*There’s an Audiophiliac/Steve Guttenberg imposter scamming my viewers, There’s no FREE gifts. DON’T respond! I don't do giveaways or ask for money (except for my Patreon)*

steve, my family gave me a Fluance RT-85 last christmas. I love it and I have almost 700 LPs. It comes loaded with an Ortofon Blue MM cartridge. I'm 75 years old and have been listening for years...the RT-85 is wonderful.

I bought the Fluance RT-81 in December 2017 for $249. I’ve been very happy with it. I just checked and it is still $249 which makes it an even better bargain today .

Hello Steve.Just wanted to say how much I love your channel.I am totally blind and really appreciate how clearly and concisely you explain everything.I have and always will love and cherish music and I can hear the passion in your voice.… Big love to you and your family❤

Another excellent and humorous review from the great Steve! Wishing happy new year to you and your family! Cheers from Rio!

Timing of this is perfect, as I know somebody who might be looking for an inexpensive turntable. Also, as usual, interesting, musical selections from you, Steve!

Great review Steve. (Thank-you) Nice to see an affordable TT in the market because as you suggest, products like this help people start their journey with something that sounds good.

Great review!!!! 🎉🎉

Hi Steve, I went on the waiting list for the turntable after I watched your review. I finally got the TT, and I am very pleased. This is for my downstairs study sound system. Along with Vinyl Studio software, this TT (added a Teoman Audio Cartridge) has revolutionized my hobby of converting quality vinyl records to .flac files and compiling on my "jukebox" for music outside, or other places where I can not play records. Great video and spot on observations. Thanks! Mike in Spring, TX.

Happy new year Steve. As always I’m hear to root for all your vinyl record related videos. Love it! Bravo. ☮️

That is one heavy duty belt. My SOTA Sapphire TT has a belt that's so thin in comparison. This is one well-thought-out turntable especially for the price!

Monoprice is so interesting. I think 90% of their entries really hit a sweet spot. Thanks!

Thanks for this heads up!!!

Steve Thanks Much!

Funny on Mayall, In the 90s used to go to an audio store in Thousand Oaks, Ca.. Turns out Mayall lived near and was performing in local venues. Back in the 70s a couple friends went to his concert and after it was done they saw him walking outside the arena as apparently his car had missed him. They offered him a ride in their VW and he accepted. On the way to his destination my friends who had made a bootleg tape of the concert put it in their car stereo and played it for him. His comment was, "You Yanks are crazy!" No nonsense about making the tape. Cool guy.

I’m definitely vinyl curious having got rid of my vinyls for cd’s about thirty years ago. Thanks for the intro to John Mayall, sound good streaming through my phones, can’t wait to try it on my shiny old Dual 505. Thanks for the great info.

Wish I had known about this table before I got my AT LP60X. I like my AT but I've had issues with needle down force and there are no adjustments. Absolutely love the milk carton kids too.

It is a carbon fiber tonearm, but the mass isn't listed in specs. I'm sure a higher compliance cartridge would work however, like an ADC.

Benchmark is my dream system! 😍

Great recommendation on that Julee Cruise album (and the turntable). Love Twin Peaks, her work in it and David Lynch

I like Techniques turntables and Vestex (straight arm). Currently have 2 Vestex PDX tables, Rane TTM56 magnetic faders mixer and Boss 303 sampler. I'm a DJ and love mixing records and staying analog mostly, except perhaps when looping/sampling. Cheers, dig the channel! 🍻

This with a pair of powered speakers would be a nice minimal affordable little setup.

Thanks for all your videos Steve, I truly appreciate them. I can't afford the vast majority of what you review as most of my money goes to my kids and cars... lol. Although, I appreciate the turntable reviews especially for if and when my Technics dies!

Especially after this insightful, and needed, review of the Monoprice Turntable I think, more than ever, I like what I perceive as the ethos of Monoprice. They are as serious about solid sound as they are delivering maximum value - by what I can tell. This brings up something that has been rattling around my mind for years regarding turntables. My first turntable was a very lack-luster Garrard (I went too low in the line) around 1972. After a bit of generally knowing it was really weak, I graduated to the AR-XA paying around $70 bucks delivered from Illinois Audio. It was a game changer of stupendous levels. Still to this day the highest value audio device I ever bought. Back to that rattle in my cranium. I have always thought that someone needs to resurrect a sub-chassis suspended very affordable turntable and use the AR-ES1 as the template. The major players, apparently, believe affordable turntables only need solid plinths and somewhat compliant feet. But, Monoprice with their solid customer base and reputation for making smart manufacturing choices seems like the perfect candidate to revive this all-time iconic turntable. Since I'm sure they wouldn't make it cheesy I would imagine a price of about a grand, or just under. Though it's a big price gap from this apparently very high-value and performing turntable, I could see the two covering two very good markets within turntables. Markets with a huge potential as I would imagine the two offerings: one for more casual audio lovers and/or the cash-strapped, and the other for literally everyone else. I own my 2nd AR-XA (first was stolen) and I still love it. The ES-1 was almost as far as was rationally needed to take the basic table to take on just about anything before or since. If you have any person who listens to you at Monoprice please float my idea and tell them I want to be the first customer. In closing, I really enjoyed this episode of your show Steve. Though at my age I can afford some of the expensive gear I still have a real soft spot for gear like this that gives a lot of listening joy at a bargain price. I still hold the AR-XA as the pinnacle of that and I guess I haven't ever got past that thrill for over 50-years!!!

Love my U.S. made U-Turn Orbit Special (with the cue lever and Pluto phono stage). I'll upgrade the Ortofon Red to something else later. But it is good to know that another good low-cost option exists for those who want to get started on the vinyl analog journey. +1 for the removable headshell. If you have friends at all vinyl curious, please steer them to something like this and not even look at one of those cheap suitcase players. This one looks pretty good and the USB functionality of digitizing LPs and singles might appeal to some. Good review as always, and killer viewer system of the day.

Thoroughly enjoy your reviews and especially appreciate the numerous music choices that you have introduced me to. Thank You🤙

Gee thanks a lot Steve! HA HA.. Your review was *so GOOD* until last week Ive been unable to purchase one.. everywhere I looked it was 'out of stock' 'out of stock' 'out of stock'..! Finally just got one today, and although I thought about the Fluance ..but NO I'll will WAIT! Glad I did - setting up tonight.. Cheers

My favorite part about your videos is introducing music to the audience that we may know.

Sounds like a old Chevrolet covair I had in the 60s it was always throwing the fan belt off the pulley

At that price I would be suspicious...but I do have to follow your wise advice for this price point. I agree this would be a good choice for an entry level for a novice interest. And what would we do without Steve Guttenberg..we love your reference, your advice..we can trust your view point. Happy New Year 2023...thank you Steve Guttenberg ❤. Keep spinning those platters...ps..more reviews on turntables!!!

John Mayall! I have all those albums in my collection and more - but more interestingly..... One summer night in the 1970's we had tickets to see Mayall in a small (and short lived) venue in Scarsdale NY. Jumped in our cars and headed to the concert but something was off. All the lights were out - yup it was the great blackout. The entire east coast was out. We got to the show and some folks announced there would be a show - don't go anywhere. Some pickup trucks showed up with generators and the show went on. Mayall and the band played all night- We left and the sun was up! I've seen John a number of times and he is always great - This show was astounding! i wish there was a recording of it somewhere. This is one thing I really miss - Growing up in NYC in the 1970's, there was live music everywhere. You could go out any night of the week and find a band. It's all gone.....

The Audio-Technica at lpw40wn belt drive needs more online review love. Same cartridge, great sound and features. More worldwide availability (for us here from south america).

That looks like the perfect entry level turntable. I started off with belt drives as a teenager in the late 70's but after having used a high end Japanese direct drive (no not Technics LP12's) I just don't see myself wanting the faff of a belt drive t/t ever again.

This turntable looks so much like my 40 year old micro seiki MB10 that it could have been made by the same company. I'm still using the MB-10 and it sounds fine. Peter green , John mayall , wow, definitely blasts from the past. Proves good music does not go out of fashion.

Glad I waited a few seconds longer. I was about to start typing that you have to listen to Mayall's stuff after the Blue Breakers. And specifically The Turning Point! Story was the drummer did not show up so no drums on it! So the drum section is where John started beat boxing it! I actually not only have my original from back in the day but he autographed it for me a decade or so ago. Along with USA Union!

I have the earlier Monolith by Monoprice turntable and I've been very happy with it. It came with an unbranded AT-100E, in a quick release headshell. My model appears to have come from the same OEM as Fluance.

John Mayall-Room to Move.First heard late at night on WMMS/Cleveland.Went out the next day and tracked down Turning Point.

I've been impressed with Monoprice products.

Forty odd years ago when selling hifi, we'd run an Audio Technica AT-311E for $10 against a Shure M91-ED at $9.99. We were paying like $18 for the Shure (those greedy protectionist pricks) and around $6 for the AT. I was the cartridge guy and my pitch was that the AT was dual-magnet with much newer technology and only a penny more for better sound! And it worked - we sold about 25-30 311E's for every M91-ED. Was the 311E better than the M91-ED? Maybe. But our 311E cost was a third of the M91-ED, and we wanted to stick it to Shure for their arrogance and highly inflated price for the M91-ED. Of all the pickups we sold, however, my favorites were Grado and the Denon MCs. Ahh, the good old days...

Great review Steve, so good in fact that Amazon reports (as of 1/9/23) "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." -- Oh well :(

Been there, done that. I was around decades before digital.

Thanks for dispelling the myth that you need to spend lots to get good vinyl replay.

I love the Monoprice 5w guitar amp. It's good for the price like this turntable probably is.

monoprice can be hit or miss but when they get it right it's always just phenomenal for the price

Steve, what I’ve never heard mentioned, is that the internal preamp on an Audio Technica AT-LP120 that I tested out, quite a number of years ago now, so no idea about the X version, actually had an annoying feature. It wasn’t so much the sound of the preamp, (let’s face it, we’re talking cheap here) but the fact that it would mute noise when the signal fell below a certain threshold and allow sound to come through when exceeded. This was good for masking a poor S/N ratio, or sometimes muting record surface noise, but it was not only non-adjustable, but also very imperfect. I spun an old King Crimson record, and the sound actually dropped out during a whisper quiet section of an orchestral piece and popped back in later. This is totally unacceptable, even for a cheap phono preamp. Only good for listening to compressed audio, in which case, it will just mask the poor S/N ratio of the unit. 👨🏻 I hope this type of thing has been addressed on newer units and by other brands. So many other aspects I’d like to talk about that affect sonic perception, like cartridge loading, stylus cut, cantilever design and compliance, tonearm resonance, damping, and mass,, wow and flutter, acoustic isolation, noise floor, et cetera, so many design aspects, but I’ll save all those somewhat controversial subjects for another time..👨🏻 After all, it sounds like for $250 this on is not that bad. Yours is not the only review I know of on this, another is also favorable, although I wasn’t too enamored with the S/N ratio spec for this belt drive. You can’t trust the printed numbers anyway, I’d have to test it out for myself.

Hi Steve. Great channel! I'm curious if you would recommend a turntable or 2 in the $300 - $500 range. I listen to a lot of vinyl (jazz, classic rock soul/funk). Right now I'm using a vintage Phillips 222 that sounds good to my ears but looking for an up-grade. - Thanks!

I have a 1byOne turntable that is a near clone of this one. It uses the same anti-skate mechanism, and sounds like a million bucks. I cannot believe how good this turntable sounds, and I bought it new in the box for $30 at the flea market. It sounds as good as my very expensive Kenwood KD 850 turntable. I'll never sell it.

Fantastic! Great for us poor guys! I love my "Fluance RT-84 " , but I had to drop $450 for it, but worth it!

Thanks for introducing me to John Mayall. I kinda knew who he was but never really listened to him.

Hi Steve, loved your review of the monoprice turntable for the beginner audiophile. What phono preamp and set of powered bookshelf speakers do you recommend to go with the monoprice? Thanks again!

Has anyone here purchased the Miniot Wheel Linear Tracking Turntable which is made in Sweden, and uses a control joystick that is part of the spindle.

John McVie was in Mayall's BluesBreakers, too

I have found several Monoprice turntables under the name “Monolith”. Can you provide the precise model number so I know I’m looking at the correct one? Thanks.

John Mayall “used to be” the English blues elder statesman? He still is and will be as long as he has breath left in his body. Great stuff as usual, Steve.

Hope you are fully recovered Steve - you sound great again. I've been searching for a phono preamp with USB out so I can rip my albums (I know, that's not your thing) w/out any luck. I might buy this table just for that. Thx

Man, I wish this was readily available across the pond, looks a really solid build. Steve, are you hoping for a 50th remaster of Dark Side Of The Moon? UHQR perhaps?

I have checked turntables with slow, quiet sustained piano selections to listen for any inaccuracies in pitch variations or rumble beneath the pianissimo passages. That usually reveals much.

AAA+ review! I ordered one in black. Paid 199! To my surprise, yes it did have the ATVM 95E installed. One concern though. I did detect a little side to play in the tonearm.. wondered if the one you tested exhibited that?

Seen these before with many names. They always come with at cart. The new OEM standard 😁

Morning uk time hope everyone is safe and well 😁 how does this compare to the rega p1 plus, I used to own the rega p1 not the plus and for the money it sounded fantastic 😀

Reminds me of --1966 AR Xa turntable

Does anyone know what the replacement belt size is for the monoprice turntable?

Great to hear it's not another piece of rubbish, that puts people off vinyl 👍

Monolith vs Fluance (which you recommend in another video). Thoughts on comparison? Oh sorry now i realize it was at the end of this video!

I'm 62 yrs-old and first started collecting music about 1980. My purchases were almost exclusively record LPs and 45rpm singles for the first few years simply because that was the most widespread and dominant choice for music available. All told I have more than 2000 records in my collection. After awhile, when CD's became more popular, more titles became available, and the price became competitive with LPs, I switched over to that format and have at least as many CDs. I know this will be blasphemy to the analog lover, but regarding sound quality, which to me is not simply sonics but surface noise, pops/clicks and distortion (all of which are preset with every LP album, no matter how good the pressing is, how well you take care of your vinyl, or how good your equipment is), LPs cannot match digital, period. Digital will always be cleaner and clearer. I've been listening to my albums for more than 40 years now so can tell the difference, believe me. Also, digital studio recording has been widespread and mainstream since 1980, which means practically all the current albums you've heard and familiar with are digital anyway, so hearing them on CD, streaming or on a record makes no difference in the actual sound. If you think digital somehow sounds sterile and harsh compared to vinyl, the digital sound is what was captured in the studio. When you hear a digital recording that's what you get. I think this notion that somehow LPs have a warmer and more inviting sound is more imagination and mind tricks than actual sound quality. Keep in mind the first record played using a needle (stylus) was invented in 1887, which is the basis for all record technology since. The technology has just been refined but is not materially different than the earliest record players, so records are ancient as far as the technology goes. To me record technology is the worst conveyance for music available, since it introduces surface noise, pops/clicks and basic distortion not found in any other sound medium. You have a needle scraping over a vinyl surface that generates surface noise along with the music. I think the warm and fuzzy sound some hear is all the crap your ear is picking up in addition to the music, and you're mistaking it for ambience...lol. The only thing that saved me in listening to my collection was stumbling upon a wave de-clicking program I found years ago for free. It's made fairly "clean" albums (low pops/click) almost CD quality and "dirty" albums (high pops/clicks) at least listenable, but I'd still prefer the digital version if given the choice. If the album is mainly acoustic or orchestrated, digital wins -- hands down. No surface noise whatsoever. All you hear is the music. No pops, clicks or distortion. And that's why we listen to music in the first place, right? The music. All that said I understand why some prefer records. The nostalgia. The fact you can hold the album, the record shell and sleeve, and read the liner notes (something you can also do with CDs, of course). But this notion that records are vastly superior to digital regarding sound quality is poppycock.

Whilst this is a good turntable for the money, if you really want to go as low as you can go and still have a great turntable that isn't considered a toy, the Insignia (Best Buys house brand) Bluetooth Turntable is a diamond in the rough. For a paltry $130 it has speed control circuitry (!), a replaceable cartridge (sadly no replaceable headshell, but the entire cartridge CAN be replaced, unheard of in this price range), MDF wood plinth, a J shaped stainless steel tonearm, auto stop at the end of the record (!!), a proper counterbalance with anti skate control, literally everything you could ask for in a proper, real turntable. I'm using mine over a year now and absolutely see no need to replace/upgrade it. Give this one a shot Steve, I think you'll be impressed!

Just thinking what about the Vinyl Video Phono Preamp with a HDMI output so you can enjoy those LPs that also have some video encoded into the grooves.

I have heard Steve talk about Fluance, U-Turn, Music Hall and Rega turntables, and a few of the Pro-Ject turntables, but I haven't heard his opinion on the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon, which I bought before I discovered this channel. Does anybody know what he thinks of it?

Nice review and I put an Email alert on the TT and need to check it out for possible upgrades. Speaking of Vandersteen, I picked-up a pair Model 2Ce 8-10yrs ago at a garage sale ($175) and if you search at AudioKarma "Vandersteen: Model 2Ce Upgrade and Refinish" you can see what I have done to Upgrade/Re-Build that speaker (Vandersteen either would cry or be impressed). I will send a picture of my gear (Viewer System). hey you never know.

Hi Steve. Do you know why CD audio is flawed? What the exact technical problem is? I do. Ask if you wanna know. BTW you were fantastic in those Police Academy movies. 😺

This guy is the original!

I've been considering the Fluance but your review of the Monoprice has turned my head.

Good to see realisticly priced products on the channel. Negatrive coments are for some reason disappearing (deleted?) so let's see how long this one survives.

It would be great if you could put links to the musical artist talked about.

That is an enviable system of the day 15:11

Great review. 👍 Glad to hear that a good record player is not thousands of dollars. Wondering if this is an american made product. For me, that's important. Thank you for your time.

Love "California" off Turning Point! A track that begs to be shared when folx start talking about unplugged performances.

I bought a Project George Harrison TT it was only 250. Acrylic Platter om10.

Hey Steve, great review! I'm just getting into turntables and this one looks pretty solid. Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but do I need a receiver or amp to pair with this? I'm using the Klipsch rb61ii speakers and this would be a setup in my dining room.

Been using 2 of their thx subs (10 inch version) of monolith since they came out with them. That brand is putting high end to shame on many areas ..

I have The Project Pro Carbon Turntable.

Speaking of introductions to vinyl, I recently bought my first player, a Rega P5, but while I am getting a very full sound out of it, I'm not getting the resolution that I think the tt may be capable of. I think the cause is the phono, but in trying to look for better phono preamps, searching by Google, I find that the results I get are cyclical. It's been baffling to me so far, where do people discuss this online? How can I find information about better preamps than the ones most commonly parroted as budget greatness? I have no idea where to start.

15:16 ha ha, yes, I know what you are talking about. Not Accepting Imitations!

Worth using for USB out? I have a (technically) preampless system

Hi Steve check out Michael Hearst’s ‘ songs for ice cream trucks’ as a speaker demo album

Can you tell me where I can purchase belts for an old turntable? I have a Conrad Johnson Sonographe 3 turntable. Thnx.

John Mayall was The Best ! Got 2 vinyls

Wonder how this compares with the fluance RT81?

It tickles me when you refer to features on turntables as if they were a new source of technology. I know it's for the uninitiated, but still. 😁👍 Oooh, speed control knob!! Wow, damping cue.😁 Btw , my first turntable was a 1963 black and Decker with a John Deere cartridge. You could see vinyl shavings fall to the floor.

My Maggies amaze me on this album……

I'd rather get a Fluance

How can you recommend a turntable where you can see the platter move back and forth vertically while rotating. Very poor machining for sure.

Looks very much like a rebranded AT turntable. There is a series of similar derivatives coming out of the same factory in China. A Rega Planar 3 would up the ante.

Who sells these? I did a search on Ebay, for both "Monoprice" & "Monolith" turntables, with no results.

Hello! Thanks for this review. Could anyone confirm if the arm is real carbon fibre please?

A big advantage for cheap dull sounding tt´s from the 1970ies was: There was no digital source to compare with!. You bought cheap crap, and that was that! Nowadays, we have a phone to hook to the poweramp, and play at least in descent soundquality! So, when you co,pare this with a cheap sounding bad TT, then you have your dealbreaker immediately! When I was young, I had nothing to compare but another expensive TT...and I told myself: OK, there is the pricegap to hear....my bad! lol.

It seems like it's the same as the Audio-Technica - AT-LPW30TKR for 218.00 on Amazon

A 12V wall=wort for power? All the features and they cheap out on building an honest power supply mounted inside? They just made a very high priced Crosley Cruiser minus the time speakers and little suitcase!

It wasn't discussed..... but is that top made of solid wood (mahogany?)??

But will it play my 78s??? 🤔