Best turntables 2022

The theme of the perfection of musical equipment is truly inexhaustible, you can delve into it all your life and still not understand anything. The whole point is that it (the theme) is at the intersection of technology and art; surrounding reality and tastes; complexity and aesthetics. Therefore, let’s not consider all the smallest nuances now, but simply accept the fact that vinyl is not an ideal and not the most practical source, but for a combination of various reasons, nothing more beautiful has yet been invented. Thanks to this, having made a technological revolution, the music industry is returning to normal, and records are again gaining their unprecedented popularity. Let’s see what devices the industry can offer us now. The main criteria for choosing the best turntable in 2022, in addition to the technical component, for me is also availability on the market (you can buy in one click, and not look for and wait for months) and readiness to work right out of the box without long painful setup and understanding of the materiel.

Top 10 rating according to KP

Editor’s Choice

1. Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB (average cost 29 thousand rubles)

An excellent player, very beloved by music lovers for its good technical equipment and sound. The design is not very interesting, outwardly it’s just a clone of Technics SL-1200, with the only difference being that here the case is made of plastic, while that of the progenitor is made of aluminum. It has a direct drive, quartz speed stabilization, comes with a good initial Audio-Technica AT-VM95E cartridge, has a built-in switchable phono stage, an S-shaped tonearm with the ability to replace the head, the turntable is classified as a DJ, therefore it has additional functions, for example, pitch (manual speed control rotation) and forced shutdown of the engine. There is also a USB connection so you can digitize your records.

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

2. Pioneer DJ PLX-500 (average price 25-29 thousand rubles)

Another DJ device, also a successor to the Technics SL family. In all respects, it is a direct competitor to the AT-LP120. In general, we can say that the competitor turned out to be quite good, but there is still a difference. It costs a little less, but saved on the cartridge. In the minuses, you can write a non-removable audio cable. Contrary to mixed reviews, it’s still worth adding that 25 thousand rubles is actually a fairly modest price for a player, so you shouldn’t expect any superb performance. The cartridge costs the cheapest Audio-Technica AT-91, so it’s immediately clear what needs to be improved first. Otherwise, the player pleases with its functionality and price / quality ratio.

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

3. Pro-Ject T1 Phono SB (average price 30 thousand rubles)

This company always pleases with the fact that even in inexpensive models they save not at all on sound. To reduce the cost of production, they sacrificed the possibility of an upgrade here. At the same time, the turntable already comes from the factory fully configured for use, with an excellent Ortofon OM-5E cartridge, a branded really good switchable phono stage. The design is as minimalistic as possible, looks noble and solid.

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

What other vinyl players are worth paying attention to

4. Audio-Technica AT-LP60XUSB (average cost 11-14 thousand rubles)

Inexpensive and reliable entry-level player, suitable for those who are just getting to know the world of analog sound. Everything is very ascetic and made of inexpensive materials, while you don’t need to do anything with it – full automatic, just press a button and listen. There is a USB connection through which you can transfer sound. The turntable comes with a branded cartridge without the possibility of replacement, the sound is without revelations, but it fully justifies its money.

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

5. Rega Planar 1 (average cost 25-30 thousand rubles)

An excellent player whose philosophy is in many ways close to the Pro-Ject T1. It is also a very minimalist noble design, a simplified design, where you can’t scatter much with an upgrade. At the same time, the Rega Carbon head is already installed and configured for use from the factory – a budget one, but very worthy. Anti-skating here is pre-configured at the factory and is not manually adjustable, the shell cannot be changed either, but replacing the pickup is possible, but it is assumed that few people will do this in a player of this level.

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

6. Thorens TD-202 (average cost 67 thousand rubles)

Time to up the ante a bit, huh? This Swiss company is the oldest manufacturer of turntables, books have been written about its glorious history. It has always been cool and expensive, Rolls-Royce among the players. The TD-201 / TD-202 line was released in 2018 after a major change in the company and its actual revival. They are more democratic both in terms of price and design, but have not lost their historical monumentality at all. The player is ready to work out of the box and at the same time has a lot of potential for improvement. It has a built-in phono stage and an AT-95E head, you can say that in fact they do not correspond to the coolness of this device. In fact, you are buying an excellent platform where you can put an expensive cartridge, connect with high-quality detachable wires to a good phono stage and get luxurious expensive sound.

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

7. Technics SL-1210 mk7 (average cost 99-110 thousand rubles)

Long live the king! The glorious history of this turntable family has been going on for almost 50 years. There is probably no more popular and well-known turntable on the planet. One of those devices that is bought once and for life. The SL-1210 stands in London’s Science Museum as one of the things that “shaped the world we live in”. These turntables have influenced the entire music culture and industry. DJing, hip-hop and electronic music appeared and developed not without the help of this device. His merits can be listed endlessly. In this case, we are dealing with an updated version of the legend, and it turned out to be very worthy. Traditionally, the turntable comes with a blank shell, leaving the user to choose the pickup according to their tastes and needs. Otherwise, everything is exactly as it should be: direct drive, quartz stabilization, many fine adjustments, full stuffing and uncompromising workmanship.

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

8. Yamaha MusicCast Vinyl 500 (average cost 49 thousand rubles)

Outwardly, this is just a rather nice player with a rather ascetic design, covered with a beautiful black lacquer. Everything is classic: a belt drive, a removable shell, an inexpensive Audio-Technica head, a full automatic, a phono stage on board, anti-skating, and so on. But if you take a closer look, you can see the indication of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the Connect button, and the Ethernet network connector on the back. But this is something new! So who are you really? This is a streamer, that is, a network player that can connect to wireless speakers, broadcast music over the network, be controlled from a smartphone via an application, connect to it via Bluetooth and be used as a player, play music from popular streaming services. At the same time, it still works just fine as a turntable through the usual wires. Very brave!

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

9. Pro-Ject Juke Box E (average cost 38-42 thousand rubles)

This turntable is made in much the same way as all budget Pro-Ject turntables: belt drive, pre-tuned tonearm with Ortofon OE-5M cartridge, cat Phono stage: yes, switchable which is not supposed to be changed, simple nice design, built-in phono stage, manual control. A small screen next to the tonearm and a knob in the front catches the eye. Yes, this is not just a turntable, it is a combiner with a built-in 50 watt amplifier and Bluetooth support for playing music from other sources. Unusual and interesting device, just connect to the speakers and go!

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

10. Onkyo CP-1050 (average cost 47-49 thousand rubles)

Very beautiful player with a strict retro design. It has a direct drive with quartz stabilization, manual control, S-shaped tonearm with anti-skating. The turntable has great potential for improvement. Pumped up native cartridge OC-105. This inexpensive entry-level head does not match the class of the device.

Specifications:

Advantages and disadvantages

How to choose the best player

Привод

At the moment, there are two main types of drive: belt (belt) and direct.

Direct drive (Direct Drive) means that the engine is located under the platter (pancake on which the record is placed) and connected to it directly. This is a very reliable design that has many advantages, such as: fast start and stop of the disk (there will be no “mooing” during acceleration), high stability of operation (the speed does not float), the absence of fragile elements. A rather high level of detonation can be recorded as a disadvantage, which means that a motor connected directly to the disk during operation can transfer part of the vibrations to the plate, which will have a bad effect on the sound quality, so a well-implemented direct drive will be relatively expensive.

Belt drive means that the torque from the motor to the platter is transmitted using a belt, this design also has both pluses and minuses. The main plus is that at a low cost, impressively low knock can be achieved, because the motor does not transfer vibrations to the disk. An important feature of the belt drive is the smoothness of operation, the disc spins up and stops more slowly, it is believed that it treats the records more gently, which means they will last longer. On the downside, you can write down the fact that the belt can wear out and stretch, which means that it must be changed regularly. In addition, the stability of the rotation speed is also not its strong point.

Previously, there was a third type of drive – roller. But it is expensive and difficult, and the advantages are rather doubtful, now it is difficult to find such a turntable. There are other types of drive, but they are already perversions loosely associated with listening to music.

Cartridge

There are two main types of cartridge (head): MM and MC. They use the same principle of electromagnetic induction, but have some design differences. To be honest, the description of the design of the pickup is worthy of a separate article, because it is, in fact, the most important detail in the player. Therefore, I propose to consider only the pros and cons of these structures.

MM (moving magnet) cartridges are the most popular, their initial price is low, they are more versatile and omnivorous to the genres and quality of the recorded music on the record, they forgive the mistakes of beginners, because they endure hard use better, in most heads you can replace the needle (it is still called “insert”). You can change the needle due to wear or breakage, and for some cartridges you can buy an insert with a different type of sharpening (yes, there is also room for engineering to unfold here).

MC (moving coil) cartridges are the first sign of a disease called “audiophilia”. A joke, albeit with a grain of truth. It is believed that these cartridges transmit sound in more detail, are more sensitive to the quality of the media and, as a result, are more capricious and fragile. They are usually more expensive than MM cartridges and require a different type of phono stage. You should not immediately buy such a cartridge, it does not forgive mistakes for inexperienced users.

There are several other types of cartridges, such as MIMC, MMC, etc., but I guarantee you that you yourself will understand exactly when you are ready to hear about them.

Now turntables with piezoelectric heads are still being produced. Such devices are very cheap and popular, but, believe me, they do not deserve any attention, this is a very old and low-quality technology, used, for example, in primitive Soviet electrophones such as Yunost 301.

It is worth noting that the possibility of choosing and replacing a cartridge should be in every self-respecting player, although there are decent inexpensive turntables that do not offer this, for example, in the younger models from Pro-Ject. This is just a ready-made, as cheap as possible configuration, which at the same time sounds good, so there is no need to interfere with it.

Tonearm

The two most popular types are straight and S-shaped.

A straight tonearm is lighter, simpler, easy to adjust and upgrade cartridges, but has a so-called tracking angle error. This means that during playback, the position of the stylus relative to the record changes unevenly, which theoretically can lead to slight sound distortions in the extreme positions of the tonearm, but in practice this is difficult to meet. Even the outrageously expensive turntables have straight arms, and engineers don’t seem to care much about this problem. The S-shaped tonearm is designed to avoid this error, but it is heavier, so you should be a little more careful when choosing and setting up a cartridge if you change it.

Of course, we are talking about average models. In fact, there are both heavy straight tonearms, and light S-shaped ones, and which ones just don’t exist.

There are also, for example, tangential tonearms, but these are very complex, rare and expensive devices, I won’t describe them, because you won’t find them in stores anyway.

A sign of a good player is the presence of anti-skating. There is such a thing as “skating” – this is a force that, in accordance with certain laws of physics, pulls the player’s needle towards the axis of rotation, because of this it can come into contact at the wrong angle with the plate and this will negatively affect the sound. Anti-skating is designed to compensate for this force. In general, at the very beginning of your music lover’s path, this function can be neglected.

Automation

We divide into three main types: automatic, semi-automatic and manual (almost like washing machines).

Automatic means that you just press the button, then the tonearm itself moves to the plate, lowers the needle, and at the end of playing it returns to its place.

A semi-automatic is, as a rule, only an automatic return of the tonearm, and its supply is carried out manually.

Manual control means that you have to do everything yourself.

There is no better option here. The presence of any automation complicates the design of the turntable, therefore, it will either cost more or work poorly. Whether you are ready to overpay for it or spoil the records is up to you. Manual control requires a certain accuracy, there is a risk of spoiling something on your own.

But that’s not all

As you can imagine, the player is just the tip of the iceberg. In order to listen to music on records, you will need a few more devices, without which it will be of absolutely no use. In fact, the chain will look like this: turntable – phono stage – amplifier – speakers.

As we have already found out, vinyl is a rather specific musical medium. One of its features is that the sound is recorded with some defect. So it is necessary. Don’t delve. Just remember this fact. So, a phono stage is needed to restore it back. The sound quality also greatly depends on the quality of the phono stage. It can be in the form of a stand-alone device, it can be built into a speaker amplifier, or it can be built into a turntable. The built-in phono stage is a sign of an entry-level player, it doesn’t sound very good, but it’s good for the first time. And so that you don’t have to change the turntable when you get to a decent phono stage or integrated amplifier, make sure that it can be turned off. Strange, but for some reason this option is not available for all models.

Why do we still want to listen to records, despite all these difficulties?

This is probably worth writing about, because at some stage your enthusiasm may break into harsh reality. There is such a joke among music lovers: “There are two things that really attract me to vinyl: high cost and inconvenience.” There really is truth in this: equipment and records are not cheap, it is essentially a rather cumbersome and complex system, and the process of collecting and listening requires a certain level of involvement and mastering some specific skills. But with enough love for music, all this will not matter to you, because it will open a completely new facet of it. You may have noticed that the text deliberately does not say if there is a difference in the sound of vinyl compared to other sound media, and what it is. In fact, this was done only because this issue is simply not being questioned. Moreover, you will be surprised when you actually find it.

What else will you notice when you start diving into the world of vinyl records? First, suddenly discover that the disc itself, its design, cover, all kinds of tabs, posters, stickers, etc. – this is a continuation of the author’s creative plan, which will open it from a new perspective, it will be a new level of interaction between the performer and the listener. In addition, vinyl teaches the listener to consume content more thoughtfully, you will want to spend money exclusively on the music that you really love, and I simply cannot describe the delight of owning your favorite record here.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that people still listen to music recorded decades ago, it really was beautiful. However, have you noticed that when listening to streaming or digitized, old recordings sound rather poor compared to modern ones? As a rule, this sound has nothing to do with what you hear when you turn on some old record on good equipment, most likely you will be amazed at how alive and powerful it will sound. And here, for me personally, another buzz begins: the opportunity to hear the very recording in the form in which people heard it then, and in which it was originally conceived by the creators. Believe me, it’s very interesting.