nasty cassette mechanisms with permanent magnet 'erase heads' which are everywhere nowadays. They're more than a complete waste of money. *They are perfectly capable of damaging your expensive or irreplaceable media within one play.*
I dont know why the Western companies are still producing in comunist China. They should finally leave and stop supporting this country and their fascist party. There are so many better places where products can be produced .
And I HATE those permag erase heads more than the cheap TT
“destroy your records in 1 play” is mostly a myth and over all an exaggeration. It’s not the mechanism’s fault, rather the cheap sapphire styli that get worn out after a few hundred plays, and can be damaging to records if not replaced every so often. The specified tracking force for vinyl records was a maximum of 6 grams, about what these track at. Still, with a lower tracking force like 2 or 3 grams, your records might last longer. Keep in mind that most average consumer turntables in the 70s and 80s tracked just as heavily as these mechanisms. Do those old records sound bad or “destroyed” today? I don’t think so.
I do agree modern cassette players are mostly trash. Very few are good.
Just look on Ebay and buy an used Dual record player from the 1970`s - made in West Germany. These are the best that you can get and wont cost you more than 100€. I bought my Dual 704 for just 90€ and its one of the best players ever built in masses. So the Dual 701, 704, 721, 621, 604 are top of the line with Direct Drive. Then there comes the Dual 5xx Series with belt drive, which are still much better than anything new that you can buy for 500€.
Oooh! A double feature today.
With all your videos demonstrating how to clean out pulleys and replace perished belts, unstick mechanisms etc, I think a lot of people should be considering used turntables off the usual auction sites, or even out of their parents'/grandparents' lofts. Turntables really reached the peak of good quality vs reasonable cost at some point in the 1970s or 80s, and there are literally thousands of players of this vintage boxed up out of sight.
I've still got the Sherwood deck I bought at Richer Sounds in 1996; it hasn't been switched on since 2004 so I think I will doing some maintenance on it before I set it up again, but hopefully a bit of de-dusting and a new belt and I'll be away.
The real shame about those cheap record mechanisms is there are likely people out there who haven't really experienced decent record listening, and may decide to get one of those cheap players, or encounter one somewhere and end up thinking that's what record listening was like. Cheap products like that could ruin the reputation of record players if that's all someone knows of them. I'd hate to think that someone thinking they might want to get into listening to music on record and see one of those things, recognize how bad they are and give up on the idea.
Actually that red cartridge isn't bad it isn't AMAZING but they do have a spring adjustable weight and they WILL NOT DAMAGE YOUR RECORDS I had a victrola and it never hurt my record player
PSA: How the turntables have turned
Of course these things are horrible, but we just simple need to share with people why there are better players and explaining to them why. I think too many act like audiophile snobs (Not Techmoan here) and actually push more people away. These thing truly are the poorest excuse for a turntable, but don't be to quick to skip over how many people are buying vinyl and using "descent" turntables because they were able to get started with this. You can't get people into better turntables before they even get into vinyl.
So negative. Not everything about it is bad. It has a really neat dedicated holder for the 45 rpm puck! More record players should have that!
But yeah, everything else about it is obviously rubbish.
It also has a perfectly sized platter for 45's.
You can also get Dual 505 Mk2 turntable for £50.00 if you look in the right place. That is how much I got my one for and even better it has a high end cartridge and stylus. It is a Nagaoka MP-11 cartridge with a Nagaoka MP-100 stylus.
They’re fine for playing 78s.
There’s a soup only restaurant near Seattle with a cheap record player that sounds too fast! I mentioned it and they got offended 😆 😂