THE CROSLEY REVOLUTION ULTRAPORTABLE RECORD PLAYER
Recently, I appeared in a ThinkGeek commercial for the crosley revolution ultraportable record player (yeah, I know, I can’t dance). Today I had a chance to sit down and play around with it, and I thought I’d offer up a little review of sorts:
The portability is really amazing (as it should be, as that is really the whole point). There are built-in speakers that sound pretty decent, and have good volume…but there’s an A/V out so you can use any speakers you want. It comes with ripping software (AVS Audio Editor) so you can rip your vinyl treasures to save backup files (I ripped a few files as a test, and they sound great! The software is pretty user-friendly, and you can mess with the levels/EQ/etc to get the sound you’re really looking for). You can power it with 6 AA batteries, or you can use the a/c adaptor, and it can also be powered via USB cable. To boot, there’s even a built-in FM Transmitter for on-the-go spinning (if you can find a vehicle that stays stays perfectly still in transit, this would be great!)
Obviously, it’s not your top-of-the-line turntable. As far as the cartridge/needle goes, it could be better, but it’s not going to hurt anything. But if you really are concerned about the cartridge quality, it looks to be easily replaceable, so that solves that.
The only real criticism that I have is that the thing really kind of leaves your records open to dust and the elements…BUT if you’re in need of portability like this, then you’re going to be dealing with those elements anyways.
You can snag this bad boy for $149.99 at ThinkGeek. I’m pretty excited to take it to work monday morning and spin records in my cubicle all day \m/
