Бизнес и финансы

The Best Turntables For Listening To Your Vinyl Records

Author: Jennifer Allen / Source: reviewgeek.com

Turntables and vinyl records have made quite the comeback in recent years—record sales are at a 25 year high. Whether you want to play a new release or dig into a milk crate of old record, we’ve got a turntable for everyone.

MP3s and streaming may be all good and well for pure ease, but for many people, there’s nothing that quite beats hearing the warmer analog sounds of a vinyl record on a turntable.

Given the relative complexity of setting up a turntable correctly, you’d be right to be a little intimidated. Fortunately, there are many great turntables out there for getting you started. We’ve checked out the best examples currently available.

Some turntables require quite an extensive setup to get the most out of them. We’ve taken a look at turntables that don’t require particular intricate setup, unless you want to get tweaking away. Also, while some look extremely professional and high-end, we couldn’t help but take a look at some lighter, more vintage looking examples—the kind that are really going to suit your lounge. There’s also a look at turntables that are easy to hook up to your PC or Mac, for those times when you want to digitize your vinyl collection.

Best All-Rounder: Altec Lansing Belt-Driven Stereo Turntable ($70)

Belt-driven turntables are typically seen as superior to the alternative direct drive motor based system. That immediately gives the Altec Lansing Belt-Driven Stereo Turntable a significant advantage. Available at a low price, it’s a bargain of a turntable, offering high-end features at a great price.

The turntable features powerful 30 watt stereo speakers if you want to use it as a stand-alone unit, plus standard RCA style jacks on the back to hook it up to your existing speakers.

Further, it sports Bluetooth connectivity so you can use the built-in speakers to stream music from your smartphone or other Bluetooth source. The stylus has two speeds—33 1/3 and 45 RPM—to accommodate most tastes, and there’s an auto stop on/off switch for added ease of use.

In addition to a solid feature set, it also has a nice retro-but-not-too-old-timey vibe going on that’ll look great in your living room. There’s no USB functionality to use the turntable to record digital copies of your records, alas.