ION Audio Air LP | Vinyl Record Player / Bluetooth Turntable with USB Output for Conversion and Three Playback Speeds – Black Finish

I bought this to transcribe the 78 RPM records my wife's parents (both deceased for thirty years now) recorded in the 1940's, her on piano, him on saxophone, and with a bass and singer. The records were cut by a custom record maker in Dallas, Texas, the Sellers Company. The printed labels had the titles done with a typewriter and also warned to not use a "needle pressure over 3 oz". As it turned out in our search, we only had one record (2 sides, though)! Besides this turntable, I also bought the separate stylus for 78 RPM records. For about $100, this record player is not bad at all. It was packaged well, and the clear plastic cover fits nicely. The unit has cushioned feet, a nice touch. Note. We did not try it with the RCA cables, nor did we try the Bluetooth connection feature. We connected to a computer with the provided USB cable.The record we found was in pretty bad condition. I washed it with dish soap and warm water and then played and converted it to a wav file using the supplied software. The key here, if you have old records like this one, is the cleanup and conversion software, and there, an open source program called Audacity came to the rescue. Current version 2.1.2 has tools for cleanup of noise, pops and clicks, and also for minor audio enhancement. It will save as a wav file, an MP3, or several other formats, depending on your desired final disposition. In our case, the initially bad, noisy, and scratchy record yielded a very good recording which we can pass on to the rest of the family for posterity.So in the final analysis...to date anyway...this machine works well. For us, it turned out a bit expensive for converting just one 78 RPM record, though. No fault of the turntable. Maybe I'll advertise in the neighborhood newsletter a conversion service for old records and go into "business" until I've recovered my out of pocket? If you have records you need to convert to a digital medium, this will do the trick.

I have a huge collection of old vinyl that I would like to transfer to mp3s. The really low priced turntables (under $100) just didn't look all that well made until I came across this one from ION. I already own the ION Tailgater speaker and absolutely love it, so I hoped that the turntable would be of a similar quality. It arrived a day or two ahead of schedule and was a breeze to set up. It worked perfectly right out of the box, and within minutes I was streaming vinyl to my Tailgater. It paired on the first try.The turntable has many features that I only found on the more expensive ones, such as the ability to stream directly to a Bluetooth speaker. It also has some "heft" to it. It has a decent tone arm & stylus with a lever to raise and lower the stylus onto the LP. It also has a full sized dust cover that you can close while your album is playing. The controls are sturdy and well laid out. Just one button on the back turns on the power (the usb & power connections are on the back) and on the front is a real wired headphone jack, a button for Bluetooth pairing and a volume control knob. The turntable also has an "auto on/off" feature that stops the platter and lifts the stylus at the end of your record.All in all, a decent turntable with features you normally find on turntables costing well over $100. I haven't plugged it in to my computer yet (waiting on a longer USB cable from Amazon), and it also comes with software for transferring and converting your songs to mp3.

Bought this bluetooth record player for my fiance for Christmas. We've been using it for 3 months and I feel like I can give it an accurate review.Now it may seem like my cons are big, but not really, I just wanted to make sure I explained the pet-peeves of mine I have.Pros:-Super sleek looking. Yes it is made of plastic but it looks really nice, very contemporary.-Sounds great with my bluetooth surround sound.-Easy to use. Power on, press bluetooth connect button.Cons:-It feels like it takes FOREVER for the bluetooth to connect. I tend to be impatient about this. Description/instructions state it could take up to 5 min to connect! It doesn't take my system that long, but it does feel like a long time.-Even with the top plastic cover down while playing the records, I can hear the music playing off of it which can be distracting when you have that pre-echo going. It not super loud but I seem to have good ears, my fiance never seems to notice it really, treble sounds and the percussions are the loudest.OVERALL: We love this record player and would recommend it! We were glad to be able to reuse the sound system we already had instead of having to wire something up or listen on little built-in speakers. This record player has opened up a new addiction to us and since buying it for Christmas we have amassed about 30 records! :)

I was afraid of buying a cheap turntable... so I bought an old expensive used one. It needed repairs. That was more expensive. I spent the money. I got it back from the repair shop and played a few records and then the motor on it died... bleh. Not spending more money on THAT!So I just threw down a hundred bucks on this Ion Audio Air LP and hooked it up and you know what? It sounds exactly as good as the old expensive one it replaced. Tracks well, sounds clear, and look at the feature list! I couldn't be happier. The appearance and fit/finish are very good too; it doesn't look or feel like money but it doesn't look like cheap trash either. The dust cover hinges up and stays up nicely and looks good. The tone arm moves easily and has a gentle drop if you use the lift/drop lever.I have not used the bluetooth function yet - that was just a "nice to have" bonus - but on USB and on RCA output and on the headphone out it's clear and rich sounding. I'm sure somebody bitten by the extreme audiophile bug could find fault in how it sounds but I'm playing this through Bose Companion III speakers and nothing about it doesn't make me happy.Good job Ion Audio.