I had this unit for a while, and its pretty decent as an all-in-one solution. I especially liked that it came with everything needed, including the RIAA phono pre-amp. While most good amps today still have Phono inputs, the fact this has the phono-amp built in means you can plug it into a wider variety of equipment-- specifically your computers audio in!-- without having to do any tricks.
The playback sound is decent, nothing spectacular but not horrible at all. The only gotcha, which may or may not be an issue, is theres no easy way to cue a record. You have to manually pick up and move the needle. Many turntables will automatically pick up the needle so you can move it more precisely. If you dont have a steady hand or good grip you can accidentally drop the needle back on the record which is a very bad thing. But if youre just listening to records from start to end without trying to jump around, this wont be an issue.
If youre a complete audiophile, this is probably not the turntable for you. But if you have a stash of old records that you havent heard in a while, and maybe want to convert them to MP3 on your computer, this makes a solid all-around choice.
While I gave it above average marks for ease of use and value-- for its price range it is probably the best turntable on the market-- it gets average marks on performance and overall. But note that average does not mean bad! It is what it is -- a decent turntable at a decent price, with an extra feature or two that makes it a good value. |
