I would discourage buying this, these cheap turntables use a plastic platter that is rarely level/flat. When the record spins, the needle will dig into the record destroying the vinyl.

Fountain3586 wrote:Rope in your attitude cowboy. Here is an even better reason why it may not be for some... Not mac compatible??

Most of these things will function over Audacity.

Not that I'd let this touch any of my LPs with a 10-foot pole.

chgo wrote:How accurate are the speeds. Are you going to hear wow and flutter?

I don't, and I was listening critically. It's good enough - really - for quick copies of scratchy records. I still have my old direct drive 1.5-gram tracking pretty good for its time turntable, so I can be critical. But I don't move that system around. That old turntable better be better than this.

But with this, I can bring thrift shop finds or my old scratchy records into the garage (and leave them there) and play them and record to laptop right there on this, and I am not disappointed. Sure, a transfer can be done in much better ways but this is OK enough.

What I did hear is if it is USBed into my laptop and its speakers are turned up as loud as it can go, the turntable speed gets slow. Not too surprising. So for transferring to laptop, the volume has to be kept low. I never tried with the desktop computer USB power. With the AC phone charger USB port, to just play through its speakers, the speed does not get slow.

This is usable, it is even fun. If it was junk I would say so here!

Speakers BUILT INTO a turntable?

LOL

cruster wrote:(so presumably CDs would be "plastics"?)

Tinfoils

skipatrolkid wrote:You could have clicked the picture too...

Just saying...

Oh wow, Nobody ever has clickable pictures. Sorry for being presumptuous.

wisenekt wrote:Don't let the cheap scare you, I purchased something similar to this but without the extra features as integrated speakers and it works fine. If you want to transfer music to MP3, this is not a bad way to go. Having the integrated speakers would be nice.

This is one of those times where cheap does not equal bad.

This piece of junk is an insult. Woot should refund the $21 to each fool that falls for this destroyer of vinyl. Ceramic cartridges were designed 80 years ago for 78rpm shellac records.

Rednose wrote:This piece of junk is an insult. Woot should refund the $21 to each fool that falls for this destroyer of vinyl. Ceramic cartridges were designed 80 years ago for 78rpm shellac records.

I'm sure the Chinese manufacturer used a ceramic cartridge not only because it's cheap, but it also doesn't require the pre-amp that a magnetic cartridge requires. Either way, I value my vinyl collection more than saving a few bucks on this, so I'm out!

danbooke2001 wrote:Being a child of the late 70's I have seen 'albums' progress from vinyl, cassette, CD, the ill-fated mini-disk, all the way to MP3. But I am confused, why is vinyl still around? I don't think I have ever purchased a 'record' or even know anyone that owns any. Just curious if there is a real reason it's still around or even supported for that matter?

There are some that feel that newer is never better than old.

So they put up with listening to all the flaws of vinyl, some going so far as to only using 1920's technology vacuum tube amplifiers to do so. The funny thing is, they claim that vinyl sounds BETTER. (Laughable and measurably not so.) Guess they just love that rumble and hiss of the needle following the vinyl track, and popping every time it collides with yet another piece of dust. (Plus the skipping, warped records, etc. etc.)

Some folks also prefer to use a kick starter on their motorcycles, a pull rope on their boat motors, and probably still have a rotary dial phone. And will insist that each is more reliable because there's "less to go wrong".

Whatever.

The funny thing is, the same "analogue purists" don't prefer to watch VHS tapes over DVD & Blu-Ray. They don't prefer the snow and "ghosting" of (now defunct) analogue Television either. So why they hold on to the belief that vinyl is better is beyond me. But I suppose as with so many other things... blind faith often trumps facts.

ionman wrote:There are some that feel that newer is never better than old.

So they put up with listening to all the flaws of vinyl, some going so far as to only using 1920's technology vacuum tube amplifiers to do so. The funny thing is, they claim that vinyl sounds BETTER. (Laughable and measurably not so.) Guess they just love that rumble and hiss of the needle following the vinyl track, and popping every time it collides with yet another piece of dust. (Plus the skipping, warped records, etc. etc.)

Some folks also prefer to use a kick starter on their motorcycles, a pull rope on their boat motors, and probably still have a rotary dial phone. And will insist that each is more reliable because there's "less to go wrong".

Whatever.

To be quite frank with you, you are correct that using some older equipment is folly due to the fact that the outdated equipment has very little benefit to it, or many detriments, but as far as vinyl goes, you have to understand that everything is compressed, not matter what the format. People might argue that vinyl is not compressed because it is pressed from a master taken directly off of the original tapes, but there is physical compression. 1920's tube class A technology has been outstripped by Class AB amplification technology where the AB amplifiers are are operating in Class A all the time at a much greater power efficiency than tubes. But, you cannot say that MP3 is better than vinyl. Oh sure, if you didn't take care of your records and are using crappy equipment, your records will have surface noise, pop, and hiss. Correctly preserved records DO NOT pop, or hiss. And to say that vinyl is not MEASURABLY better than MP3's, I have no clue what measuring equipment you are using. I will admit that high resolution .flac files and the sound files found on blu-ray now outstrip the quality of sound producible through Vinyl, but even CD's at their finest were missing data compared to Vinyl. Vinyl is still around because it is a CHEAP method of producing decent sounding recordings. It might not be portable. It might not be pretty, but it does a damn good job relative to most formats. Rumble and hiss are inaudible with a good enough stylus, isolation, and pressing.

Last thing, we can never forget that what truly determines the limit of the sound which we hear is the ORIGINAL STUDIO MASTERING. The quality of the format CANNOT outstrip the quality of the original mastering. Sure you can have a greater sampling rate, but that doesn't mean it will improve an already crappy master. It will sound just as crappy as it was originally.

From what I have read in other reviews this player does NOT play 78 rpm records.

The other points made included the statements by some that contrary to what it says on the box it does not include “(2) Spare Cartridge / Needle“ and that the drivers come on a mini-cd.

If you are looking to convert vinyl to digital, then this is an inexpensive option

Some of my vinyl that I play is worth 10 times as much as this including shipping. Most of it 2-4 times as much as this costs. I don't trust anything this cheap. Even if you just want to import your vinyl to your computer this will have such a cheap preamp built in and such poor components you will lose out on the fidelity gains of an uncompressed format like an LP. Not worth it, unless you aren't an audiophile and in that case why are you buying or storing your LP's now anyways instead of downloading average quality mp3's or buying cd's?

Any decent entry level turntable that will give you good sound will likely have the USB functionality. If you want to play records do it right, save up for a proper turn table with proper amplification and some decent speakers. It will cost more than 15-100 dollars but it is still obtainable, make it a delayed gratification purchase not an impulse buy.

danbooke2001 wrote:Being a child of the late 70's I have seen 'albums' progress from vinyl, cassette, CD, the ill-fated mini-disk, all the way to MP3. But I am confused, why is vinyl still around? I don't think I have ever purchased a 'record' or even know anyone that owns any. Just curious if there is a real reason it's still around or even supported for that matter?

I also am a child of the late 70's, and I know quite a few people with vinyl. The reasoning is this: Vinyls were exact replicas of the original recordings (and still usually are), as they are both analog. The recordings recorded every moment in time, no lapse. They have a very distinctive sound quality to them. Cassette tapes came along, and they were more convenient, but were lacking in specific sound qualities, and the sound degraded greatly as the tape did. Then CD's came about. This is a conversion of analog to digital, and in the conversion, the original intent of the artist is lost. Then came Mp3's. They take and condense the long strands of musical data on a cd into shorter format. Basically, they can skip infinitesimal parts of the music and have nobody obviously notice, however a great deal of the original quality is lost. The benefits to digital is that the sound can be preserved forever, and the clarity is much improved. Many feel that this clarity comes at the cost of the soul of the music. In the end it is a personal decision. It is as much about preserving the art itself as it is making it perfectly presentable.

ionman wrote:There are some that feel that newer is never better than old.

So they put up with listening to all the flaws of vinyl, some going so far as to only using 1920's technology vacuum tube amplifiers to do so. The funny thing is, they claim that vinyl sounds BETTER. (Laughable and measurably not so.) Guess they just love that rumble and hiss of the needle following the vinyl track, and popping every time it collides with yet another piece of dust. (Plus the skipping, warped records, etc. etc.)

Some folks also prefer to use a kick starter on their motorcycles, a pull rope on their boat motors, and probably still have a rotary dial phone. And will insist that each is more reliable because there's "less to go wrong".

Whatever.

The funny thing is, the same "analogue purists" don't prefer to watch VHS tapes over DVD & Blu-Ray. They don't prefer the snow and "ghosting" of (now defunct) analogue Television either. So why they hold on to the belief that vinyl is better is beyond me. But I suppose as with so many other things... blind faith often trumps facts.

You are comparing a bad vinyl experience to the best or at least an average CD (or whatever your newest technology might be) experience. Vinyls can produce excellent sound under certain conditions, just like scratched CDs can produce annoying skips under some conditions.

Vinyls do use compression. Lower frequencies can not be "dug" into the vinyl due to the size and depth limitations of the grooves. So, their amplitude has to be reduced. A typical record player must amplify back the lower frequencies, so that an approximation of the original recording can be produced. Even though this amplification (referred to as RIAA emphasis) is pretty well defined, some cheap pickup amplifiers do not do a good job and give out crappy sound.

On the other hand, the new technology allows engineers to pull all sorts of tricks, which generally lead to artificial sounding tracks that lacks the depth and warmth of the original sound.

Different technologies have their pros and cons. So, yes, there will always be those people who prefer old vinyls and vacuum tube amplifiers because they offer a measurably different sound experience, which could be better or worse for your taste, but always different...

alsmithee wrote:Speakers BUILT INTO a turntable?

LOL

...yes...speakers built into a turntable, or what we used to call a "record player".

Now get off my lawn you hooligans!

wingedsurfgirl wrote:I also am a child of the late 70's, and I know quite a few people with vinyl. The reasoning is this: Vinyls were exact replicas of the original recordings (and still usually are), as they are both analog. The recordings recorded every moment in time, no lapse. They have a very distinctive sound quality to them. Cassette tapes came along, and they were more convenient, but were lacking in specific sound qualities, and the sound degraded greatly as the tape did. Then CD's came about. This is a conversion of analog to digital, and in the conversion, the original intent of the artist is lost. Then came Mp3's. They take and condense the long strands of musical data on a cd into shorter format. Basically, they can skip infinitesimal parts of the music and have nobody obviously notice, however a great deal of the original quality is lost. The benefits to digital is that the sound can be preserved forever, and the clarity is much improved. Many feel that this clarity comes at the cost of the soul of the music. In the end it is a personal decision. It is as much about preserving the art itself as it is making it perfectly presentable.

This makes sense! So another question, are vinyls still being made for current music? It seems as though recording in analog and transferring to analog would preserve the listening experience (as long as such equipment and media were well maintained). Is it possible to record digitally instead? It would seem with the digital audio technology that we have and the ability to enhance audio, digital would be the way to go, transferring digital to digital presents no quality loss and preservation being limitless.

It seems that MP3 has its flaws, as well as CD's, however someone mentioned earlier audio files on Blu-Ray, might this be the future of digital recording?

ojohn wrote:I don't, and I was listening critically. It's good enough - really - for quick copies of scratchy records. I still have my old direct drive 1.5-gram tracking pretty good for its time turntable, so I can be critical. But I don't move that system around. That old turntable better be better than this.

But with this, I can bring thrift shop finds or my old scratchy records into the garage (and leave them there) and play them and record to laptop right there on this, and I am not disappointed. Sure, a transfer can be done in much better ways but this is OK enough.

What I did hear is if it is USBed into my laptop and its speakers are turned up as loud as it can go, the turntable speed gets slow. Not too surprising. So for transferring to laptop, the volume has to be kept low. I never tried with the desktop computer USB power. With the AC phone charger USB port, to just play through its speakers, the speed does not get slow.

This is usable, it is even fun. If it was junk I would say so here!

Bingo! I've got some old 78's that I've wanted to digitize and this may be the key.

I've got a Peachcrate FULL of vinyl LP's that I last played when I was in college, which is coming on 30 years ago. I've replaced many of my old favorites with cd long ago, and there are probably more than a few gems that would be fun to convert. I'm personally hardly concerned about playing any of these records on even the cheapest ceramic needle given that I'd otherwise not be playing any of these records until the day I die. I'll be ordering one of these if only for it's cheap "utility" purpose.

For a turntable that is clearly described as "not for audiophiles, vinyl nerds or DJ's" we are getting an abundance of comments from that group. Back down D.J. Spinsalot and Capt. Waxtrak.

I used to own one of these.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CFgQtwIwBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAAKZ-O70wNg&ei=Gy8NUNrPF4XK2AXz1LUe&usg=AFQjCNGRYYgjAQBUzKlQ3MJo_qrOunZNOQ&sig2=u7RUpS2bHdQNk_QpNKyQLQ

danbooke2001 wrote:This makes sense! So another question, are vinyls still being made for current music? It seems as though recording in analog and transferring to analog would preserve the listening experience (as long as such equipment and media were well maintained). Is it possible to record digitally instead? It would seem with the digital audio technology that we have and the ability to enhance audio, digital would be the way to go, transferring digital to digital presents no quality loss and preservation being limitless.

It seems that MP3 has its flaws, as well as CD's, however someone mentioned earlier audio files on Blu-Ray, might this be the future of digital recording?

Most, if not all, of the studio recording are in digital today. Making an exact copy of an analog recording is very difficult. An analog signal has infinite number of levels. So instead, we limit the number of analog levels, give each level a name, and call it digital. As a result, the analog signal becomes a series of numbers, which will be very easy to copy.
The reason we use lossy formats in our players is not because we don't have a better one. We currently do have lossless digital formats but they take lots of storage space, and therefore not very popular. As digital storage becomes more affordable, the popular formats may naturally change to take advantage of that. So, the answer to your question is "who knows"?

olcubmaster wrote:...yes...speakers built into a turntable, or what we used to call a "record player".

Now get off my lawn you hooligans!

LOL LOL LOL Quality Post Award. please!

Come on Woot sales. Does this item include the following as listed and pictured: (2) Spare Cartridge / Needle???

Some people would like to know.

meh wrote:Most, if not all, of the studio recording are in digital today. Making an exact copy of an analog recording is very difficult. An analog signal has infinite number of levels. So instead, we limit the number of analog levels, give each level a name, and call it digital. As a result, the analog signal becomes a series of numbers, which will be very easy to copy.
The reason we use lossy formats in our players is not because we don't have a better one. We currently do have lossless digital formats but they take lots of storage space, and therefore not very popular. As digital storage becomes more affordable, the popular formats may naturally change to take advantage of that. So, the answer to your question is "who knows"?

Exact digital copies really don't take up that much space. You can get an exact digital copy using a lossless format (such as m4a) that takes about half the space of an uncompressed format. An entire CD takes about 350MB as m4a. So you can fit thousands of CDs on a 1TB drive tha you can get for less than $100. Even if you don't compress you can still fit over 1000 CDs. The REAL reason that lossless compression is used is because corporations (such as those selling mp3s) will do ANYTHING to sqeeze every last penny out of consumers. They figure most people won't notice or care if the quality is worse. So they can reduce the file sizes so that they don't need as much download bandwidth to handle all their customers. Per track it costs them almost nothing, but they still can't stand to not squeeze everything out of you that they can get. This is the same reason that most TVs have absolutely terrible sound today when with current technology they SHOULD have much better quality than they did in the past. As for this product: It is common knowledge (or used to be anyway) that a ceramic cartridge will have considerably higher distortion compared to a magnetic cartridge, and due to its much higher tracking weight will also damage records much faster. Still, for many people that is acceptable so long as they don't mind having to replace records after a while.

sm0k3 wrote:bought one of these from another sale site.
My experience simply 'NO' -- First time playing it out the box it skipped like crazy on nearly every record I played. If it weren't for that it would be perfect for what I wanted for but I have hundreds of vinyl and I tried enough of them to come to the conclusion that this player just won't cut it. Like someone else said above if you value your records pass this deal up.

Just put a penny on the tone arm, like we did back in the day!

chgo wrote:How accurate are the speeds. Are you going to hear wow and flutter?

The question is: are you going to hear anything except wow and flutter?

Oh man, I bought this for close to $40, and it was worth every penny of that. This is a STEAL. I did a ton of research before buying it and determined that for the price range (under $50) this is by far the best turntable you can get. In fact, it's probably the best you can get before you hit $100 even.

I haven't played a 45 on it, but I've had no problems with 33s. It does come with a 45 adapter that pops out of the frame. It's got a faux wood frame with a plastic-ish top, but it's not as flimsy as you'd think as long as you're not beating it up. Again, you get what you pay for when it comes to building materials. The speakers have a surprisingly great sound for their size. They're certainly loud enough to fill a medium/large sized room and then some. Obviously you can hook up external speakers if you please. I haven't plugged it into a computer, but there should be plenty of reviews on the internet (amazon and whatnot) pertaining to that.

If you're looking for an inexpensive turntable or if the idea here is pointing you in the direction of splurging for one, GET THIS, I promise you won't regret it. Again, this is beyond a steal. They certainly don't make them now like they used to, but just about everything else in the price range is crap. I'd strongly recommend that if you're looking cheap, you get this Vibe turntable (and not the slightly cheaper one that doesn't have the speakers on the front - that one is garbage). Otherwise, don't waste your time with this price range and be willing to go over $100 on your turntable because you won't be happy with what you get. This is the real deal.

danbooke2001 wrote:Being a child of the late 70's I have seen 'albums' progress from vinyl, cassette, CD, the ill-fated mini-disk, all the way to MP3. But I am confused, why is vinyl still around? I don't think I have ever purchased a 'record' or even know anyone that owns any. Just curious if there is a real reason it's still around or even supported for that matter?

Because it sounds better.

The thing that confuses me the most, is even if this were a good device...what's the point? Most recordings are available digitally anyway- in a much cleaner and accurate form. If you want to listen to the analog vinyl attributes, you would want to play it on a good turntable when you listen to it. I love a well preserved vinyl record on a good turntable played through a nice system. On the other hand, trying to digitize a vinyl recording is kind of goofy to me- unless the recording does not exist in digital form commercially. And in the case you were going to preserve a recording that does not exist digitally, you would not do it on a $15 turntable where the tone arm probably weighs 1/4 pound.

Just to be clear: this turntable certainly isn't for audiophiles. I didn't need a great player, I needed an inexpensive $30-40 player that I could play my few records on here and there. I have CDs or digital files of all the music I have on records, so I only have it as a novelty. This is a perfect novelty item for occasional listens to entertain yourself or visitors or to copy your vinyls to your computer. It is not designed for heavy use. If you're buying a $15 turntable for heavy use, you should rethink your purchase. If you're reviewing it negatively because it couldn't stand up to a $100+ record player's performance (or your record player from back in the day, for that matter), I would say your standards are a bit unfair. A Kia doesn't compare favorably to a BMW, but that doesn't mean the Kia won't get you from point A to point B if you take care of it. If you can afford a BMW, don't complain that the $14000 Kia doesn't stand up to the $50000 BMW because it's obviously not meant to.

Vinyl actually is the only disc format that is showing increased sales from year to year. The vinyl is better than ever, and listeners report a warmer sound with vinyl. Every year there's a "Record Store Day"- this year's was April 21- often with live bands and many new vinyl releases scheduled that day. It's really a big deal- independent record stores- yes, they exist- often have lines of customers waiting for the doors ro open that day. Perhaps you should take those buds out of your ears and listen up! This turntable isn't going to do the trick, though...but I'm getting one for those scratchy old discs I don't want to wreck my good cartridge on, but wish to preserve.

danbooke2001 wrote:This makes sense! So another question, are vinyls still being made for current music? It seems as though recording in analog and transferring to analog would preserve the listening experience (as long as such equipment and media were well maintained). Is it possible to record digitally instead? It would seem with the digital audio technology that we have and the ability to enhance audio, digital would be the way to go, transferring digital to digital presents no quality loss and preservation being limitless.

It seems that MP3 has its flaws, as well as CD's, however someone mentioned earlier audio files on Blu-Ray, might this be the future of digital recording?

Although I love audio purity, you have to consider the convenience of digital. Even good compressed formats can fool most ears pretty well especially considering what the playback device is. Listening to great vinyl recording on an audiophile system is an awesome experience and has warmth that digital can't reproduce. Having said that today's recordings start off with digital format (all the recording devices are recording it digitally), so listening to them transposed to analog really does not get you much. If they were to record (and maybe some do) in analog, master in analog then putting it out in vinyl (or another lossless format) would make more sense- but that is probably few and far between. When you consider what you listen to your music through a vast majority of the time (most people) compressed digital music is not that bad, and it's real convenient.

Cowboy Dan,

Get yourself a tripod: Please!

CowboyDann wrote:1.I haven't found this one for sale
2.I'll look for it.
3.

I stand by what I said. If you want to preserve your vinyl and keep it the best condition pass on this. If you're not an audiophile, and you're okay with middle road MP3 Quality, and want to digitize your vinyls before mailing them to me then this might do just the trick for you.

but pleease, for the love of your vinyl, one play only.


Here is a Review from Cnet

It caused me to stop searching for a user guide because of this:
the included manual is barely worth the paper it's printed on. So this is not a great solution for tech-challenged users.

And one last warning from this review:
The actual process of converting albums into MP3s can be complicated, as you have to manually break one long recording into individual files--or start and stop the LP (and the recording software) after each track. A little more automation would be great, and I reckon there's software out there that'll provide it--but it's not included here.


My final word on this.

If you're not super serious about your sound quality, and know your way around a computer alright, this might be perfect for you. Just remember you'll have to edit the tracks, or have a single continuous playing CD.

Based on what I read about this turntalbe, for me (who is way to serious about music) I'd give it a 1/5. For anyone else, it's still not very impressive and woot's dirt cheap pricing is the only thing making me feel comfortable giving this a 3/5 at best.

I would recommend this turntable for playing flea market/thrift store records. You don't have to worry so much about damaging the stylus or the record with this turntable and cheapo records. I have an older, low end Sony I use for this. Just realize you're buying it for nostalgia/out of print music and not sound quality, because the sound isn't going to come close to modern digital sources.

However, if you're buying new vinyl to listen to, don't buy one of these. If you're actually investing in vinyl, you need something that's going to a) make your vinyl sound good and b) will protect your investment. Look for a used turntable with a counter weight on the tone arm and buy a new cartridge/stylus that match the weight of the tone arm. Generally, you can find old turntables with a broken stylus for $10-ish. With a new belt for around $15 and a low cost cartridge/stylus, and proper set up, your records will sound as good as a cd (although, you're not going to get that magic vinyl sound without a more substantial investment).

Is it compatable with Apple Safari ?

This turntable will make the very worst quality sound you could ever imagine. $15.99 is way over priced. Free is over priced. This is just some more plastic to put into landfill. But is perfect for the tone deaf.

For $15 I'm in. The phono to USB PCB should make a nice hack if I don't like the way it treats my records.

I'm of that era and have seen all those media choices come and go. And I DID buy vinyl records and kept them "just cuz." now I can listen to them again without buying downloads. just sayin'

Is this "poor stylus" any worse than the needle on my old-sk00l 1978 Fisher-Price Record Player? It's iffy with 78s, but works OK when I tape a few pennies to the needle arm.

C'mon, people, there's no way. Maybe it's cheap, but I can't believe it's any more damaging than 50s/60s/70s tech.

I eagerly await being proved wrong. Go for it, kids.

In the 80's I heard my first CD and tossed all my vinyl. I rip my CDs to MP3 at higher rates than what iTunes was selling. Love having all my tunes on my phone wherever I go. Also have a backup on my Desktop and a tablet. Rarely use the iPod anymore.

I do still have a collection of 45's from the 60's though and this should work fine for digitizing them too.