MobileTechTalk We’re guessing you’ve sat with parents or grandparents who have all listened to your favourite artist and shuddered with horror, only to regale you with tales of “when music was real music”, right? Well, with the 1ByOne Stereo Turntable, you can call their bluff by whipping out their vinyl and proving that music was just as good/bad as it is now.
Firstly, thanks to 1ByOne for sending this unit out for review. Check out their website for more audio products as well as lifestyle, health, and power accessories. Also check out more 1ByOne reviews here.
The 1ByOne Stereo Turntable is a device that allows you to revisit your, or others’ past by making use of the 12, 10 or 7 inch vinyl LPs that might house some hidden gems.
The unit is composed of a front control unit, a rear IO and power area, and the turntable itself. The wooden finish is decidedly tired and very 80’s, but helps to provide an acceptable heft which in turn grounds the unit, and with the rubber mats on the bottom of the device, helps keeps it sturdy during playback. A rigid, clear perspex dust cover is used to protect the unit whilst in play or storage.
The 1ByOne Stereo Turntable has a few tricks up it’s sleeve. The front control panel hints at this via a dial to toggle between Phono and USB playback (more on that shortly). More conventionally, there’s a volume dial, a standby LED, a power button, as well as record, prev/next track buttons and a play/pause button. Finally on the front is a USB playback port suitable for most USB sticks.
Let’s start with the basics for any millennials out there for whom vinyl is something that’s put on top of a smartphone to change its appearance! The 1ByOne Stereo Turntable can play 12″, 10″ or 7″ vinyl records at speeds of 33, 45, or 78rpm. These speeds are controlled via the speed selector on the main section of the unit. For those wishing to play 45’s, an included adapter is a nice addition. There’s also a nice autostop toggle so you don’t have to worry about the needle falling off the end of the record when the LP has finished playing.
Simply pick a record, drop it on the unit, choose the speed, drop the needle and be transported back in time a little bit. It’s made all the more realistic by the dual 1.5W speakers unfortunately. Whilst the first few times you use this unit, we guarantee the sound quality is the last thing you’ll be concerned by, instead smiling at those old tunes playing once more. Quickly though you’ll be wanting to hear your early 90’s Dance collection in a little more clarity than these tweeters can manage. Thankfully, 1ByOne have included Phono/RCA outputs to allow dovetailing a nicer speaker setup with this unit. We’d recommend that if this was a unit you were looking to use often.
There’s also the opportunity to salvage those records that are getting warped or are simply overplayed, by recording them to a USB stick. Simply plug-in the USB stick, press the record button, and start the record playback. The audio will be processed accordingly and recorded onto the USB stick as a 128kbps MP3 file. Not the highest bitrate, but fine for vinyl we think. You can even playback the USB track by toggling the playback dial accordingly, although again, those speakers won’t hold up to much scrutiny in long listening sessions.
The recording to USB is perhaps the most interesting part of this package, but during testing we simply wanted to hear our vinyl records again so used that the least ironically. It depends on your requirements of course. At £36.99 this unit could be purchased as a basic turntable and combined with some decent speakers to allow LP listening on a lazy Sunday. Equally though at that price point this is a worthwhile investment if you’re looking to record your vinyl onto USB – you can listen to them at the same time!
We’ve had a blast reviewing this and going through the few remaining LPs that have survived the digital revolution, and whilst this unit is not without its downsides, it’s relatively cheap and it will bring you quite a few hours of nostalgia.
Check out our hands on on our YouTube channel, below, and let us know what you think of this unit.
1ByOne Stereo Turntable
£36.99
Pros
- Nostalgia trip is real
- Decent aesthetic
- Nice USB feature
- Phono out
Cons
- Dual 1.5W speakers aren't great
