Best retro-style turntables to play vinyl records in 2024
Retro is in. Really, though, it always has been.
Ever since the golden days became the golden days, we’ve had a love affair with nostalgia – even for times which we didn’t personally experience.
From fashion styles to eras of cinema, we’re eternally referencing the old in the creation of something new. The joy of incorporating the classic, chic, ‘vintage’ and ‘retro’ is near-universal, but so too is the impotent horror of looking on as your own recent history becomes ‘retro’ (the Nintendo Gamecube is a not a retro gaming console, and this author will die on that hill).
Vinyl vindication
Nothing is immune from the passage of time, nor from the eventual onset of retro status. Nothing has weathered the journey better, either, than the humble vinyl record. Immediately and unceremoniously outmoded by the cassette tape, and again by the CD, vinyl as a format has made a long, slow and above all cool comeback in the streaming age.
There are benefits to vinyl beyond its history as a medium. There are perceived fidelity and timbre benefits afforded by the analogue reproduction of sound, while each sale of a new record also represents more money making its way back to the artist.
It is impossible to avoid acknowledging the role of style in all this, though. A combination of thrilling cover art and the nostalgic form of the record itself has played heavily into the re-adoption of the record globally. It’s only natural, then, that there’s also a market for retro-style turntables.
Going retro
For some, finding a retro record player to suit the ‘vibe’ is as simple as hitting eBay for the cheapest listing with ‘vintage’ in the title. Doing this can result in some cool finds, but also invites the mercurial nature of old-school turntable technology.
Old turntables will not reliably
