Portable record player idea's

LazySounds

LazySounds

Active Member
I already own a Numark PT01 battery powered turntable, it has served me well at flea markets, record fairs, and the occasional picnic at the beach.

But it has a ceramic cartridge, tracks at about 5 grams, and has a quiet background buzz that can not be eliminated.

Does anyone know of any decent sounding portables still available.
It would be good if it:
- Runs on batteries and mains
- Has a magnetic cartridge tracking at 3 grams or less
- Has a headphone jack
- Has an external speaker of some kind
- Has a footprint the same size or smaller than an LP cover
 
I know I will probably catch Hell for mentioning this, but the Crosley Spinerette is the only mini portable that has a magnetic cartridge that I know of. Unfortunately, I don't think it runs on batteries. Although I'm pretty sure it uses a 12v wall wart power supply.
 
beat_truck said:
I know I will probably catch Hell for mentioning this, but the Crosley Spinerette is the only mini portable that has a magnetic cartridge that I know of. Unfortunately, I don't think it runs on batteries. Although I'm pretty sure it uses a 12v wall wart power supply.
Click to expand...

That's the one I was going to mention. It uses an Audio Technica 3600 cartridge.
The manual TT is a three speed unit and it just so happens that AT has a 78 stylus available for that cart.
The unit has a USB output and I've read that it has decent audio too.
 
I once had a peanut of a portable Sony. Direct-drive/linear tracking stunner of a machine. And real Hi-Fi. Think that it was PS-F5. There was also a better model with a number other than '5'. They have a huge following, and fetch big bucks. Sold mine on eBay with original box for $500 and threw in some alkaline 'AA' batteries to seal the deal.

There is one on that site now. Take a peek at it.
 
Thanks for your suggestions, greatly appreciated.

The Sony sure looks like a winner to me, looks like it will be pushing the budgetary boundaries a bit.

Due to finance I may have to give up on the pursuit of "Quality" portable vinyl replay, in which case the Crosley Spinnerette might be the fall back, assuming I can get one to Australia without to much hassle.
 
In the '90s Audio Technica marketed a GREAT little 2-speed portable called "Vacuum" (?) and it came with an Audio Technica 3600. It was only available in Japan though, which is where I bought mine. It was small and light and sounded pretty good.

Unfortunately mine completely died a few months ago, so I picked up an Ion portable on Craig's List for $45. I do not like the Ion as much.

Audio Technica "Vacuum":

vp96b2.JPG
vp96b.JPG
 
To lessen record wear on your Numark you could always make a counterweight for the rear of the tone arm to lessen the tracking force. I did this with a BPC Quasar stereo with ceramic cart that I use in my basement. It tracks records and sounds perfect set at 3 grams (unless the records are in REALLY bad shape), and factory was close to 6 grams. Just another idea.
 
beat_truck said:
To lessen record wear on your Numark you could always make a counterweight for the rear of the tone arm to lessen the tracking force. I did this with a BPC Quasar stereo with ceramic cart that I use in my basement. It tracks records and sounds perfect set at 3 grams (unless the records are in REALLY bad shape), and factory was close to 6 grams. Just another idea.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't do that.
 
Crosley also makes a portable called the Revolution, similar to the famous Soundburger.
I liked the fact that it has a built in FM transmitter so you don't have to use the crappy on board speaker. Uses the ubiquitous AT 3600 cart.
 
Sorry if I am missing something but, if it isn't mistracking, why not? I even tried it at 2.5 grams and it still tracked ok, but I didn't want to make it too light.
 
I usually see a number of portables when searching for turntables on Ebay using the term "record player". Looked just now under "battery record player", and there's a few. One or two kind of surprising (with AM/FM). I'll keep out the link so this doesn't move to D&S.
 
beat_truck said:
To lessen record wear on your Numark you could always make a counterweight for the rear of the tone arm to lessen the tracking force. I did this with a BPC Quasar stereo with ceramic cart that I use in my basement. It tracks records and sounds perfect set at 3 grams (unless the records are in REALLY bad shape), and factory was close to 6 grams. Just another idea.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your suggestion. The Numark has a cantilever like a stick in concrete, I feel, and this is only a feeling, that the stylus needs the full 300 tonnes of tracking force to stay in the groove.

I never really worried about the record wear it may or may not cause, as I never had any intention of using it for anything but crate digging, so it would only ever spin second hand disks, and only ever play any disk once.

But I would now like something that just sounds a bit nicer, and that I could potentially play records on a few more times, like at a picnic or BBQ.
 
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