Quick Tips: Turntables to Avoid
New Turntables That Will Slowly But Surely Destroy Your Records ☠
So, you’ve spotted a turntable at a big-box store or electronics retailer and decided to take the plunge into vinyl. The price is tempting—just a fraction of what you’d pay at an audio store. Maybe it looks stylish, like a retro suitcase, or even resembles something a DJ would use. It might have built-in speakers, Bluetooth, and USB connectivity—all for a couple of hundred dollars. Sounds like a great deal, right?
Wrong.
While these cheap turntables might play most records acceptably at first, they struggle with high-quality, dynamic recordings and will gradually destroy your records.
The Issue with Budget Turntables
Most budget-friendly turntables are mass-produced in just a few factories—Hanpin, Skywin, and Leetac—regardless of branding. Whether it’s Crosley, Ion, Veon, or Soundflight, they’re typically built in one of these plants, designed with cost-cutting in mind. Even respected brands like Audio-Technica and Pioneer sometimes rebadge these plastic OEM models.
These turntables often include Bluetooth, USB connectivity, and built-in speakers, but the problems outweigh the features:
- Low-quality construction: Cheap plastic parts and poorly engineered components.
- Non-upgradable: No option to improve key components like the cartridge or tonearm.
- Heavy-tracking cartridges: Often fitted with low-grade ceramic or moving-magnet cartridges that exert excessive pressure on records.
- Poorly designed tonearms: Mis-tracking and skipping occur frequently, especially on loud or bass-heavy records.
How These Turntables Damage Your Records
- Sapphire styli wear out quickly – Some models use sapphire styluses, which last only 100-200 record sides, compared to the 1,000-3,000 sides a diamond stylus can handle.
- Inaccurate tracking force – Many of these turntables claim to track at 5 grams, but in reality, they can range anywhere from 4 to 10 grams—well above the safe limit for record preservation.
- No adjustability – Unlike proper hi-fi turntables, which track at 2 grams (+/- 0.25g) and allow adjustments, these budget models often lack proper tracking force settings.
- Built-in speakers cause feedback – Models with built-in speakers often lack isolation, meaning vibrations from the speakers interfere with playback, leading to skipping and poor sound quality.
If you own a small collection of $60 records, replacing them after groove wear will cost far more than the turntable itself!
Brands & Models to Avoid
These brands/models are known for their poor build quality and record-damaging properties:
Manufactured by Skywin, Leetac, Hanpin (FU-700/R200 models), and other OEM factories:
- Crosley (most models, except C10, which is a rebranded Pro-Ject Essential)
- Veon & Fenton
- Mbeat
- Thompson, Woodstock & GPO "Retro" models
- Lenoxx
- Jam (including Sound, Stream & Spun Out)
- ION (including "Ford Mustang" and other retro-styled variants)
- Stanton (T and STR8 series ONLY; ST-series is fine)
- Audio-Technica (AT-LP60 and its variants ONLY; uses Hanpin FU-700 model)
- Sony (Lower-end models, including PS-LSX100/150/200/250/300; uses Hanpin FU-700/R200)
- TEAC (Lower-end models like TN-100, LPR500/LPR550, LPU192CD, LP-P1000, MC-D800; uses Hanpin FU-700/R200 and Skywin)
- Pioneer (PL-990, PL-J2500, and variants; uses Hanpin R200 model)
- Denon (DP-200USB, DP-29F, DP-26F, and variants; uses Hanpin FU-700 model)
- Akai (Retro/A60011N portable version & BT100 models)
- Marantz (TT5005 and variants; uses Hanpin FU-700/R200)
- Sansui (SLP-5000BT and variants)
- Numark (PT-01 and variants)
- Philips (OTT2000 and variants; uses Hanpin FU-700 model)
- Lenco (L-3867, L-83, L-84, L-85, TT-83 models and variants)
- Vestax (Handy Trax Portable Turntable and variants)
- Vinyl Styl, SDigital & Digitech
The Bottom Line
If you’re serious about getting into vinyl, avoid these budget turntables. They may seem like a bargain, but they’ll end up costing you more in the long run—both in damaged records and lacklustre sound quality.
Instead, consider a well-built, upgradable turntable from a reputable audio brand. If you need help picking the right turntable, feel free to call 0800 GROOVY or email audio@realgroovy.co.nz—we’re happy to guide you toward a setup that will truly do your vinyl collection justice!
