SHOCKING $25 Record Player from Five Below - Unboxing & Review! 

I appreciate how fair you are when you review a record player. When it's bad you let it be known. When it's cheap, but surprisingly good, you let that be known too. Thanks for being a positive voice out there in the world of modern record players.

Five Below caters to middle school kids. Many, like my daughter, are discovering their own musical tastes. This seems like a great way for kids to explore their parents or grandparents vinyl collections and their own yardsale finds. Thanks for the review!

I purchased this for my 8 year old cousin to get into vinyl, since I was about her age when my fascination began. I was pleasantly surprised with how solid it is, and it’s truly such a great introduction to newbies. I’m glad you approach these things with such care and understanding!

As Techmoan explained, the turntable mechanism itself can be imported from China for all of £10 including shipping. With that in mind, I am glad they kept the price of the final product down. Those Crosleys and Victrolas with the same mechanism are just not worth the prices asked!

I'm actually impressed with this record player...for $25, this might be the best of all the "Beginner" turntables...if I'm at a Five Below and this is in stock, I'll definitely get one...great review!!!

David Schlessinger the founder of 5 below is a genius.

This would be a great record player for the pre-teen who wants to play around with records. I would happily get this for my grandkids to help them into the collecting hobby, and I love that it runs at 33, 45 and 78 rpm. I started out with a Fisher Price player and would have loved to upgrade to this when I was starting out.

The other day, I was in Big Lots and they had Crosley Cruiser record players for $50, but I suspect this $25 record player may be just as good, if not better. The fact that this cheaper record player does not have all the "bells and whistles" may be a good thing because that's less to go wrong and many people don't care about those extra "bells and whistles" (all they want is something to play records). On the subject of needles and cartridges, I've learned that no matter if it's a brand new record player or an old one, always test the unit with some junk records. I've seen these modern record players visibly damage the record as it played and that was generally due to a QC issue (defective needle, too much pressure, etc.).

It is proof that you can make something cheap and well made with the same materials. The extra component is desire to do it right.

I got this player and officially got into vinyl. I currently have Bob Marley and Michael Jackson. Along with Saturday Night Fever from my dad. I gotta say, for $25 dollars. Sound very good. Despite the pitch changes in songs, not a very big problem since it doesn’t sound different. Definitely worth for its price.

The Bass Jaxx brand is owned by Zeeva International Ltd. out of Hong Kong. The vacuformed plastic packaging spacers, the lack of wall wart or audio output are obvious cost saving measures. Also, it isn't advertised as USB because the USB port is used purely as power supply and it has no actual USB functionality.

I think the lesson to take from this very well done review is that companies are charging far too much money for far too little. This is an index for an entire class of inexpensive turntables. Gosh, add the BSR clone cartridge, with a flip-over LP and 78 styli system,a tiny bit of counterweighting, some extra thick lithium grease on the cue mechanism and this would be perfectly OK for a casual listener. There's going to be a way to add an output jack, whether RIAA corrected line or straight off the speakers.

Great review, thanks. I find it interesting how many of us find the concepts of “head phones” a vital necessity. For most of its years, shellac / vinyl was designed to listen to aloud and more importantly shared with family / friends. But alas, I return to the modern world…yes, I’m old.

Perfect for auditioning vinyl at old record shops. To power it as a portable, just use a usb power bank.

I love how it's such a mature technology that you can design something right at the bleeding edge of functionality and the only thing you miss out on is fit, finish, and features; the performance is still adequate. I appreciated hearing Samba De Uma Nota Só in the demo. AUX outs would be simple enough to add if you've got a bit of electronics know-how. Thanks for a great review!

I thought everything at Five Below was $5.00 or below, hence the name. But it's been a while since I've been in one of their stores.

My unit wasn’t packed with the power supply. It also wasn’t packed with the USB cord! Other than that, it sounds better than the ‘more stylish’ Cruiser. And it’s ready for travel with a USB battery pack. 🙂 The impedance sounds matched too.

You randomly popped up in my feed with this video. New subscriber here. Thank you for bringing this device to my attention. I have some old records I haven't heard in ages. I'll be looking for this unit it's perfect for my listening habits.

Great review and the unit does sound really good over RU-vid. The price is very good especially given that it has some level of quality to it. Thanks for the video!

I would've loved one of these as a kid. I had a rinky dink one I used to listen to my Star Wars scores on as I fell asleep. Great job here. You're always pretty straightforward and unbiased. Thanks!

This would be great for a little kid. Another good video there Record-ology dude. I enjoyed this review very much. 😎👍

Love your technical descriptions and limitations of the product.

I exchanged mine, because I hadn't used it for about a month, and couldn't even get it to power on. Same goes for the new one- it was DOA right out of the box. I was willing to overlook the audio cutting out issues, because for the records it would play all the way through without problems, it sounded pretty good. Time to give up on these and just get my money back.

Great Review! My teen is just started to show interest in vinyl and ask me to get this but I wasn't sure if it was worth it. But after this video I will get him one. Great way to start!! Thanks :)

Just picked one of these up because I remembered the review and I was by a Five Below, gifting it to my little sister because she's getting into vinyl. Impressed with this unit, it's portable and it works well for the price!

I received this model today for my birthday and I love it. So far so good! Thanks for the review, it’s good to know it’s a solid piece. Great job.

This was very interesting. My roommate and I wanted a record player for all the terrible Christmas records we buy at thrift shops and yard sales. First I bought one at a thrift shop which was a fiasco, then my roommate bought one on Amazon that isn’t very good.

First video I have watched from this creator. I’m hooked, can’t believe I went this long without seeing it

Really great review ! You are comprehensive in your analysis. I used my $25 player to upload a couple 1940's *party records* 78's to my channel. I'm thinking of using it to upload some rare blues albums. too

As a person for years liking quality sound and quality electronics, I always looked at the low end stuff since it was what I could afford, or the used market. If I would have bought this for myself I would have either tapped off the volume control area for a line level out, or directly from the cartridge wires and ran it to a real 20 watt or higher stereo amplifier and a decent set of speakers. Changed the needle at least to a real quality brand or better type. However if I was giving it to a new user it might just get the needle upgrade for it, and a separate power adapter. I hate the idea of the speakers down firing but for a new user or a child it is a good idea so that they don't poke a hole in them or spill something on them. Now 40 years ago this size speaker was very poor sounding but I'd say since the designs for smaller speakers and computer speakers improved, size is not as much of a quality thing, and much larger ones in a case with the record player would have the needle skipping.

Ok. So I went ahead and bought one of these and its absolute JUNK! The amplifier cuts out constantly on moderate to loud songs at any volume. I tried 3 of these units with the same results. It also seems to have a gated output to where the amp cuts out when there's no sound going through it, i.e. between tracks, and it tends to clip off a quarter of a second of the beginning of the next track.

I saw this at Five Below today, and I thought there’s no way it could be any good, but I decided to check out the reviews and ended up here. Thanks for this video! I might go back and pick one up!

That is awesome information. What a great gift for a young person, to get them interested in records. Thanks.

Amazed. This actually would be a nice inexpensive gift for several people I know who own vinyls but have no player. Awesome ❤

Thank you so much. I've wanted to start getting into vinyl for a while and saw this in my near by store but was worried it would be garbage. Thank you this will probably be my first record player.

I always checked the speed with a record on the turntable. To me, it sounded a bit slow on the playback. I can imagine taking it picnic with rechargeable LiON battery. If you were a bit mechanically and electronically inclined, you could install a jack for headphones. For effect (and overkill) you could tap the preamp for an output to plug it in a boom box.

I believe the slots missing on the lid is used to play LPs with the lid closed. The tracking force may be closer to 5g. The force should be measured from the same height as the record. If If you place the scale between the platter and tone arm lock you will get a more accurate reading. Thanks for letting us know about this turntable. It is well worth $25. Better replacement needles are available. An audio out jack can be added. A DPDT switch can be used to isolate the speakers from the jack. Great video!

Great review, thanks! This is probably the best of the cheapest entry-level turntables I've seen reviewed, and as you mentioned, the sound is not that bad! The down-firing speakers help get a little more bass and a less harsh high frequencies. Probably a needle with metal cantilever would sound even a little better, but not bad at all for what it is! Thanks, Recordology!

The vinyl you played def gave me Action Bronson vibes. I’ve been eyeing this since I first saw it at Five Below. Thanks for the great review!

7:00 The last time I checked, the whole point of having a dustcover was to protect the turntable, platter, and stylus from DUST. ;)

23:50 Wow, a budget record player that actually works properly (What a concept) and works better than some other entry level or all-in-one record players. That would be great for a kid or novice starting out with an interest in vinyl records and it doesn't break the bank. :)

Did it turn out to be stereo, and can you close the cover with a 12” record on the turntable?

A top down lid that still lets dust in from every side. Ingenious.

Nice review, the earliest thing I remember taking apart as a kid was a portable record player. I remember it because I left it plugged in and got my first (of many) 120v shock. I must have been about 7-8 years old.

Thank you for a thorough review. It helped a lot.

"It doesn't advertise as a USB record player." That's because it's not. Only two wires from that USB port. It's only POWERED by USB. There's no capability for analog-to-digital conversion. That's why it's this cheap. It is literally the most basic record player you can buy. Just a cheap skywin mechanism, a inexpenive little chipamp, and a pair of tiny speakers in an all-plastic cabinet. No A-D conversion. No AUX-IN or LINE-OUT. No USB. No Bluetooth. None of that is necessarily bad. Something like this is perfect to experiment with.

Great review! Thanks!!

the spaces at the bottom of the dust cover are there to allow the cover to close when you play ax12 inch lp.

Great video!! Can the needle on inexpensive turntables, like this, be changed for better quality ones?

Older (1940's) Philco console radio/phonograph players had a crystal cartridge on their single speed (78rpm) turntables. Usually the cartridges in these vintage players are dead and folks will try to use a modern ceramic cartridge to replace them with. Problem is the old cartridges required something like 3 volts to work properly and the modern ones usually only have 1.5 volts making the volume very low unless you modify the tube amplifier to compensate for the lower voltage. A friend of mine (Buzz1151 on youtube) decided to try and rebuild an original cartridge using the ceramic from a piezo tweeter cut down to size and it actually worked and sounded pretty decent. At least that's what I remembered him using if I remember it right. Currently I have a Philco 48-1262 console with the 78rpm changer in line out in my shop for restoration. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the cartridge is still good as it seems to have seen very little if any use in it's day but if it doesn't I will try to rebuild the original cartridge like he did. Wish me luck, lol.

I just worked on a Califone record player that had been dropped and this popped up as recommended viewing so I had to watch. Regarding the record player there was no visible damage to the record player from outward appearance but the bushing for the spindle had been bent just enough that the turntable was scraping the speed change control. There's also lever to fine tune adjust the speed and I like the clever method they use, There's an aluminum disk on the motor shaft, the fine tune adjust arm is attached to two magnets that move over the aluminum disk, one above and one below the disk, and since a conductor moving through a magnetic field generates electricity and an electric current creates a magnetic field the motor will slow down as the magnets are moved over the disk. I've seen this method used to dampen a balance scale but this is the first time I've seen it used to control motor speed.

Hey, and I LOVED THE MUSIC you picked out!!!😃👍 Who was that???

I bought the last one today at local shop. It sold out in two days. Thanks for an interesting review.

Thanks to you, I am going to buy it! I was skeptical at first, but five below has sold me!! 😁

Very interesting and a fair review, thank you.

Right away I admired your taste in music, from your having a picture of Glenn Miller, America's greatest band leader, arranger, and composer on your wall. Excellent choice!

This is pretty cool. While I’m not big into Vinyl , I am into radios, and I like to see a cheap radio that is better than expected. In this case ,a cheap record player. Excellent review. 📻🙂

Record ology your utube videos are awesome my friend 😅😅😊

Try playing a 45rpm on it with an aggressive groove. It seems as if the amplifier circuit can't handle the energy created by loud passages and mutes as a result. Kind of like the clipping that occurs if overdriving while recording digitally. If you have only soft/easy listening records, it's great out of the box. However, to play all records, the output from the cartridge will need to be attenuated somehow.

newer here i have one of these and i have to questions if you can help, 1 would you recommend a slip mat for it, ive seen people online using them i dont know if this will benefit off of one... would you recommend one or just to use as is? 2 when i need a replacement needle is there a certain kind i should look out for it to fit or what type of needle sound quality even! i could use your advice since you have one! i appreciate any help still a newbie i enjoyed the video too very informative and i subbed to learn as well thank you!

Very thorough analysis! I'm wondering if the USB connection is solely for power purposes or if this can be converted to data (and maybe amplified). Have you tried connecting it to a computer to see if it's recognized at all?

I’ve got some old unmarked 78s that I inherited and they look a little rough so I never wanted to try them on my good equipment. I might try and pick one of these up just as a test machine.

Fantastic review. I was astonished at the sound coming through my headphones. I have two portable turntables with built-in speakers, and it sounded like this one had better audio! You know what you could do with this thing? Get a replacement stylus for 78 rpm. I just got one from Amazon. Imagine if this deck were used only for 78 records. That would be awesome.

Bought this for my nieces boyfriend. Upon the first use, the volume kept turning itself down and if you turned it up, it sounded like the speakers were under water. Second use, the knob for the volume no longer works. You have to find a sweet spot on the knob to try to attempt to adjust the volume. I know that you get what you pay for and it may just be defective but it’s going back asap. I already ordered a Victrola elsewhere. I wish that this worked for him though.

This little thing actually turns-in a half decent performance for what it is!! And at that price? Sounds like the cartridge output has been somewhat impedance matched, as there was some very clear bass coming out! It's amazing to me to see that this is what has come of the old 'classic' BSR design, which has been so used and abused by so many 'cashing-in' on the vinyl resurgence, and yet this one..... this one actually does a pretty good job, and actually manages to sound 'decent'! I would sat that this would be a definite contender for a Banpa cartridge upgrade..... ;-) It would benefit from that..... A year or so ago I bought a cheap Bush suitcase player just to mess with for £30... it's not impedance matched in it's amp, but with an external speaker, it sounds pretty decent - with the Banpa cartridge... ;-) I've been surprised how reliable that ultra-cheap mechanism actually is - and it's never 'destroyed' any of my records... some I've had for the past 50 years!!! Love the ethos of your shows Mr Ology: Give everything a fair chance, and certainly with this one that paid off! If this player ever becomes available here in the UK, I'll buy one like a shot!! :-)

3:53 Turntable of this caliper? lol 14:46 Don't forget stylus alignment! If it's not nicely squared into the groove, it will grind into one of the walls. 16:15 Tracking too light is even *worse* because it causes mistracking. The stylus will be so light that it'll start to bounce around in the grooves causing heavy damage!

Wish I would have seen this before xmas! My wife has a stack of old records from her childhood shes been wanting to listen to.

Very knowledgeable about turntables, I enjoyed watching this!

Hey I just recently grabbed one have you had any issues with the music dropping in sound randomly one second it's playing fine the next it's in a whisper for a minute or 2

Great info !

I haven't been in my local 5 below for a couple of years. Last time I was there everything was $5 or less. Did prices go up everywhere or is it regional or only on certain items?

And that’s exactly the same as a Crosley and Victrola, at least the price is what it’s worth unlike the Crosley and Victrola’s.

Did you try to connect the Micro USB power connected with a Micro USB to USB cable to your computer to see if it installs a driver and possibly accepts the audio input directly into the computer ?

Hi great video! Do you know exactly what stylus needles I would buy to replace the one on this turntable? Thank you :)

That turntable is surprisingly good for $25. I would have thought it would be junk. Pleasantly surprised. Buffalo Gal approved?

Sounded pretty good, gotta admit I was pleasantly surprised.

Lol.... honestly I’m shocked.... was excellent for what it is..... great review buddy

interesting, though honestly i'd be a lot more interested if it had an aux out instead of speakers, an aux out has got to be cheaper than two speakers doesn't it? i would guess it an aux out would cost about a dollar and the speakers probably cost 3 or 4

been looking at getting a player for the records i have from when i grew up an collected over the years. my ex ended up with the kenwood rack system i bought at the PX when we were in korea in the late 80s an i never bought another one. saw these when i was xmas shopping @ 5below. gonna get one after watching this. new to the channel btw.

You could cut the speaker wires and connect external bookshelf speakers. The small amplifier inside mostl likely will be able to put out good levels of sound. I have tested less than 1 Watt amps with bookshelf speakers and they sound quite good.

I just bought my 5 below record player only a few days ago. I am having trouble turning the mode on for the record player! It says to hold down for long press mode. However what is long press because I’ve been holding it down and NOT HEARING THE TWO BEEPS IN ORDER FOR IT TO PLAY! Please help 😩😩

I have a Victrola model VTA 600B 8 in 1 system. I was able to listen to about three albums then the turntable stopped working. Everything else still works. What could cause that and is it easy to fix? Thank you in advance.

Do you think you could replace the cartridge with some other cartridge? I heard about 5 Below having this and wanted to use it to sell vinyl records online and to check if the record works. I've seen some of them for about 8.99

I love that Elevator music, lol, gotta love that stuff! I actually like easy listening, think of the Ray Conniff Singers, lol!

I love that this machine doesn't have Bluetooth like a lot of entry level players do. I've got a cheapie turntable that I use for 78s, and it makes this annoying beep every time I turn it on to tell me Bluetooth is ready. I don't want that. I just want to play a record.

That's pretty amazing for $25; though it would have been interesting to hear it with a more bass-heavy demonstration record. It would be a simple matter to connect a line-output jack directly to the wires from the tonearm, possibly using one with a built-in bypass switch. I was particularly impressed with the frictionless optical end-of-record sensor, a feature many more upmarket vintage turntables lack.

What was the record you played a bit of for the sound test?

The tracking force isn't the issue with the stylus. It's the sapphire stylus. They wear down quickly (probably about 50-100 hours and then you have the issue of a worn stylus damaging records. But replace the stylus regularly and it's all good. Especially for $25

I've had mine for awhile now, yet everytime I play a record on it the audio cuts out. It actually fried once, which I resolved. IDK why it still cuts out though, nothing is wrong with the wiring. I've replaced the needle completely and still no progress toward the problem.

Just to let you know 1616 holdings is the company that supplies most of 5 below's stuff

I just got this for a Christmas gift. I’m new to the vinyl world so I needed something simple. How would I go about changing the “needle”? I don’t even know what I’d need to purchase

I got this for Christmas. Mostly works great except at times audio fades in and out. I've always had vinyl but starting to get back into it and had albums I bought years ago and haven't listened to until now.

Props for testing it with an Enoch Light LP on Project. Some wicked separation and richness on those records.

I think it would be easy to tap into the audio from the speakers and add either a 3.5mm stereo jack or RCA phono connectors.

I'm wondering if there is a 78rpm stylus made for that cartridge? For $25, I'd be fine using it as a dedicated turntable for common, less-than-great condition records. (I'd keep the stylus that came with it for late 78 era records, and children's 78s that were pressed on plastic or vinyl-lite. Also, would that motor be able to handle the extra weight of shellac records? I enjoyed and appreciated this video! (I gave the thumbs up and subscribed!)

Conceivably, you could re route the speaker cables to a pair of RCA sockets or a headphone jsocket. and diode/switch them to cut off the speaker output, drill the relevant holes, and you could make it more connectable for under $5

Quick question could you change the stylus replace

Given your favorable review, I went out and picked on of these up today. Opened it up and tested it out... and I have to say that I am extremely impressed with this thing, considering how cheap it is. I think you might have gotten unlucky with yours, because my tone-arm cue lever works great and is very gentle. I'm going to bring it over to my parent's tomorrow to play some of their old Christmas albums while we celebrate the holiday. I think this is just perfect for that sort of thing. Thanks for this review, you definitely got my sub!

got this for christmas. Replaced the stylus needle thing with one i got from ebay that i had because a messed up thrift store player i wanted to fix (that it didn't even fit on anyways) and i bought some cables on Amazon to mod the speaker wires inside to 3.5mm outputs so i can record records to my pc

I love when cheap things work well!👽