Pros & Cons
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- Affordable.
- Streams wirelessly via Bluetooth.
- Variable speeds.
- Pitch knob.
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- Flimsy plastic build.
- Cartridge doesn't convey as much bass warmth as it could.
- No USB output.
We rarely review turntables, but the onn. Wireless Bluetooth Turntable is likely to be staring you in the face if you shop at Walmart this holiday season—onn. is a Walmart-exclusive brand—so we thought we'd kick the tires on what can only be described as a very budget-friendly model. For $79.88, the turntable can easily switch between three speeds, but the main selling point is that it can stream a signal directly to Bluetooth headphones or speakers. This isn't unique at this point in the vinyl gear world, but it's more common above the $100 mark. The onn. turntable works well enough for the price, though if you're willing to spend more, your options improve notably.
Design and Pairing
Measuring roughly 5 by 17 by 14 inches (HWD) and weighing 6 pounds, the onn. is a belt-drive turntable that ships with the platter and belt already assembled. What's not assembled is the counterweight, which must be placed on the back end of the tonearm and adjusted according to instructions in the manual. The turntable sits on four rubber feet with a little bit of suspension in each for shock absorption. The rounded square dust cover lifts up easily and stays open when pushed back as far as it can go.
Along the rear panel, there's an RCA left/right output, and an RCA-to-3.5mm cable is included. You can flip a switch on the back between phono output and line output—when connected directly to speakers, use line, and when connecting to the phono input of a receiver, use phono. There's also a Bluetooth switch that needs to be turned on before attempting to pair (the pairing process also requires the pair button located next to the power/speed switch). There's also a status LED for power and pairing.
At first, we thought the power/speed switch was missing, but it must have come loose during shipping. Like most of the elements of the turntable, it's plastic, and popped back on rather easily. That said, we're used to seeing metals on parts like the platter and the tonearm. Everything works well here, but you're left with the feeling that this is a facsimile of a turntable, almost as if it was 3D printed.
With the power/speed button back on, you can switch speeds between 33, 45, and 78rpm. There's also a pitch adjustment knob above it so you can fine-tune the playback pitch.
Pairing is a relatively straightforward process. After you put your speakers or headphones in pairing mode, switch the turntable's Bluetooth button to on, press pair, and wait for the red/blue flashing status LED to turn a solid blue. While it doesn't take long to pair, doing this without the aid of a screen on either device can sometimes be tricky. When in doubt, reboot both devices and start from the beginning—sometimes pairing devices in a screen-free manner requires a few tries.
What's missing aside from a screen? An actual RCA cable that terminates in RCA on both ends would be nice, but that's a minor gripe at this price. More significantly, the most glaring omission is the lack of a USB output. Bluetooth turntables seem to go hand in hand with USB turntables, and it's pretty common to find both features together, rather than just Bluetooth or USB. A USB output would allow for direct connection to a computer or speakers that have USB audio inputs.
Performance
Getting the tonearm balanced with the counterweight can be tricky. We ended up adjusting and readjusting multiple times before we could find a setting that didn't skip across the record at times. Like most turntables, it's also quite sensitive, so you need to make sure its placement doesn't compromise its playback. This doesn't just mean the obvious—a flat, leveled surface—but also a surface that isn't vibrating. For instance, if you send the Bluetooth output stream to a powerful speaker capable of strong bass vibrations, and that speaker sits on (or near) the same surface as the turntable, there's a good chance that the very music picked up by the stylus and sent to the speaker will cause the table to vibrate, and in these scenarios the tonearm can skip.
We first paired the turntable with a Braven BRV-X2, a portable Bluetooth speaker. Sonically, the audio sometimes sounded a little distorted, and it was hard to tell if this was an issue with the counterbalance of the tonearm, or the quality of the Bluetooth stream, or the speaker itself. We then tried switching to a pair of Bluetooth headphones, the House of Marley Exodus ANC, which made for nicely balanced audio with some natural-sounding bass depth.
We played a variety of LPs. One that sounded clearer than most was The Necks' "Vertigo," an avant-jazz album with plenty of dynamic range between quiet spots and bursts of loud, intense moments. However, across the board, the overall sound signature of the cartridge is a little crisper, brighter, and less warm than we hope for. Highly compressed, heavy rock albums tend to sound a little less clear than albums with more dynamics to them, though a high-quality pressing of Nirvana's "In Utero" sounded rather clean. The musical experience, in general, is acceptable, but it's clear that the turntable isn't a piece of hi-fi audio gear.
Conclusions
The onn. Wireless Bluetooth Turntable is an affordable, no-frills way to listen to your vinyl records. All the parts work, and the counterweight adjustments allow you to fine-tune things for the best sound and performance the cartridge can provide. But if listening to vinyl is something you're serious about, we recommend spending more and getting better returns. For instance, the Audio-Technica AT-LP60-BT retails for $179, though you can find it for closer to $129, and it offers a higher-quality experience all around, from build quality to audio performance. If you're simply curious to give an inexpensive turntable a try, however, the onn. works just fine.