On Starting With the Right Turntable

Most people who get a first turntable wrong did not spend too little. They bought for specs they will not use, features that add steps, and a deck they had to learn before they could play a record. The right first turntable works, tracks well, and does not fight you.

The U-Turn Orbit Plus sits in that category. Belt-drive, made in Massachusetts, ships with a decent Ortofon cartridge you do not need to upgrade immediately. Setup takes about twenty minutes. You plug it in and it plays records the way records are supposed to sound.

If you already have a setup and are thinking about the next step, the answer changes. The chain matters more than any single component. More on that in a future issue.