Numark PT-01 battery-powered portable record player review & test 

VWestlife's turntable review is #1 in trending, what a time to be alive

The speaker quality difference was quite stunning.

No copyright strike or claim on the Exciting Music of the Bermuda Islands! Nice!

Sounds so much nicer than the Crosley, you can hear just how much more range it picks up.

In 1966, these portable phonos were the trend. My dad bought my sister an I one each. Both were by Matsushita Electric, aka Panasonic. It was a very excellent brand back then. Hers was solely a turntable, mine a turntable with AM radio. Both worked on 6 D size batteries. I still have mine, and still works great. Sound is more than acceptable and hasn't destroyed any of the records played with regularity that I still have from back then. The cost then was about $25 for mine, $18 for my sister's. They were offered in two colors, cream or gray. I was and still am more a radio listener than my sister, that is why I was gifted the included radio. We both enjoyed spinning records, she more than I. In confession, however, I have two complete stereo systems in two parts of the house, and a huge vinyl collection spanning decades. I'm still an avid radio listener though. I just can't part with my vintage Panasonic portable.

Great to see Fran pop up at the beginning!

Well the panning "Whoosh" sound on that one record sounded amazing even through my laptop's crap speakers, so it does a good job... :)

its really cool that DJs have taken advantage of it, seems like a solid device especially when you hear the quality compared to a crosley

These tech reviews serve wonderfully as justification for my ongoing electronics hoarding. I thank you for that.

I lost it at 14:10 _"Dick is still trying to learn how to call the hogs!"_ Hilarious!

watching a record player upside down is definitely odd.

I've had a PT-01 USB for 9 years now. Warts and all, other than those Teac all-in-ones, it's the only current turntable I'd ever knowingly buy & use that has a ceramic piezo cartridge. I like it that much.

You absolutely Techmoaned me there for a sec. - Nice review!

I bought one of these to archive a collection of 1000 78 RPM records. It has worked very well for that purpose. Compared to my AT-PL120 with Shure M44G and 3mil stylus, the PT01 with 3mil stylus has a little bit less bass... but that's the only noticeable difference when listening to rips of the same record recorded on both turntables. All in all, the PT01 is a decent little machine. Even though it uses a lot of common off-the-shelf parts, it's clear that Numark put a lot of thought into it, and the overall build quality is significantly higher than the other belt-drive/ceramic-cart TTs on the market. And I love the fact that it can run on batteries. My only wish is that they'll come out with a Mk2 version that has a moving magnet cartridge. I do find that the ceramic cart skips occasionally, even at 4.7 grams, on records that my AT3600L tracks perfectly at 3 grams. With all the PT01 tonearm/cartridge mods on the market, it seems like Numark is leaving money on the table by not offering an improved PT01 that has those features already installed.

Absolutely living for the last audio sample

That rage typeing puppet says it all LMAO

I cannot for the life of me find that Ken-Tones record but every time you test equipment with it I remember that it’s a fantastic record.

I absolutely love your collection of rare obscure one off records. Nice review as always!

This might not be as good as a full size turntable, but still dang impressive for what it is, and I think it would also make a good use case for someone living in a smaller apartment, or to have in their camper/RV to save space. I might have to track one down for my RV if I can find it cheap, and wire it into the speaker setup. 👍

Interestingly enough: Numark also sold their own "Crosley-like" suitcase player, the "PT-01 Touring", and it uses the same terrible generic drop-in turntable mechanism as the Crosleys. Definitely not worth getting. Not sure if they even offer it for sale anymore. The regular PT-01USB, which is pretty much identical to the one in this video, seems like a HUGE improvement.

Thank you for taking the time to find a much more affordable alternative to the gumph that everyone else reviews. I've bought a lot of cool items cause of this channel.

One of my uncles just bought one for me from Amazon due to this very video. It truly encouraged me to want one as one of my graduation gifts and my very first turntable. Now, I have something to play vinyl records on. Thank you so much for the recommendation.

I have this Numark turntable I've had it for quite some years I use mine for crate digging. The slight modification I made to mine was that I stuck some cork matting down to stop the stylus getting caught on the metal surface.

While the PT-01 is pretty good out of the box, I did some of those DJ mods you mentioned to upgrade the tone arm and add a moving magnet cartridge and preamp. You can get pretty hi-fi sound and greater frequency range for only another $100 or so. Here’s a video about the mods I did: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-psTIYu5rI3w.html

Thanks so much for another record player video, please never stop making them :)

I was just wondering when you’d upload a new video. Always enjoy your stuff!

I have this portable player. I upgraded the stylus to the best elliptical you can get for it. It does sound decent. Good for taking to record shops and test records.

Great video! Very interesting about the gain knob!

God, watching your videos is such a pleasure

I am an amateur turntabilist and have the PT-01 Scratch. I used your previous video on the Chuo Denshi cartridge and halh inch mount for it to mod my table with a new tonearm and remount the existing cartridge to it. Thank you for all the information you spread. So glad to see you mention the turntabilism! Also, many DJs would love to get their hands on some of your spoken word records. They'd be unique to scratch with!

awesome a new vwestlife video to watch!

Always thought of Numark as DJ equipment when you don't want to spend the money on a pair of 1210s and a Pioneer mixer. Interesting they've moved into casual audio. I am into underground disco, house and techno so I didn't know these were used for turntablism though! I could see this being useful for crate digging for sure.

can't think of a better turntable sounding that good nowadays !! that is quite great!!! thanks for the video

I could guess why scratch DJs like this turntable portability, like imagine doing a street performance and how easy and quick it would be to set this up

I have the pt-01 and i use it mainly to be portable, i even played records in my car, just put some padding under it so it doesn't shake too much. some other people i know use it for crate digging when looking through the dollar bin records.

It drives me crazy that all these companies are making original or re-pop portable, battery-powered turntables and cassette recorders/personal stereos, and yet JVC & Panasonic/National are just sitting on their hands when they could easily reintroduce the best of all worlds from the day: The "Triple-Take" portable stereo ("boombox") series, which had AM/FM-Stereo/Recording Cassette Deck AND a slide-out 2-speed turntable! =;D X) :O

Fabulous to see a mutual awareness of review quality from Techmoan and VWestlife, two of my favourite channels

Another great video Kevin. With the cover on, it looks like the turntable you take into space.

Thank you for this very thorough comparison and feature explanation. I am interested in this turntable for its USB connectivity, pitch control, portability, ease of use, and 78rpm capability. I'm now sold!

Can't believe I missed this vid! The Ion player was my second ever, given to me by my wife (then girlfriend) as a Christmas present to replace my all-in-one crappy wooden Crosley... still use it today to test recent purchases, and the sound/portability makes it easy to pop one on anywhere

I had a PT-01 but recently got rid of it due to the board frying out. Was a great unit though. I kept the cartridge (Chuo-Denshi CZ-680), which i modded the headshell to accommodate it

The PT01's battery life is impressive. I've been running it on batteries for a while, just out of curiosity to see how long they'd last, and so far I've racked up 12 hours of usage on a set of inexpensive Home Depot-branded batteries. 5 hours at 33 RPM, 1 hour at 45 RPM, and 6 hours at 78 RPM. The batteries are still going strong.

Great video, as always!

I've been listening to my records on one of these for 5 years now, so I'm happy to see it get the VWestlife seal of approval! EDIT: I didn't even know about the counterweight or the spring, so that's cool!

I caught what you did there with the record demo. Same album Techmoan has demonstrated. Awesome 👌 his way. You 2 are the undisputed Champs at showing this stuff.

Flippin' eck!

I modded mine with a preamp and a tonearm with an adjustable counterweight and a standard arm mount, and installed a 12v li-on battery. The result is a super fun little portable I use in at my office with headphones

Really nice video love Turntables videos thanks Kevin

The best way to call hogs is with a ham radio.

Wow, that is such a thrift shop score! I've known about the PT-01 for well over a decade and have kept my eye out for one, even checking eBay a few times. If I'm honest, I forgot all about it in recent years. However if one popped up at a thrift, I totally be taking it home. I've heard of DJs even taking them to record shops just to preview records before they buy them. However, I don't know how the shops would feel about that... :P

Your video gave me a better appreciation of how nice the Numark actually is and the features I didn't even know it has. I use my Numark PT01USB mainly for transferring records to my computer which I got about ten years ago. I have one of those Pyle all in one nostalgia stereos that looks like a gramophone complete with metal horn and the turntable on it died after three years of light use and I plugged the Numark into it and got quite a demonstration of how much better the Pyle would have sounded with a better turntable in it even with the speakers the nostalgia system came with. I've seen the modifications people made to their Numarks online. The one I found the most interesting was putting in a rechargeable battery set up in place of the D batteries. The record store I got the Numark from were using them for people to try out records before buying, that was enough to sell me on them.Your video gave me a better appreciation of how nice it actually is and the features I didn't even know it has.

Wait until this gets posted to r/vinyl and people start complaining.

Haha, the techmoan whiner puppet 😁

that's an amazing sound quality for a 78 record

👍👍 I recently bought a Numark PT-01 and am quite surprised at how good it was out of the box. The grease inside was too gummy but I replaced it and it works fine now.

Hello to Vwestlife gotta admit you NEVER disappoint this was a great vid and I don't know how you find theses things but wow impressed again ! I've been playing records since the 70's I know alot of thin gs about record players how to set up and soforth but between you and Record-o-logy you keep me showing things I did not know or forgot I look forward to watching your vids espcially when I work out and I need to see something fun I will put on your new and old vids cause the way you explain things never gets tiring even when you review other things not record related like computer info and I do not like computers much I use them but find them annoying and I hate them but that is something when you can grab my attention and you explain things so easily that it is actually entertaining that I learn new things with out getting board so I thank you again for this vid this was my third time I saw this vid and don't expect it to be last Ten-Q JRo

It's frquency range is far superior to the Crosley. I like Numark. I've got a Numark TT-1625.

I've got the scratch version. Pretty cool turntable.

I like the fake #1 in trending

I just obtained the ION version from 2008 and, long story short, two things to take away from my experience: 1. Just because it comes with a "wall wart", that does not necessarily mean it's a compatible "wall wart." 2. Even though it's not that old, grease can still get hard and cause problems. After cleaning/re-lubricating the platter bearing and using the correct "wall wart", it works good for what it is. Next, I think I'll change the cartridge to one that uses a flip LP/78 stylus.

Great Vid I`ve been waiting to pull the trigger On 1

I always look forward to the tunes featured in VWestlife’s videos, and this one is no exception. The Ken-Tones do Jimmy Webb proud!😉

I expected there to be a difference in quality between the Crosley and the PT-01, but I didn't expect a chasm.

Excellent this sounds wonderful! When you first said it had a ceramic cartridge I thought oh no! But actually ceramic cartridge if tuned properly it’s not a complete disaster. I have a kayak all in one system as my second hi-fi, and the turntable on Mac is great because I upgraded the cartridge thanks to you again! Mine is the LPL 1000 or something! I also took the speakers off it and run it through RCA outputs to a £400 speaker. Cheers Rob

I enjoy watching your videos because I owned two of these turntables and I gave one away to my sons girlfriend so she could get started playing vinyl records. I'm thinking about getting another one though lol! I just subscribed to your channel because I appreciate your advice and interesting videos / content ! Thanks again

The Numark PT01 Scratch rocks. It isn't a high end audiophile device but it works just fine and I've never had a problem with it. It plays 12 inches just fine and also will let you scratch on 7 inches. For the price, it's perfect.

Everything you said was right on! I got a brand new never opened one for....wait for it......$10

9:40 Rare sighting of your TRS-80 Model 4!

Yeah, 1 In Trending, Definitely Believed that for sure

Thanks for the review man! We've got one this Christmas and I've wondered if this was a good portable turntable since this is our first turntable to get and I want to get into getting vinyls of my favorite Metal bands

The felt pads are for street scratching records ..... these are very robust little record players.... built well for Dj work... plus a lot of people pimp these out with custom tone arms

If you want to play records upside down, you can also use a (vintage) Dual :).

Great review! I need a portable turntable for camping! The Columbia GP3 was too expensive and not a good sound. The Numark PT-01 would be the one to get! Thanks!

You read the date wrong, its July 2004

Got a lid for your PT-01.

Was gonna mention the mods you could do to this in the comments and you already beat me to it, as well as the straight arm. I had the scratch a year and some change ago and I don't remember there being a spring or counterweight in that plastic tonearm. Speaking of straight arms though, Vestax PDX turntables dynamically balanced straight arms kicked absolute ass. They somehow managed to figure out a system that counteracted the pressures of the movements of the needle in the groove, so you could track reliably with less weight, and those decks are famous for playing at crazy angles. I hope to own a pair of 2300 mk2 pros one day.

I got 2 pt-01's both pimped to the max..all said and done they ended up costing nearly as much as my technics 1200s. 😂😂 they're fun portable dj toys though so they're worth it.

I was just eyeing those Japanese turntables; I’ve been thinking on and off about getting a second turntable for listening to records elsewhere in my apartment, and if I’m doing that, I might as well go for a decent portable model. These seem like a much more justifiable investment, and they certainly do more for me aesthetically. Might have to look into these!

I have one of these, they are fantastic for a basic unit.

Here’s a dirt cheap mod that improves the PT01’s performance a little bit: measure 0.2 to 0.3 grams of Blue Tack and place it on the top of the tonearm above the cartridge, flattening it out so it covers as much surface area as possible. I noticed that the “needle talk” from the CZ-800 cartridge was extremely loud, and I wondered if that was vibrating the tonearm and causing additional distortion. After I applied the Blue Tack, the needle talk was much, much quieter than before. Recordings now sound cleaner and clearer. It’s not a dramatic difference but it’s noticeable. Tracking force increases from 4.7g to 5g, which is still in the safe range. It’s ugly, unfortunately; a slightly more discreet looking alternative would be to use a piece of black Sugru. Packing it in the empty space between the top of the cartridge and the bottom of the headshell might work, too.

Loving The Ken-Tones

Oh wow the line out comparison at 12:14 is night and day different, especially in the left channel and with how much the bass is accented... but I'm not sure which is "more accurate" or "better"...

While I'd never use or buy any of these cheap turntables, it's great to see that there are some models out there that aren't horribly awful and won't destroy records.

Even through youtube compression the difference in sound between the Crosley and Numark is very good, for that price it is impressive.

Looks cool. You should do a T'shirt with a picture of a Crossley and the words... "Can you call Hogs?"

I have a pair of modded PT01’s. They are awesome. It can get pricey if you start modding like crazy but there beginner tone arm is awesome. Only thing I don’t like is all there tone arms are straight arms. You’d have to upgrade to there most expensive arm and get an angled shell if you want it just specifically for listening with out damaging your records

12:03 Hey! That song's from Garrard's radiogram commercial where they test the same record 3000 times which I think was the first turntable with modern cartridge

Good sound

This turntable I seen many time as DJ turntable since it's cheap few DJ's tried to connect it to mixer and use it with some kind of DVS record. There is also another version with tempo/speed slider

I may consider one of these solely for putting a 78rpm stylus on it and converting the old shellac records.

Wow number 1 trending good job

Hilarious! Great video!

I bought my PT-01 about 12 years ago and have had a lot of fun with it. BTW who did the "Show Me a Sign" LP?

3:40, 13:20 - You failed to mention that Numark's newer "scratch" version has a built in pre-amp, which the original doesn't. 13:30 - If you're transient and have to move regularly or live in small apartments, a turntable in a box with 8mm jack speakers makes sense.

Thank you 😊

I just bought one on OfferUp for $30. It's missing all the cords (mine has the USB line) and, of course, that thing that holds the tone arm in place is broken. It looks like the cord on my printer will work to hook up to the computer. I'll have to check to see if I have the right type of AC adapter for it. Otherwise I will buy one, I guess. I bought specifically to take to thrift stores and play the records in there before I pay for them as well as digitizing my records. I'm so glad it plays 78s too!! I'm very impressed with the sound quality. Furthermore, I thought it was going to be the typical needle so I bought a pack of those - the higher quality diamond ones. I guess those won't work in there.

How does this handle Daft Punk's Homework? Any skips? Great review as always, btw

So Im guessing that the amp in this player is propperly matched in adition to having the legit chuodenchi cartredge correct? Would this player in theory still sound as good as it did in the video if it had the bootleg cartredge but everything elce intact? Your answer will help me better understand these seramic element based players. I just got my mpk270 last week and love it! Now I am tempted to pick this one up too if I come across it for cheap and I have some extra cash. thanks!

Some people always forget that record playing isn't always an at-home activity. Maybe you have friends who aren't into vynil and you want to show them some tunes, portable record players are part of the market and should be treated as such.