Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Overall this is a great first turntable for a newly converted vinyl fiend. After using my mother's old record player, it was time to get my own. From a purely aesthetic point of view, this record player gets five stars. It's a beautiful, modern-looking and sturdy piece of equipment, and I really liked that a full 12 inch LP can fit on the turntable and still be completely covered by the dust-cover. Assembling the dust cover took about 5 seconds. I also like that the dust cover is clear, so I can watch the records spin (something that is oddly entertaining and soothing). The tone arm is made of what seems like simple plastic, but it's pretty solidly put together so I'm ok with that. As for it's actual record playing abilities, it has so far worked extremely well. I almost exclusively play LPs, which sound and play smoothly. I have a 45 that also plays fine. Note: with 45's, the automatic setting on the turntable causes the 45 to stop before the song is through. Just switch to automatic and all is well. I haven't tried 78's. The speakers on the player aren't the greatest (tinny and like playing music from your laptop speakers or cheap radio), but when I put my headphones in, I was blown away by how fantastic it sounds. Full stereo. I imagine full-blown external speakers would make the unit sound even better. I play mostly old jazz records ranging from the 1950's to now and in varying condition from brand-new to scratched, and the record player's tone arm and needle didn't skip nearly as much as I thought it would, instead playing relatively cleanly regardless of whether the record was 60 years old or 6 days old. Even the newer 180gram records played without a hitch. I do have two hangups that knocked a star off the review. One of the cons is the needle. As great as it is, the needle makes an odd (grating, chewing?) sound as the record spins that's really only an issue on quieter sections. My second hangup is the fact that on occasion when I turn on the player and play a record after a while of non usage, the record seems to spin slower for a few seconds, as if the belt drive is warming up. It's not terrible, and seems variable, but it is a personal hangup just the same. Lastly, the vinyl converter software included is actually pretty decent and relatively simple to use. I've already converted two rare Brubeck albums onto my computer and into iTunes. Overall, this is a nice record player that does what it's supposed to do, sounds great, and looks beautiful and modern doing it.