Hi all, I’ve been looking at the ones from Richer Sounds, has anyone here had one or got one? I’m not looking to spend a fortune as I don’t have a massive vinyl collection, the Bluetooth ones caught my eye and got me thinking . . .

Thanks

I have one of these https://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Ion-Air-LP-Bluetooth-Record-Player/18-8484?gclid=CjwKCAjw9sreBRBAEiwARroYm-mkAZNEkZQ6rjKXJCSmnZqg2j9Kg-8bpR1w5ceeZNgPfGiAcHSSQxoCduQQAvD_BwE and it seems ok, but I’m no audiophile..

Why do you want Bluetooth?

Won’t it be sitting near an amp so you can just plug it in?

No doubt they work, but may not t sound as good as “proper” ones.

Exactly. Bluetooth trades quality for convenience. Perfect for a handheld mobile device, not much use for something that will sit on top of a sideboard and never move.

Doesn’t it defeat the object of vinyl? I’m no vinyl fan…the day I listened to my first CD I was wowed and my vinyl sounded so crap after that and couldn’t wait to ditch it and get a CD player and replace all my albums with CD’s….but for those who like vinyl the whole point is that you get all the noise and imperfections that come from the physical form of vinyl…so by putting it through an ADC then and DAC you loose the very essence of what vinyl delivers…all those imperfections that bluetooth won’t replicate or pass through. I guess it depends on the blue tooth and how it decides to digitise the signal and if it tries to preserve the imperfections that MP3 would normally filter out…but I suspect sophistication of that nature won’t be available on the cheaper models and you’d pay a hefty premium for a BT turntable that could accurately reproduce the feel of a record.

Ultimately BT makes the best digital formats sound worse, so the ‘soul’ and ‘essence’ of vinyl which vinyl fans go on about so much doesn’t stand a chance of being replicated.

 the whole point is that you get all the noise and imperfections that come from the physical form of vinyl

Err… no, that’s really not it. It’s more that if it’s analogue (and has stayed analogue through the recording and mixing processes) then what you have entering your ear is an analogue of what was originally produced. There’s a genuine physical connection between the musician and the listener. Digitise it somewhere along the way, and that’s lost.

It’s kinda like the difference between between being at a gig, and watching the gig on the telly. (Unless it’s an acoustic thing down the pub) in both cases what’s actually generating the sound is an electrically powered speaker, but there’s a direct, linear, physical connection (unless there’s some digital processing going on) that you lose if it’s digitised.

The noise and imperfections really aren’t a positive feature.

Super cheap vinyl players are universally awful and compressing the music for Bluetooth kind of defeats the object of listening to vinyl.

Entry level Project aren’t expensive.

I don’t have an amp however I can lay my hands on some old 70’s wharfdale speakers. I was interested in the Bluetooth audio technica or teac brands purely because I didn’t want wires running around the lounge. I also have pretty bad tinnitus so wasn’t sure if the extra investment would be worth it to my ears.

There’s a genuine physical connection between the musician and the listener. Digitise it somewhere along the way, and that’s lost.

How exactly?

You need an amp for the speakers, so you might as well put a proper turntable next to it. You’ll have wires running from the amp to the speakers 🙂

A Bluetooth turntable is the worst of both worlds.