BestTurntables.com

1. 

   Anson Nash
   November 18th, 2009 - 11:27

   I received the USB Turntable. I have an ipod that is listed as compatible, but it is not recording. I have emailed tech and they sent me a compatibility chart which I used. Now I’m waiting a response to my “it’s compatible, so now what?” question.
   Rating: 2 / 5
2. 

   S. D. Farver
   November 18th, 2009 - 13:08

   I bought this for my mother-in-law, who wanted to put the hundreds of LPs sitting in her living room on her new Ipod Classic. Initial setup of the turntable was straightforward, and we were listening to classic James Taylor in minutes. Putting that same music on the Ipod and being able to catalog it was a bit more difficult, but not impossible.

   One thing that threw my for a loop was the actual process of recording. I was very worried at first that her Ipod wouldn’t be compatible, even though I had checked and cross-checked before purchasing the turntable. The ‘record’ function on the Ipod didn’t appear until it was docked with the turntable. Once I docked it, easy peasy.

   I found the included software to be a bit cumbersome to record whole albums, so we decided to just pick the songs we wanted, record them on the voice recorder, and then convert them on the computer. It’s not as seamless as I was hoping for, but I can’t complain about the quality.

   If you have a lot of albums and don’t want to buy the CD’s, this is the way to go. Don’t plan on doing it all in one weekend though, as you have to (nay, GET to) listen to the whole song (or album) and babysit the record and pause buttons on the turntable.
   Rating: 4 / 5
3. 

   R. Lockshin
   November 18th, 2009 - 15:00

   The moment I removed the Ion LPDock USB Turntable from its box I realized that purchasing it was a mistake.
   
   I am shocked at extremely poor quality in design, materials and assembly.
   
   The case, made of cheap and thin plastic, looks flimsy and ready to break at the lightest touch. The unit feels very light, unlike any turntables I’ve used. Platter lining, made of packaging-like material (not rubber like it should be) feels ready to break.
   
   The tone arm came in 3 pieces: a very cheap cartridge, decent S-shaped main piece, and balancer with a plastic dial at the end. Needle pressure setup instructed rotating the balancer to find balance point (zero pressure), and then rotate counterclockwise to find 3.5 gram pressure. Dial weight numbers increased clockwise, so finding proper needle pressure took many attempts. I finally set it up by trial and error.
   
   On/off button is inconveniently located towards the back of the unit. I pressed it, then pressed a large play/pause button. Platter began to spin, but the tonearm remained motionless. Amazing, but true: this unit does not have automatic tonearm cueing; you have to bring it up to beginning of the record by hand!
   
   All records sounded flat, with almost on bass and brittle, harsh upper tones. Poor electrical components complement cheap unit housing well.
   
   I’ve tried connecting my three Ipods: Nano, Classic and Touch to a flimsy docking station, inconveniently located in the far left corner of the unit, making it impossible to close the optional $40 plastic dust cover with Ipod connected.
   
   An array of buttons operated play/pause and menu/scroll functions, but no sound came out from any of my 3 ipods through the turntable and I was unable to record from vinyl to any of them. Instruction manual lists which ipods the turntable works with (5th generation, etc.). Not one of my ipods, including the latest Classic and Touch could play through or record from this turntable. Even Ipod recharge function did not work.
   
   In short this $200+ turntable plays records very poorly, and does not record from vinyl to ipod as claimed.
   
   Rating: 1 / 5

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