Turntable Reviews

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Turntable Reviews
SME 10 turntable
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 15, 2000
What do you want from a 21st-century record-playing device? I hear you: you want one that's compact, well-made, easy to set up, holds its setup, sounds great, and doesn't cost a lot.
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Turntable ReviewsTonearm Reviews
SME Model 20/12 turntable & 312S tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  May 15, 2009
Much has happened in the analog world since I reviewed SME's flagship Model 30/2 turntable for the March 2003 Stereophile (footnote 1). Back then, spending $25,000 on a turntable (without tonearm) was an odd extravagance intended only for those seriously committed to the format, and who already owned large LP collections. Although new LPs were being pressed in growing numbers, the resurgence of vinyl was still spotty, and the long-term prognosis for the old medium remained in question.
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Turntable Reviews
SME Model 30/2 turntable
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 16, 2003
Dense, compact, and built to run O-rings around the competition, SME's flagship turntable makes every other design I've encountered—with the possible exception of Rockport's System III Sirius—look almost homemade. I don't mean to insult the many fine, well-engineered designs out there, but I've seen nothing else to compare with SME's tank-like approach to spinning a record. Comparing the Model 30/2 to a tank isn't exactly fair: the machining is done to higher than mil-spec tolerances. I don't think anyone else building turntables today is capable of this level of construction quality, never mind design ingenuity and fit'n'finish.
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Turntable Reviews
SOTA Moonbeam Turntable --- Nice Price and a Smooth Performer That's Easily Upgraded
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 05, 2016
SOTA is an American turntable brand founded circa 1980 by Dave Fletcher and Robert Becker in Berkeley California.The talented Spiral Groove turntable designer Allen Perkins worked for the company in the late 1980s.

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Turntable Reviews
SOTA Quasar Turntable
Ken Micallef  |  Oct 30, 2023

As one of the oldest turntable manufacturers in America, SOTA has the rare vantage point of both understanding what U.S. customers want while also addressing a large international following. Their latest offering, the SOTA Quasar turntable, ups their game considerably. Read Ken Micallef’s review to find out if the Quasar immediately belongs on your own turntable-obtainment radar. . .

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Turntable Reviews
TEAC TN-5BB Turntable
Ken Micallef  |  Feb 02, 2026

Whether you’re spinning LPs on a high-end rig, vintage classic, or budget model, certain features should be standard on every turntable. Good news is, TEAC’s new manual belt-drive TN-5BB turntable delivers on many of those fronts, not to mention its ease of setup, quiet noise floor, and unique deployment of using washi paper as a damper. Read Ken Micallef’s review to see just how good a performer the TN-5BB table is at its enviable, affordable $2.2K price point. . .

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Turntable Reviews
Technics SL-1200GR2 Direct Drive Turntable
Ken Micallef  |  Jan 24, 2024

Introduced in 1979, the Technics’ SL-1200MK2 turntable soon became both the company’s standard bearer and the DJ’s vinyl spinner of choice. The 1200 went through endless iterations, entering the home and studio — and, in its latter variations, the 1200 also became a turntable audiophiles could love. Fast forward to today, where we now have the Technics SL-1200GR2 direct drive turntable, a quite formidable new entry in this venerable series. Read Ken Micallef’s review to see if the GR2 delivers the goods in terms of resolution, speed, textural information, and spaciousness. . .

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Turntable Reviews
Technics SL-50C Turntable
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 03, 2025

A new design aimed squarely at the sub-$1,000 turntable market, the Technics SL-50C turntable is a little marvel of a vinyl spinning machine. Read Ken Micallef’s review to see if the SL-50C direct drive table delivers all the goods at its quite affordable price point. . .

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Turntable Reviews
The Anvil "Alloy Convertible" Turntable—Motor City Metal Machine Magic!
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 21, 2012
The two basic turntable design approaches are low mass that quickly evacuates energy and high mass that sinks and damps energy. Both designs seek to avoid reflecting back into the system the considerable energy produced at the stylus/groove interface.

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Turntable Reviews
The Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB Turntable Shames the Plastic Competition
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 22, 2014
Off the audiophile pedestal and into the “real world” we go, with a review of Audio Technica’s easy to set up $250 AT-LP120-USB turntable.

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Turntable Reviews
The EAT B-Sharp Is An Attractive, Well-Performing Plug'n'Play Turntable
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 08, 2018
The European Audio Team’s entry into the under $2000 turntable market includes for $1595 a factory-installed Ortofon 2M Blue moving magnet phono cartridge that alone costs around $240. Something like the $100 2M Red is more often found packaged at this price point.

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Turntable Reviews
The Fluance RT81 High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable Record Player
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 26, 2016
Canada-based Fluance is an eighteen year old loudspeaker manufacturer specializing in home theater systems. The company’s speakers have a luxurious look that belies their reasonable prices.

I’ve not heard any of them but the reviews are positive in sister publications Sound & Vision and Innerfidelity.

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Turntable Reviews
The George-Warren Turntable—Well-Made, Sensibly Engineered, Elegant-Looking
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 09, 2015
Souix-Falls, South Dakota based George-Warren Precision Sound manufactures and sells direct but one model turntable. After spending a few months with it, I’d say one is enough.

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Tonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
The Pear Audio Blue Robin Hood SE Turntable and Coronet 1 Tone Arm (Speed Issue Explained)
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 24, 2017
Editor's note: AnalogPlanet (and Stereophile) policy is to review products as sent to us unless they are broken and/or clearly defective. In this case the speed was "off" but the 'table was neither "broken" nor "defective" so we chose to review "as sent".

The importer wrote to say the unit was sent with "the wrong pulley" and as stated in the review, we allowed for the possibility that the 'table had been previously used for reviews or for some other purpose. However, without trying to sound too harsh, if you're going to send out a product for review, it's important to check out its functioning before shipping and that would include making sure it's running at the right speed.

As the importer points out, the Kid Thomas previously reviewed ran at the correct speed but clearly this one did not and it was what was sent so there was an obligation to review "as sent" just as there was an obligation to ship a properly functioning review sample! I know this might sound "harsh" but I'm always thinking of the consumer who buys and uses without checking speed accuracy and ends up listening at the wrong speed.

AnalogPlanet readers' thoughts on this are most welcome.

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Turntable Reviews
The Pro-Ject Classic SB Superpack Turntable: “Brains” and Good Looks Too
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 29, 2017
It’s doubtful Pro-Ject could have produced a high performance, feature packed, beautiful to look at turntable like the Classic SB Superpack and priced it so reasonably ($1499 including $449 Blue Point No. 2 cartridge) were it not for surging turntable sales and Pro-Ject’s place at the top of the high performance turntable market (“high performance” meaning not counting the plastic mass market cheapies).

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