Posted on Crosley Blog, February 26, 2016
WHAT TURNTABLE IS BEST FOR YOU?
As much as Google is our friend, doing a cursory search for “turntable” is sort of like accidentally yanking the faucet off your sink and flooding your bathroom. There’s just too much stuff. There’s a lot of conflicting opinion and stated facts and it can be way too much to take in at once. So, we’re gonna help you out as best we can and give a little primer on what kind of turntables are out there. So grab a mop for your metaphorically flooded bathroom and let’s dive in.
Both of these can either have a belt driven motor or a direct drive motor. Meaning either the platter spins from an elastic band around two drums, or an internal motor, respectively. These types mainly have to do with what kind of features each turntable has, and each of them has pros and cons, so figure out which features are important to you.
Compact
These are our personal bread and butter. Compact turntable sets like the Keepsake or the iconic Cruiser, along with several others in our line, are all self-contained, with no need for a preamp or additional speakers. They’re portable to a certain degree, with a case that snaps shut and a handle, but will still need an AC adapter to plug into a wall. These guys are designed for smaller spaces like dorm rooms or bedrooms, and are certainly super cute to behold.
Portable
Truly portable, these turntables run on batteries, which gives them legs to run around with you. They’re great for testing new albums while crate-digging, sampling, or even mixing. Again, they’re mostly suited to small spaces or the open air, which makes them ideal for travelers.
Component
If you want something more heavy-hitting, component turntables like the C100 and C10 are the way to go. You can hook up your own cartridges, preamps, and even speakers to ultimately customize your sound. They’re not remotely portable, but they can pack huge sound and make amazing sound stages. As most of our Compact users start wanting to move up, the Component turntables are a good option, since it lets you move things around.
Entertainment Center
If you’ve got piles of music and don’t want lots of players, these Entertainment Centers are a good call. Ours have a turntable, a CD player, a radio, and even a tapedeck. While sometimes a Jack of All Trades means a Master of None (to finish the rhyme, it’s better than a Master of One!) It’s a great solution if you have lots of different analog mediums and don’t want stacks of consoles.
