Testing Crosley's new 1975T stereo system (model CR6038A), featuring a turntable with Audio-Technica magnetic cartridge, CD player, aux and Bluetooth inputs, AM/FM radio tuner, and fabulous 1970s-inspired chrome and woodgrain styling.
I'm seeing a lot of comments saying "Buy a vintage receiver" and the like. You have to realize what the market is for this sort of system. This is for Grandpa and Grandma to play their Jefferson Airplane and Carly Simon albums. There is also a market for entry level vinyl customers who aren't sure if they are going to get into the hobby. It is NOT intended to be high-end audio gear. For what it's intended for it's perfect. It doesn't look like it will ruin your vinyl, it sounds decent and has most of the functions a normal consumer would want. It's also not ridiculously expensive. Frankly I'm surprised that Crosley has improved this much. For what it is, it's not bad at all.
Guy Fawkes I agree completely. As far as a basic stereo goes, this isn't bad at all. And Crosley HAS made significant improvements. To the people who piss and moan that it isn't 'all that' .... hey, don't buy it. STFU and crawl back under your overpriced rock; your opinions are irrelevant.
@Guy Fawkes - Even Grandpa & Grandma deserve better sound quality. If you can afford the money or afford the risk, a higher-quality modern or vintage system will sound much, much better. I see the ports on these speakers. Given the sound, I think this is more for show than properly engineered. I don't hear any bass below around 150 Hz or so. In fact, sounds like the cheap all-in-ones of the 70s that had thin cardboard with vent holes covering the speaker backs. Single driver speakers without either good treble or good bass. Not at all good sounding.
@@boggy7665 I'd agree...for me. The average person doesn't care that much about sound quality it seems. Older people simply can't hear the difference and are for the most part only familiar with that low quality system sound. Younger people are used to ear buds and low quality, compressed MP3 files. As I said earlier, for what (and I should have added who) it's intended for, it's fine.
@@boggy7665 Are you basing the sound quality on the video? 🤔 If you are then remember the sound is only as good as your PCs sound system with the added burden of RU-vid's compression. On my $5 ear buds, The finest audio system demonstrated on a RU-vid videos will still sound like listening to $5 ear buds.
Adjustable speed, magnetic cartridge, stylus pressure that isn't horrendous, fair speakers, anti-skating, seems to be tracking nicely too: seems like Crosley is starting to listen to the consumers. Well done and thanks for an interesting review and test.
I have some pieces of equipment from the Pioneer Blue Line from the late 70s. The displays are blue (although is not made with LEDs). The style of the display is quite similar. I think the lack of ANY actual wood or metal in that plasticky shit from Crosley is more offensive than the blue LEDs :P
Love that you review such a diverse range of products for a diverse bunch of people and budgets. Audio snobbery is never on the agenda - a big thank you for that!
I know Crosley gets a bad rap because things like the Crosley Cruiser exists, but man, this is a beautiful machine. It has a great design, the radio works good, CD's play good, records play good. All in all good machine. If I'm ever looking for a cheap stereo system I know what to look for. No cassette player but you could easily hook one up. Actually it would look cool with a cassette deck underneath it or something.
Thanks for this one. My mom still has records from her teenage years. I don't have hundreds of $ to spend to be able to play them and been struggling to find something affordable but worth it. This sounds like it fits the bill.
I never thought I'd ever say this about a Crosley product, but I would actually consider buying one of these. I really like the no-frills honesty of the design, well done Crosley...
I have a modern day Crosley, picked it up from a second hand store, all most walked on by, I tested, then brought it home, it actually is one of my favorite radios, fantastic stereo separation, great reception (but can also suffer from noise if near to much modern day electronics, otherwise decent AM DX, FM reception), have many hours on it....best 5 bucks I've spent! ~Jack, VEG
I remember the music centre we had in 1977. Garrard belt driven turntable with magnetic cartridge. Cassette deck with full auto-stop and Dolby B noise reduction, selectable manual and automatic recording level with twin large VU meters, accepting Ferric and chrome tapes. Goodmans three-way speakers (two bass drivers and a tweeter) and 25W RMS per channel amplifier. AM/FM/SW tuner with switchable AFC. Maybe the 1970s were better than some remember.
i remember BSR,GARRARD,DUAL turntables with record changers are good quality, turntables equipped on 3 in 1 stereo system during that time during that time, anyway it was equipped with stanton magnetic cartrige, not bad but the speed control has no exact speed for 33 and 45 rpms records , .. just a pitch control needs proper refinements on some controls
It actually looks pretty cool! I'm not sure about the blue LEDs, green would suit it better, but it's a whole lot less goofy looking than the 1940s styled all-in-ones. This model really captures the general appearance of an early to mid '70s audio component with the wood grain, radio dial behind smoked glass, and even the slider control.
I'm glad this time they actually have given this thing external speakers and minimizing the risk of feedback through the stylus cartridge. Hm… damn this time it actually looks quite tempting.
KRAFTWERK2K6 l agree. By the end of the video I was thinking I could get one for my kitchen. I probably won't but it's funny to think I was damn near sold on it. I'm curious how it would sound with slightly upgraded speakers and/or cabinets.
I got my first stereo system in 1977 when I was 11. I think it was from Sears or Montgomery Ward, and it had a turntable, am/fm receiver, and 8-track player. I absolutely loved it and had it until the turntable died when I was 16 or so. I later bought another one, ( with cassette instead of 8-track...) but never developed an ear for high sound quality. My biggest beef was if the turntable speed was off. This thing looks right up my alley, thanks for the review!
Now this is something I really could recommend to someone. Convenient all-in-one unit that looks nice too. Personally I have a Dual unit from the 70s that looks quite similar to this one and probably sounds similar too. The only small dissapointment is it doesn’t do 78s while many 70s units did. But 99% of people buying this won’t need it for 78s anyway. And it’s a plastic platter but if you’re not an audiophile who cares. Seriously. So yeah. Pleasantly surprised.
Thanks so much for this review, I haven't been able to find a single video on this unit until now. I just went an bought one of these yesterday, haven't had a chance to set it up yet, bit I'm glad I went for this over the Lancaster all in one unit. The big selling points for me were the better cartridge, the bass and treble control, the styling and the better look cd controls
Every other reviewer or demoer are so obsessed with trash talking crosely cruiser for cheap views that croselies better products fall through the cracks... crosley have even better turn tables than this... it's kinda sad if you think about it
Great presentation. Not only did you detail the 1975T. You gave us a listen how the 1957T will sound. If I'm in the retro look. I'll buy one because because of you presentation and demonstration of the unit. Enjoy the vid. Good job.
I wasn't expecting a MM Cartridge when I clicked on your Crosley review! @3:21 glad to see the spring provides the correct tracking force for the cartridge, and @9:00 the anti-skate is properly set. I bet an adjustment could be made inside the unit to make the speed correct with the pitch control centered up. I would prefer RCA aux-in over a mini jack, but most folks use their phone as an input device, so I guess the mini-jack in makes more sense. Nice review!
ThriftyAV ,, I agree with you there. As soon as he lifted the lid, I thought,, here we go,, another ceramic cart setup. This makes the whole thing much more promising.
At long last. The phono playter is actually decent! They just need to tighten up the QA at the factory when setting the pitch. I wonder how much power the amp puts out. Also, with spring loaded speaker connectors, it allows one to hook up better speakers to the unit.
"Not quite audiophile" quality will go down as one of the biggest understatements of the year! The sound of your voice was far more "audiophile" than the equipment! That said, I was playing this video through my nearly all Rega hifi costing several thousand pounds and it certainly sounded far less tinny and offensive than the cheapo record players that Crosley are infamous for. I agree with you, in that it's the cartridge that sets it apart, and thankfully the tracking weight is also correct. I do think it's very remiss of Crosley not to correctly calibrate the speed of the turntable though. It hints at the cheapness of the motor, and if it lasts the duration of its warranty with medium to heavy use each day, I'd be really surprised. Also a raising and lowering lever would protect the stylus and records when the owner comes back from the pub! You made an excellent review, as you always do, but I doubt the longevity of Crosley's product. After all, you could use all of your 177 USD choosing a pair of halfway to not quite audiophile speakers!!
It’s interesting seeing that Crosley actually do make decent turntables once you get a little ways up the range from the Cruiser and so on. I have to admit, this does make me curious about the models at the very top of the range - the K200A costs a good $70 more than the Stanton table I just recently bought; about the same when you factor in the cartridge I had to buy separately. It certainly looks like a decent piece of equipment, though if you’re going to be spending that kind of money it does beg the question of why you’d go for a Crosley at all.
@@Rich6Brew : Nonsense.... the headshell and cartridge have enough mass to hold onto the groove even at that "terrible" 3.5gramme tracking force. It's all about tonearm mass distribution. With this player, the cartridge/headsell is heavy; it has mass, but if you counter that at the other end with a decent weight, then you can still have this cartridge track fairly light at only 3.5 grammes, but because it has it's own "weight", it has inertia that allows it to track the groove at 3.5 grammes and hold steady on those grooves. That's why so many of the cheaper system with a very flimsy plastic headshell/cartridge design skip so often.... the arm/cartridge don't have enough of their own mass to hold onto the groove - regardless of the counterweight/spring assembly. In this system, the stylus can hold onto the groove, because the arm is properly matched and balanced with weight/mass at each end. No groove furrowing needed here...
A little over a week ago, I purchased four NAD rack mount components mounted in a rolling rack for $74.99 from my local Goodwill store. The store had literally just rolled it out. These rack mount components are all matched and from the late 1980's. The model 5170 seven disc CD changer had jammed and didn't work, but I fixed that. Works perfectly again. I ordered a belt for the model 6100 cassette deck so that cassette deck should be up and running soon. I've still got plenty of tapes to play on it. The NAD model 7100 AM/FM stereo receiver puts out 50 watts per channel. The rack mount NAD model 2400 stereo amplifier takes the output from the 7100 and adds 100 more watts per channel to that. Also included were eight Monster cables to hook all the components together along with two 100 foot 14 gauge speaker wires and a Terk FM antenna. All for $74.99. And it works and sounds really nice for something that's almost 30 years old. Quality will last. Crosley will not. I got lucky. And boy, is it heavy.
@@dbranconnier1977 Just to be clear, I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but to demonstrate by example that you're far better off buying quality used components at thrift stores, yard sales or Craigslist than paying $170+ for this Crosley system. Most of the time, if a scratchy receiver basically works, all it needs is some contact cleaner to clean the controls. You can buy phonograph belts, cartridges and headshells online and you're back in business.
Nice little stereo system and review. It makes me wish I still had all my vinyl records, but I sold them all twenty plus years ago when everything went digital. You have cool varied taste in music too from what I could hear.
I just found that network lp on eBay!!! Totally stoked.... can’t wait for it to get here!!!you find the best off the beaten track...... albums.... also found the styrene 45 of playing with lightning....shot in the dark has to be my favorite part of my vwestlife’s greatest hits...
The Arthur Murray record at 9:14 sounds just as good as when you played it on your Audio Technica LP120 review a few years back. Also, this unit looks like its straight out of E.J. Korvettes of the 70!, (except for the stupid wall wart).
Wow, talking about bringing back old memories. I bought my first stereo system, similar looking to this one (obviously, no CD's back then, but had a cassette player) from the military base store in 1980. I made $465 a month, prior to taxes, and this unit cost, if memory serves, around $200 back then. I had it for around 8 years before upgrading to more a more sophisticated stereo system. I had no complaints and thoroughly enjoyed the stereo unit.
Your videos are always fascinating and often surprizing! This is certainly better than that Lloyds or the Sound Design set up I had during my 20's. It's likely better on the records too!
@@rockabillycat1954 I see what Crosley is trying to do, and this appears to be a decent effort. I would buy it instantly if I could hook up other devices to the rear of the unit via more aux-in connections. The one on the front is fine for a short-term connection like walkman or MP3 player, but more on the rear would allow a tape deck. They would not even have to have another position on the selector switch; they could wire the jack on the front panel to 'switch over' from the rear-panel aux-in connections whenever a plug is inserted, similar to the way the speakers cut off on a stereo when you plug in headphones. I'm not holding my breath, though. I know that the overwhelming majority of the people who would buy this would probably never use that particular feature, so I know my 'wish' isn't all that realistic. My concern, though, would be the CD player. The CD players Crosley has used in the past have not been particularly reliable, and I don't see anything to indicate that this is any better. The turntable, I suppose, would be adequate for most people (including me, most of the time). My misgivings aside, I'd consider something like this for the living room if I didn't already have an antique stereo console. Maybe in the den downstairs.....
@@xaenon same here, though I have a more modern setup than you do (sony turntable, magnavox surround sound receiver)... that being said, if my daughter (due in March, btw) gets into vinyl... something like this would be way more flexible than what I started with.
@@rockabillycat1954 Congrats on your daughter! All my best wishes for her and your family! My own daughter is grown now, and although she grew up with vinyl, her feelings toward it are somewhat more practical than mine - that it's bulky, fiddly, and 'outdated', lol. Fair enough - modern times, and all that.
I don't get why Crosley products get such a bad rap. I mean yeah, they aren't exactly high priority, but they are nowhere near as bad as so many say they are. And this stuff about them "destroying" records and tapes is really exaggerated. One of my first record players was a Crosley, and everything I played on it hundreds of times still sounds just as good as they did when I first bought them. Even the ones I bought brand new, still sealed.
I really do like the way it looks. If they had only put a set of line inputs on the back panel (or even better, a proper tape loop), I'd probably pick one up at some point.
Im 62 and oddly enough I remember Radio Shack actually made a few all in one systems that used magnetic cartridges and two way eight inch speakers that sounded pretty good considering.
I just don’t understand why they didn’t put one of their stack o matic record changers in it with the Audio Technica cartridge installed on it... that would have made it something true to the name 1975 , and really special ,amongst the piles and piles of manual turntables that are available now.... I have a massive record collection and can’t stand manual record players... the sad thing is the bsr clone changers Crosley made a few years ago,, were some of the nicest, high quality items they have built to date.. I have a few of them and they are put together very well and sound great...
Actually, what I don't understand is why Crosley hasn't made the turntable fully automated. For this type of product and what it pretends to resemble, automatic functionality seems to be the most "realistic" choice.
Stack-O-Matic record changers haven't been manufactured since 2008 or so. Today people who want to play multiple albums without interruption just listen to MP3 files or online streaming services.
@@vwestlife I'm sure about what you say. It's a testable truth. Maybe, I expressed myself not enough clear. I guess, just a conjecture, a product like this is aimed not for youngest consumers, but for those (as myself) started long ago into the Hi-Fi world when we were far younger, now miss our very first approach to audio and now have suffer from that beautiful illness called "nostalgia". Cheers.
Oh! Excuse me. When I was saying "fully automated turntable" I wasn't referring to disc changer, but automatic arrm start-play-stop at the end-return to rest position.
VWestlife that’s true buddy, but there are still a lot of us left that like to throw on a stack of records, and chill out... I’m 42,, and have never had a MP3 player... lol... well I guess my phone counts but I never use it for music when I’m home... I refurbish record changers and sell them on eBay.. and I can tell you there is a demand for fully automatic turntables... if you check the questions asked about any modern, nostalgia record player on amazon.. you will find at least one person every time asking if you can stack records on it,, especially for a unit called the 1975.. just seems like a missed opportunity, btw,, I love what ya do on RU-vid brother ,, best videos on the whole dam internet
Finally, a video about a decent all-in-one Crosley stereo system! I could say it's not bad for such a price, since it has better features than the suitcase compact stereo systems that are also made by Crosley as well as other vendors and personally, i think it's better than the Teac all-in-one that you had reviewed last year. Keep up the good work Kevin!
That is a 1982 demo record from the Network production music library: www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-Finally-A-Production-Music-Library-That-Sounds-Great/release/9850516 Network is now known as Killer Tracks.
Not bad, If I was the designer I'd replace those blue leds with soft white ones (or even more preferably good ol' bulbs), the blue kinda spoils the "1970's" look, and to complete the look, I would give it a cassette deck or 8 track player.
Aye. Hate that blue light anyway, it hurts my eyes. Especially those dark blue Christmas lights everyone has on their yards, my eyesight gets blurry when i look at them. + We have blue lights everywhere on our modern electronics these days with bluetooth.
I'm just laughing to myself. Listening to the Crosley playing that chacha album through my HK3380 and some decent JBLs, it sounds really good. Amazed it sells for less than $200.
Great video. Starting at 5:48-6:40, I was wondering what album that is. Pretty neat for a little bookshelf system from Crosley. Also glad that they decided to put a good turntable on to the system, one that won't destroy your records. Thank you for sharing this video with us, take care
That record is a demo for the Network production music library (now known as Killer Tracks): www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-Finally-A-Production-Music-Library-That-Sounds-Great/release/9850516
Very solid review video but I want to torture burn and put an IED inside this. Even Lloyd's or something out of the Allied signal catalog wasn't close to as poorly built in the 70s
shango066 Shango, I instantly thought of you when watching this video and how this "1975" crosley needs a proper eol send-off! It needs the "microwave transformer" treatment lol!
do more eol videos on this crap, people are actualy liking this crosley sh$t , i mean, look at the comments... if i find one used for very cheap i will for sure soak it in gasoline and turn it on with my lighter at hand, then upload that in my channel maybe people will watch it
@@boardernut In a different reply, I said the sound quality (or what I can make of it from this video) sounded about comparable to the crappiest all-in-ones of 1975. (Hard to tell, really.) But what I can see of it, agree with Shango. This looks really really flimsy, prone to failing in short order, a year if you're lucky. The 1975 all-in-ones at least could be relied on to keep working for many years.
I gave My daughter on her fifteenth birthday a Sansui 9090, Technics SLD2 turntable and a pair of Pioneer CS99 speakers, this was in 2005 before prices went crazy on vintage audio. She still has the stereo today and it is one of her prized possessions. She loves vintage gear, classic rock and fusion from the 70s.....raised her right!!!
Wonderful review, my mother has some old Tears for Fears and Eurythmics vinyls that she wants to play. Also agree about the usb, nowdays is a must. Finally i LOVE that Homework vinyl, the best to use to test.
I want to add a comment in defense of Crosley turntables: I got my first turntable in 2006 or 2007, and it was a Crosley 4-in-1 from Target. It came with phono, cassette, AM/FM, and a CD player. No Headphone jack, no aux in, no bluetooth, no USB capabilities, etc. Recently, I've decided to upgrade because I want bluetooth, headphones, and most importantly, I want to record my albums and cassettes to USB because I have some very rare recordings on those mediums. This is the first time in 12 years I've researched other all-in-one systems, and I am shocked to see that Crosley is known to so many as a "joke" when it comes to their turntables. My Crosley turntable plays my records at the right pitch, it has never eaten a tape, it has never skated, it has never "destroyed" a record, malfunctioned, or harmed my media. I've replaced the needle once. I've had my system for 12 years without any problems, except for recently the speakers crackle when I turn the volume up or down but stop when I land on the volume I want. IMHO that is pretty good for a $100 or so investment I made 12 years ago. I plan on getting a Crosley turntable again, and the 1975T is the most attractive to me. I do wish with this system it was easier to record vinyl to USB, and that it came with a built in cassette player with FF and RW capabilities. The Victrola 8-in-1 I recently tested out because it can do all the things I'm looking for. But unfortunately it played my records way too slow, and there is no way to adjust pitch with that system, so I returned it. I will see what else is out there.
I sold a lot of systems like this in the 70's working for both Zayre and Service Merchandise. This looks like a nice update of the type of systems sold back then. The tuentable is definitely an upgrade from the old BSR changers back then. The update with both CD and Bluetooth brings it into the 21st century. They did however do the same thing that systems in the 70's did and provided cheap speakers. I bet the amp uses the TI chipset and bigger speakers would provide much better sound.
