Wooden Retro Turntable 3 Speed AM/FM Radio CD and Cassette Player - (Beech)

Purchased so that my Mother could have a simple and compact all-in-one music unit mainly for CD's and records

There are some things which instantly point to this being a budget unit and other things which, if you didn't know better, would make you think it was a pretty good system.

The good bits -
By far the best part of this is the quality of sound it manages to produce. The sound would not impress a fanatic, but for average listeners it is great. The volume could be turned right up on a classical music cd and it was crystal clear with a rich and deep sound. I have heard more expensive modern systems not sound half as good. It rivals a JVC iPOD dock I bought recently.

Despite a couple of daft design flaws, it looks and feels really good. It has the look of a much more expensive player.

CD player works well and the buttons, all located on the front panel, are easy to see and use. The CD display is a red L.E.D which just shows the track number, the digits are big and clear.

Turntable works great the mechanism is a little flimsy but again, for the price, it is fine and will last if looked after.

Radio tuner is backlit when radio is selected.

Build quality of the cabinet itself is solid.

Negative points -
Poor quality hinge and locking arm on the lid, but I dont see a big problem if it is looked after.

There is no bass or treble control, thankfully the sound is really good so it can be forgiven for lacking this basic function

The radio tuner is by far the worst part of the whole unit,it looks great but when you try to us it you find it is cheap, nasty and nearly impossible to tune with any level of accuracy due to the poor mechanism. No problem if you set it to a station and forget about it, but dont get this unit if you regularly change stations you will end up throwing it out the window.

The cassette player, located on the side panel, is like the old single-sided in-car players where you slot the cassette in length ways. The only tape controls are "play" (by inserting the cassette), "eject" (by fully depressing the button) and "fast-forward" (By partially depressing the button) there is no pause, stop, rewind or record. Because of it being stuck around the corner on the side panel, you need to position the player somewhere that ensures access to the right hand side if you want to use the tape. The mechanism is clunky but it does the job.

The lift and turn mechanism for the turntable stylus arm is sticks out a little far (It extends about an inch over the edge of a LP record) so when putting on or taking off a LP just remember it may not sit properly without giving it a wiggle.

There is no motorised auto-return for the stylus arm.

In summary -
For the price, this is a good music system if you mainly use it for CDs and records. Avoid if you are looking for something that predominantly plays tapes and radio as the the lack of functions will be frustrating. It is sturdy and heavy so it doesnt skid around the table when you try to use it with one hand like most cheap plastic music players. If I knew someone else who needed a simple CD and Record player I would not hesitate to recommend this one.

I bought this as a present for my mums birthday as she wanted a hifi but with a turntable so she can play her old records but still have something that plays a cd! And i have to say she loves it and so do i, it looks realy nice and plays everything perfectly! The only thing i thought was going to let it down was the sound but the speaker are actualy realy good and the volumes goes quite high on it! If your thinking of buying it i would say go for it as its just perfect!

My boyfriend and recently decided to start buying vinyls again, but we needed a good CD player as well. This player looks beautiful and the sound is wonderful, rich and clear, not at all tinny or weak. if you're a massive radio listener this might not be the buy for you, but for all your other musical needs its just the ticket. great conversation piece too. My only niggle, and it's a small one, is that the turntable itself is a bit flimsy and I have fears of it breaking. Other than that, perfect.