PSA - The cheap record player mechanism to avoid

This £5 component (or variants of it) is used in most novelty budget record players. That’s fair enough when you’ve paid only £30 for a player to listen to some worn old records as a bit of fun. Perhaps not so great when this same £5 component forms the heart of your £100+ record player bought to play new limited edition £25 vinyl albums. It’s your choice how to spend your money - but it’s also nice to know exactly what it is you’re paying for and just how much care and attention as well as respect for you as a customer has been put into making the thing you’re paying your hard earned money for.

I got one of those 8-in-1 players because it's what I can afford and it works well enough. I never expected it to be top of the line and I don't want it to be. It functions and that's good enough for me.

My Victrola lasted less than 10 min total. Absolute piece of grande ca ca.

Cheap and nasty indeed ... VWestlife has gone through a few of these (and the variations) too with the same conclusion

I get that the mechanism is cheap, but with so many vinyl enthusiasts dissing on them, I’d love to see a thorough breakdown of how their cheapness impacts audio output, and ideally a digital recording of the audio output from one of these cheapos and from a better turntable so we could hear the difference for ourselves. Kinda surprised nobody had done that already, but I can’t seem to find one.

My question is do these actually destroy records like other people say they do.

I got one of those as a Suitcase player. Why ?, just so that I can digitize my old 78rpm shellac records. It's working quite good and I'm happy with the result.

How is this video 3 years old but this mechanism is part of the newest Victrola Go Record Player i just got for Christmas 😭😭

Some of the suitcase players are getting more favourable reviews recently. I’d love to see you do an updated take on some of them. 😊

thank you, I was looking into getting my first record player and was gonna look if you have suggestions and I just saw this and basically every player I thought about getting apart from the audio technica one has this, damn. And they werent cheap either like 100+ euro and it's just a wooden board with some 5 euro premade thing in it.

I have a massive CD collection, i'm not planning on buying every new album on Vinyl. That said, I have a pretty huge collection (over 200 vinyls of albums and maxi singles-) from my parents old days. These "cheap" players are just nice to listen to those records, if I want to have amazing quality I will still buy a CD on my Sony Setup or listen to streaming.

Just got the elite line pl880... Got to say... I'm very happy with it.. but it's build quality puts that to shame

My wife bought me a record player last year that features this turntable. You are right, its pretty naff! I hate turntables that the platter is for 7" singles. I like to see the turntable under a 12"! I miss my Garrard from the 80s. A proper record player!

No less than Technics!

Got gifted this for Christmas and was so happy, but it sounds god awful. I did research and it cost over $100 USD... I won't tell the person that bought it for me but good lord, I would've never thought that it was worth less than the records I own. Wow. Great video, thank you

1000th

My first record player was one with this mechanism in it.
I used it for about two months before I got sick of it and hunted down my current secondhand setup, a full Sony stack from 1992 - speakers, cabinet and all. It only cost me about 5 times what the first player did, but the sound quality is 50,000 times better.

I found that EXACT red case one for $10 at a charity shop. Saw it was absolute trash and gutted it. I use the case now to carry my D&D stuff to sessions. Great little case, holds 2 books and my dice.

Ism looking for that part. Who makes it?

The weight of the tonearm on the record is more than 5 grams, terrible

Hi I bought a preowned vinyl player from the 90s and I think it has one of these mechanism inside. it struggles to turn heavier vinyl's at the correct speed. I love the housing can I replace the mechanism?

Bought one with this mechanism because I last minute bought a single record with some other merch from an artist and just wanted to have something to play it on. I was disappointed with the quality, but I also paid 35 bucks for it, so it was exactly what I expected haha. I plan on saving up for an AT LP120X BT for a bit and getting that as my first proper player (the BT model because I have bluetooth headphones, I plan on getting speakers later down the road.)

But yeah, they sound as cheap as they are. But in my case, it was better than nothing, and now I found (another expensive) new hobby.

3 years of using it (in one of the noname table-brands). once bought - matt cover replaced (with a same diameter rubber matt from an old 60s playeyr). after 1 year - cartridge replaced (with chinese AT copy). after 3 years - belt replaced (chinese - but new). audio goes via cheap mini-amp to a high-mid speaker, couple of full midrange speakers (from 80s) and an active car-subwoofer (powered separately). whilst the diameter is small, certain "cheapo" LPs have to be put one-on-other... school rubber eraser goes as counterweight... well, with all this "madman-cyrcus" installation - to my ears, the result is ok (as well as to my budget)).

"This is a toy" You could not have summed it up better, Matt

crosley cruiser moment

What makes it bad?

Well if you don't know... You don't know. Getting in vinyl, I put some time in searching for a lot for advice and good value items, and then I picked up a nearly prestine sl-1700 form ebay for about 250 bucks (shipping not included) and, it's lightyears away form what you can have in today's shops... Spend time, spare pride.

I use an old Emerson DS-50 with a BSR changer to play old 45s because it can play up to six records. I wanted a portable record player but the cheap turntables quit working.

Thanks man you saved me 50 quid 😂

Any opinions on MUSE MT103GD?

I'm really considering buying one of these (they're dirt cheap anyway) and modding it to work properly. Making a different arm and cartridge assembly, adding weigh to the platter to act as a flywheel. Just for the sake of trying

This reminds me why people think cassette tapes are trash. Most cassette players you will find are made from bottom of the barrel components and end up sounding about the same. If you buy decent hardware you get decent performance.

Well now you are just making me feel like an idiot Techmoan.
Didn’t even pay for it and I’m still mad.

Will they damage the records?

1000th comment

wait till he sees that we pay 60 dollars or even 80 dollars for new vinyl for new artists haha

Daaaarn i bought a Numark PT01 Touring because i was for the market for a baterry operated turntable and i just now learned about that it has this exact chassis. It cost 80€ does anyone have a suggestion as in an upgrade or a different baterry turntable?

Shoe string rec. Loop it ASD

Dawg this is the exact mechanism I have 😭 hell I even bought Thriller to play on it too 😂 fortunately it only cost me like 35quid and I'll probably listen to my records like a handful of times then put them on the wall as art pieces anyway BUT STILL

I just payed 130 pounds for a record player with this in, some albums work perfectly, and some skip every second, i cant tel if its the vinyl itself or the player, but they are all brand new, so its annoying, and ive spent alot of money on this ‘hobby’ that i now am caring little and little about

PSA should stand for "Phonograph Safety Act"

oh no...

My parents bought me a record player with this cheap mechanism as a Christmas present for 2022. My heart sank.

There’s a soup only restaurant near Seattle with a cheap record player that sounds too fast! I mentioned it and they got offended 😆 😂

Straight words, straight to the point. Very good video.

Sir, I really appreciate this and I think I can identify what you just showed.

However what you haven't done is spend more than 30s of this 4m video explaining how to identify the thing or why it's bad. What are the hallmarks of it being bad that we can identify in others if some similar manufacturer makes some other crap?

Thanks

I have a lot old 45s wich are all worn out and scratched.i will never play them on my Technics .
But this cheap thing is made for this!
Its a lot of fun for me, to use this for my old 45s and it does not so bad sound at all.

I just came across this while trying to work out if my record player I've had about a month is salvageable or if I should buy a new one. I now know it's probably not and what to look out for when getting a new one, thank you!

Just get a cd player if you want to listen to physical media. Way better sound & way cheaper