Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Since my old turntable quit working several years ago I have been looking for something small and cheap so I could continue copying my LP's over to MP3. I thought I would take a chance on this one. It was inexpensive and had a headphone jack which would make it easy to hook to my PC. I have to admit that at first I was disappointed in the sound quality coming from this little unit. After setting up the unit on my kitchen table, (which took all of two minutes) I placed one of my favorite albums on the turntable and turned on the power. The sound was pretty bad coming from the on-board speakers. Tinny and with very low fidelity. So next I tried it with headphones and external speakers. (There is a small switch on the back to turn off the internal speakers.) I was very surprised and pleased with the sound from the headphone jack and external speakers. Obviously the sound problem is the fault of the on-board speakers. Use external speakers and the sound is great. Headphones also sound very good. The turntable is manual and motion starts when you move the arm over the record, and stops when you move the arm back to the rest. The turntable does not stop at the end of the record. (So if you fall asleep listining, you will wake up to the repeating click-shoosh sound of the needle in the last groove.) My unit has plenty of power to spin full sized LP records. There is no dragging and the speed is consistent. LP's do hang over the edges but this isn't really a problem unless you push or bump the album while it is playing. It has three speeds and will handle 45's and 78's. (I did not have any 78's to try but the 45's work well.) The player is very lightweight making it easy to store in the closet and only bring it out when needed. The radio works, and does all the normal radio stuff. The tuner is a little touchy, making it a little difficult to fine tune your station, but it works OK. But just listening to music was not my primary reason for buying this unit. It was to record my LP's to MP3 so I could listen to them on my portable player. And for this it works great. (I use Spin-It-Again, also sold on Amazon.) This is a great, inexpensive way to save all your old vinyl music. (I have done 19 albums so far, with dozens left to go.) Summary: This is a good little turntable with a decent radio, but with lousy on-board speakers. They work in a pinch, but I suggest you use headphones or the external speaker connections to hook up conventional stereo speakers. Still it is well worth the price, and you cannot beat the super-saver shipping. Thanks Amazon.