Sony PS-LX310BT Belt Drive Turntable with Bluetooth

Picked this up after reading multiple review websites where this was identified as one of the best choices for a good quality table that wasn't thousands and thousands of dollars. As a casual listener and not a diehard audiophile this was exactly in the range I was looking for. This table is excellent, and includes a number of features that make it ideal for casual or even first-time users. Set up is extremely straightforward, and the directions are clearly worded with pictures to help, and following the steps yields perfect results. The automatic system makes starting and stopping easy, with minimal intervention on placing the needle, etc. The only time you need to touch the control arm is if you want a specific track, and need to move the arm to the correct placement, otherwise, listening from start to finish is literally just a button. I paired this with matching Sony sound gear, and it sounds great. For about $500 you can get the speakers, table and tuner, and have a great system that still comes in less than half the cost of some upper-mid level tables that don't sound that much better.

I'm going to start off by saying I like this turntable. If suits my needs. My needs are - I want a turntable that is fully automatic so I can lay down listening to a record and not have to worry about getting up to turn it off. I want a turntable that can produce decent sound from my collected vinyl over the years. This turntable does both. Records will never be my main source of recorded music again. I just wanted a convenient way to play my records with decent music reproduction. That being said this unit cannot reproduce music like a $500.00 and up turntable. I have a $500.00 manual turntable with a very nice cartridge and it outperforms this turntable quite a bit reproduction wise. I love it and I hate it at the same time. Music wise it is great. Convenience wise it is the pits. I have to know the last song on the record so I can prepare myself to get up and stop it. And for sure don't fall asleep or your needle will be grinding away. So I had to decide do I want great sound with inconvenience and hate it or good sound with convenience and love it. Since records are not my main source of music I choose the convenience and good sound of the Sony. I am pleased with the unit but again if you are looking for top audiophile from a turntable this is not the one. If you want really good sound plus the convenience of an automatic turntable this is for you, and for me. UPDATE After using this turntable a while I am pleased with it. I have no issues with speed fluctuations. It makes me wonder if the folks that are having problems with the speed have the belt twisted around the motor pulley or it is not properly installed around the platter radius. It is a flat belt, not a cord belt so I can see where if not careful it could be twisted. While you can't change the cartridge, you can upgrade the stylus (needle) to an elliptical cut instead of the conical stylus shipped with it. An elliptical stylus will get you more upper range from your records. I also replaced the felt pad cover with a nice acrylic cover. Then I bought a turntable weight that fits over the turntable spindle. I'm going to have to tell you for a $200.00 turntable it sounds really nice. I was surprised. The bluetooth works flawlessly and sounds exceptional for a bluetooth signal. I send the signal right to my elaborate 5.1 setup and the sound is amazing. Tons of bass (with a subwoofer) and very good highs. Another area where this unit excels is the smoothness of the automatic functions. Very smooth operation with no jerks and the tone arm raises and lowers with damped precision. The buttons for start, stop and lower/raise the tone arm are mechanical but they are smooth too. Electronic touch buttons would be nice but that would have added more cost and the mechanical buttons work just fine. I wrapped up my $500.00 manual turntable and will store it totally sealed up in my closet and someday pull it out if needed. But for me this turntable sounds great even with bluetooth and just so convenient to use. UPDATE After using this turntable for months now, I am totally sold on it. I don't care what the the audio experts say, this unit sounds excellent even using bluetooth. It has a very smooth operating mechanism and it utilizes damping when lowering the stylus to the record. Very smooth. The aesthetic materials that is made of while stable and very adequate, it does not have a high end look to it But you are getting a well built and excellent sounding turntable for the price of some of those cheap all-in-one units that use a ceramic cartridge. This unit utilizes a magnetic cartridge. The only negative thing I have found is a replacement stylus which is not available on Amazon at this time is expensive. Ridiculously priced. I purchase two stylus just to have then on hand. The first time I ordered from a Sony Authorized Dealer it cost me $40.00. I ordered another months later and to my surprise it was $60.00. But I have three stylus now and that should last for years and it is worth it to me.

This turntable is great in many ways: its design is minimalist, footprint standard, well built, very simple and user-friendly features, good Bluetooth connectivity and great sound. For this price, I can’t think about any other better options

If you're looking for an aesthetically-appealing, idiot-proof turntable that will sound shockingly good for its price while affording tons of playback flexibility, don't hesitate on the Sony PS-LX310BT. I have thousands of dollars of audiophile-grade headphones, but I had never been interested in vinyl. Then my wife realized she could collect Taylor Swift records AND listen to them with my equipment. So I was tasked with finding a reasonable entry-grade turntable. I ended up going with this Sony due to a number of factors. Sony is a reliable brand. I have never had a Sony product I didn't feel was at least mid-tier in terms of quality, if not premium. They have just never disappointed. Overpriced at times - perhaps, but never a letdown. That trend continues with this turntable - and I think it's an insane value compared to its competition in terms of features as well. Simple and easy to use. Having seen spooky stories of damaged vinyl and equipment in forums, as a first time, this was important to me. But it's pretty easy once you're familiarized. You put a record on, you remove the stylus cover, you turn it on, press start, and it just goes until the side is complete. When it's done, it auto-stops. It's great. Apparently lots of turntables don't auto-stop, and can damage your vinyl or "stylus tip" (there's a technical term I'm not recalling). Oh, and want to pause or change the spot on the record? There's a raise/lower toggle to allow you to do either! Flexible playback options. I can hook it up to my amplifiers via either USB-B or RCA, and they sound impressively similar. My wife loves using the Bluetooth for our living room soundbar. I wouldn't stress about which one sounds better, you're likely limited by your vinyl at this point. Dynamic range seemed the same to me. Excellent sound quality. I have no reference point for other turntables, but playing out of our high-end Samsung soundbar via Bluetooth, Taylor's vinyl sounds as good as our lossless music sources like Amazon Music HD and Apple Music. I couldn't discern a difference easily. On an audiophile headphone setup, such as my HDV 820 and HD800S combo, there is some dynamic range and soundstage expanse missing between Taylor Swift's 24-bit/44.1khz digital masters. But this more likely a limitation of the vinyl press, than the turntable itself. I'm not a fan of the pops and hisses - and they're there, but as soon as music gets rolling, you forget about them / don't hear them until it's quiet/silent again. I also don't care for a specifically warmer sound that people love from vinyl, and there's a touch of this, but I didn't feel like it was overly-coloring the sound. Dust cover! You can remove this too, if you prefer the aesthetic, but we live in Arizona, and our house is dusty minutes after cleaning it. Must-have. What I didn't like. - Power button location: I wish the power button wasn't on the back-side, but it's easy enough to feel and find. - RCAs hardwired: Probably my biggest complaint. I wish the RCAs weren't hardwired in. Would have preferred just female jacks like the USB output, and utilize a provided cable. Were these to get damaged, you'd have to have the unit rewired/repaired. but I just keep them cable-managed, and it's fine. Just keep out of reach of your puppies, cats and small children. In summary, I'm convinced there's no better option for a turntable under $200 (at time of review). You get wireless with USB, analog with RCA and digital with USB. It's easy to use and has fail-safes to avoid damaging the equipment and records. Sony has produced a good looking, thoughtful, value-laiden turntable in this PS-LX310BT.