Introduction
As a musician, I always sought out the highest quality music I could
find. 320 kpbs, FLAC, ALAC, WAV, PCM were all fantastic for music, but I
always heard a lot about the premier quality that vinyl records offered. There
seemed to be a consensus that vinyl was the best quality you could have for
music, provided you had a clean vinyl, good turntable, and good speakers. After
the resurgence of vinyl in the late 2000’s to the early 2010’s, portable record
players started popping up everywhere. Enter the
1byone Belt Drive 3 SpeedPortable Turntable, a clean record player packed into a nice casing with
speakers inside. I saw the side panel with the headphones in, 3.5mm in, and was
very intrigued by the product as a whole. Let’s get right into it!
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| The denim is a really nice finish for this case |
Packaging and
Build Quality
The packaging for all of 1byone’s product has been quite sparse,
which is a relief. They are packed well enough for the product to be secure,
and in this case, it came with foam on the bottom to support the suitcase
design, but compact enough where you do not have to go through twenty barriers
just to access the product. After unwrapping the product, I was greeted by a
sturdy record player housed inside of what seems to me is a wooden box wrapped
in denim. The design of the outside shell is really clean and I love the look
of it. The denim feels nice and the rubber feet on the bottom prevent the
player from sliding around on my desk. The speakers are inserted on the front
of the case on either side of the handle, which is also quite sturdy. There is
a latch on the front of the player to prevent the product from falling out, and
it keeps the turntable secure. The latch surprisingly enough feels strong, I
was expecting the latch or the handle to be a dud since many products tend to
have latches that break after even the slightest use.
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| Messy bed aside, this was the box it came in. Pretty straightforward, no frills packaging |
As stated before, the side panel is where you get to plug
everything in. For starters, you can connect your headphones directly into this
turntable via the 3.5mm jack onboard. Next to the headphones was the DC in for
the power source, and next to that, the Line Out. The purpose of the Line Out
is so that you can connect the turntable to your speaker system for louder
music and so that you are not subject to using only the speakers. Lastly, the
Line In is available if you’d like to connect your iPod, Smartphone, or laptop
into the turntable for some convoluted reason.
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| Side panel is efficient and effective. |
The inside of the turntable is also really well built in my
opinion. The tone arm has a holder on it that prevents the needle from
physically touching the ground, a great feature since a clean needle can make a
world of difference when it comes to how the vinyl is heard. Right of the
needle is a small control panel that has three features. The first being a
lever for the tone arm to raise and lower it once it is out of the tone arm
holder. The lever is pretty solid and safely lowers and raises the tone arm. I
noticed the lever does get loose, but it locks in place at the top and the
bottom of the ridge, which is all that matters to me.
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| The lever is pretty good, and the dipswitch for the RPM is solid as well |
Below that is a RPM
switch. Vinyl records are meant to be played at specific RPM’s, or Revolutions
Per Minute, in order to be heard properly. This switch has the three most
common speeds, 33 RPM, 45 RPM and 78
RPM. My Donna Summer’ single ‘Dinner With Gershwin’ had to be played at 45RPM,
while the self-titled Rage Against The Machine vinyl had to be played at 33
RPM. The final feature that is on this panel is the AUTO STOP ON/OFF switch.
When the switch is ON, it will stop the record when it is complete, and it will
not stop the record when the switch is OFF, pretty straightforward. Next to the
top of the tone arm is a 45 RPM adapter that should be used when an album needs
to be played at, you guessed it, 45RPM.
The build quality on this product is incredible
and I really like it. The one thing I do dislike about the structure of the
vinyl is that I cannot close the turntable with a vinyl in it, it sticks out. I
dislike this because I want to prevent dust from getting on the vinyl while it
is in use and this table prevents that.
Sound Quality
I first tested this turntable with the onboard speakers, but
I eventually did test them with my JBL LSR 305 Stereo Speakers. The onboard
speakers are okay, but they are nothing to phone home about. I have heard the
Rage Against The Machine vinyl is 128 kpbs, 256 kpbs, 320 kpbs, ALAC, and FLAC
so I have a pretty good idea as to what this album is supposed to sound like
and what sounds I can hear in the ALAC and FLAC versions, that are really
deeply hidden in the 320 kpbs counterpart. When I turned the turntable volume
to just above “On”, I could generally only hear the cymbals. Once I moved it to
3-4 I was able to hear the full band and it sounded pretty good for what the
speakers are. Once I reached 8-10, it seemingly started to distort a bit and it
didn’t sound nearly as refined. The
onboard speakers are definitely the low point of this turntable.
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| If these speakers were of a better quality, this turntable would be the best in its class |
But, how did they sound when I plugged them into the JBL LSR
305 speakers? Absolutely amazing and crisp. The vinyl really shined when it was
plugged into the speakers and the turntable instantly redeemed itself to me in
my eyes since the table is always right next to the speakers. The quality was
absolutely superb and I began to understand why vinyl is often times touted as
the premier sound quality.
I then plugged in my headphones to see the quality of the
music through my headphones (this was using the onboard speakers, they were
unplugged from the JBL). There was a bit of a speaker leak. I turned the volume
to around 7 for the turntable and held my ear to the onboard speakers and
noticed that I could still hear music through the speaker. I do not know if it
is just this unit, or if this is a known issue, but I don’t think I was able to
hear the full soundscape through the headphones. I was disappointed with this,
but realized that I would seldom plug my headphones into to listen to vinyl.
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| This just looks so clean, I could look at it for hours |
The last thing I tested out was plugging in my phone to the
turntable to listen to some of my music that I do not have on vinyl. I will
admit that music did sound good through
the speakers, but again, nothing to call home about. They can definitely be
improved to make the turntable all the more desirable.
Overall/ Final
Thoughts
I like the turntable. It is a great introduction into the
world of vinyl and has a lot of great features in addition to a solid build. I
am still disappointed in the flaws that this turntable has though such as the
speakers themselves, sound leakage, and the fact that I cannot close the vinyl
while it is playing. The later of the three is the one that irks me the most,
with the other two being bearable since I will seldom listen to the table
through headphones. The product as a whole is great and
1byone really did a
great job with this product. If they release a second version with upgraded
speakers and a closeable lid while a vinyl is being played, it’d be a top
contender for a great record player for an affordable price.
The driver software is where I was truly surprised. The design is actually really unappealing to me and it looks quite dated. It does get the job done as far as the software is concerned, but I would like a much modern, appealing UI. As you can see below, it servers it's purpose, but I think tabs on the top section of the window and hiding less items behind the gear icon would be a great help for any future users.
