House of Marley Stir It Up Wireless Bluetooth Turntable - Sustainably Crafted Bamboo Record Player, Recycled Rewind Fabric, Superior Sound, Black

First off, this is easy to set up with fairly clear yet minimal instructions (just one sheet). Open the box-in-a-box-in-a-box, pull out the turntable, grab the platter, use one of the special holes in the platter to reach your finger through and separate the SMALL rubber belt stored AROUND the center of the underside of the platter. When you look underneath at first, you will initially notice what is on the INSIDE of the center, but you want the more diminutive elastic band on the outside of that center ring. Drop the platter on the base, pop that belt around the gold spindle, drop the mat on the turntable, and you are already 90% of the way there. The rest of the instructions for setting up the hardware are perfectly clear so I will move on to the Bluetooth setup.Bluetooth pairing is easier than I expected. Even when doing it the first time, I asked myself, "How is this going to work?" because I am used to having a readout that helps me verify the connection via a pairing code. The trick here is to make sure you only have ONE bluetooth receiver in pairing mode. Once you have the receiver / headphones set to pair, just turn on the turntable, press the BT button to turn it on, then press it once more to connect. That's it!Bluetooth audio, which is all I have used so far, sounds fantastic. I've paired with headphones and also with a nice, loud stereo receiver. Keep in mind your sound quality ceiling is determined by both the turntable AND by the receiving device.I love the aesthetic, the sound, the use of recycled materials, the ease of connection. We have a more complicated turntable / preamp / EQ / receiver setup in another room, and this is just TREMENDOUSLY more accessible. On our "higher end" turntable setup, I feel like I need to perform a ceremony every time I want to give something a listen; the House of Marley turntable will get so much more use, I will get to really enjoy our vinyl collection so much more, and I haven't even done the wired setup yet. Even when still digital-ish due to the BT connection, the sound quality blows away the streamers.So anyway, I obviously recommend this. And regarding the fabric dust cover, I dig it, and it's less visible plastic in the aesthetic. This is my third record player purchase in about 10 years and far, far and away the best of the three (and the middle price of the three).

I finally got tired of having a totally manual turntable & dove back into the turntable market. I'm no audiophile & I do have budgetary restraints, so to get what I wanted at a price I could afford took some diligent research. The Marley unit stood out above the rest of the < $300 units. I was even able to get 1 with a bamboo deck - not bamboo-looking, real bamboo. The styling is minimalist & clean, but appealing. Set up was almost plug & play. There's a 3.5mm jack on the front so can plug an aux unit straight in. Or you can connect via Bluetooth. I've had issues with Bluetooth, so I plug in. There's a pre-amp on the unit. You'll need it 'on' when connecting directly with the unit. But you need to turn it 'off' if going thru an amp. Here's 1 of my 2 issues with the Marley, the pre-amp switch is mounted on the back of, & under, the unit. The other issue, the table just stops at the end of an album. You have to go & lift the arm yourself. The lift mech is smooth & even. It seems to work backwards, tho. I lift when I think I should lower & vice-versa. Bottom line - Love the Marley turntable!

Gah. This is so frustrating. I ordered this because it got all 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon. It is really pretty and sounded pretty decent (I'm a newb). But, I was utterly dismayed to find that it just suddenly stops playing towards the end of certain records. In the middle of the song (this is after it's warmed up and been playing for a bit). I did some more digging and saw that other reviewers on other websites had the same problem. I called the company and the customer service was nice and helpful. I wanted to see if they had any recommendations. She suggested I exchange it, which I am willing to do. Amazon didn't give me that option, so I am returning it. I have already had an extremely disappointing and harrowing experience with the Audio Technica AT-LP60 Fully Automatic Stereo Turntable System, Silver (see link for my full review on that one at the bottom of this review), so I was SO READY for a record player that just works and actually sounds decent. Nope. Why am I having such bad luck with new record players?If this hadn't happened, I would have given this 4 stars. Not five because of the following reasons:*the arm doesn't automatically return back the times it does get through a full side of a record (you have to place it back in its holder from where it rests at the end of the record when done playing)*I had to switch it off and back on again to get it to play if it had been sitting for a while (it seems like if it's "on" already [set to 33 rpm instead of to 0], it should just start as soon as I pick up the needle arm. That's a lot more intuitive and a lot less annoying)*the player cover is black fabric and (IMHO) not pretty. I was hoping for a clear plastic cover like I had on the Audio-Technica. I was going to buy an after-market one until this record player started crapping out on me.*as others mentioned, the motor is indeed rather loud, but it didn't bother me too muchThings I liked about it:*sounded pretty good (but honestly, not as good as the AT-LP60)*the wood finish is really nice*great packaging*feels really sturdy*adjustable weight seemed to work well*anti-skate adjustment took some tinkering (for me) but also worked well*easy as pie to set up*love the solid rubber feet it sat onMy review of the AT-LP60 (I don't know how to hyperlink to reviews):https://www.amazon.com/review/R1CDVOKAOZZUP0/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv