Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsDisappointing out of the box, but read review
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2023
I felt like I had been ripped off, was very disappointed when using it right out of the box. Put on my Rush moving pictures album side two and I had to turn the volume all the way up and it was still way quieter than my old turntable, so with the volume all the way up I restarted side two and for those who don’t know the very beginning starts out with some really low street noise and I couldn’t even hear it over the buzz of the preamp, why they put such a piece of garbage preamp in it is beyond me.
Then I moved on with my tests and grabbed my first 45 out of my box, happened to be Abba Fernando with Rock me on the flip side, I decided to play Rock Me because it is way more rockin than Fernando. So I placed the needle on the record and as soon as it got to the music on the record it completely stopped, my first thought was the motor just died, but no I noticed that the felt mat was spinning under the record but the record was stopped, I expected the felt mat to not be very good but I didn’t think it would be that bad. Luckily I had ordered a silicone rubber mat with the turntable because I had never owned or ever seen a turntable with a felt mat, so I installed the rubber mat and Rock me played perfectly. So at this point I was wishing the motor hadn’t died on my old 80’s turn table because it was sure a lot better than this one.
The next morning I got up and decided to see if I could get an external preamp from Amazon, sure enough, so I looked up the specs on the one in the turntable and found it was 36db so I wanted one higher than that. I found a tube type with good reviews and adjustable 39db to 45 db and the reviews said it was dead quiet. Found four that all looked the same just different names printed on them so I ordered the one for the least amount of money and was completely blown away by how much better it made the turntable sound and was dead quiet. Plus bonus I can now crank up the music way louder than my old turntable.
With the new rubber mat and preamp I would give it 5 stars, I had to spend 75 more dollars to make it great but it is now way better than my old 80’s turntable. I ended up hanging the felt mat on the wall, it makes good wall art but is worthless for a turntable mat. I have included photos of the wall art and preamp.