Crosley should be arrested for selling junk

I was told that depending on the shape of the stylist, you are probably playing in a different part of the groove than a cheap record player. I don't know if that is true or not? 

You are absolutely right. AT-LP120 is rather a nice entry level turntable for a high school student. The cartridge that comes with (AT95E) is pretty good too.    

@ihcho The AT-LP120 is not a suitcase Crosley. 

@lewm I wasn't sure. You can be so serious sometimes.

Junk in one's eyes may appear to be gems in other's eyes.

My kids' friend (high school senior) owns Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB, and asked me for an advice to change the mat to make it sound better.  I just told him that his turntable is fine and I would not worry about it. That was a best advice  I could give him without hurting his feeling.  Interestingly, he likes Jazz!
I gave him a new LP from John Coltrane as a present, a junk (?) made from EU that I foolishly bought at $18 recently. He really liked the album. It sound great on his turntable, according to him. It was a gem to him.

Noromance, My response to your OP was equally tongue in cheek.  I can't resist a good one-liner.  Big Rodney Dangerfield fan.

I got a Mercury classical record on ebay the entire record had surface noise however it looked mint.You cant tell until you play a record.This is why so many young people are spooling it will NEVER be as good as a great turntable with a great arm.Im using TW Acustic AC3 with TW 10.5 arm and top of the line Transfiguration cartridge.LPs will always be king in my house.Good luck though.

Mapman, my feelings exactly!  They would not be in business if people didn't buy it.

Just to be clear Crosley merely makes junk turntables.  Other people buy and sell it.  

"Second, just like poisonous additives in food, the manufacturer should be held accountable for junk products designed to fool the ignorant and maximize profits. It’s easier to regulate than educate. As far as I’m aware, there’s no minimum industry standard for turntables."

I'll second that and since the current crosley line is made in china it should be ruled out entirely. 

First off, the original post was tongue in cheek. No one is being arrested.
Second, just like poisonous additives in food, the manufacturer should be held accountable for junk products designed to fool the ignorant and maximize profits. It’s easier to regulate than educate. As far as I’m aware, there’s no minimum industry standard for turntables.

rather than arresting the people at the Crosley turntable factory, wouldn’t it be more just to arrest persons who buy Crosley turntables and then buy great LPs and subsequently ruin them on their Crosley turntables?

I'm going to side with Cleeds here. I am listening to a brand new copy of The Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base and it is a pristine pressing. I have the entire Remastered for Vinyl Kate Bush set and it is Excellent as well as the Roxy Music set which is also fab.
If you like the vinyl glow there are lots of fine new discs to be had.

That sounds like my kind of place to buy vintage vinyl.

What Hi-Fi shop are you talking about?

I buy a lot of my used records from a local High End dealer who sells used records.They don't accept junk. Most prices run from $5-$15. You can demo the albums at the store. Yesterday I chose 4 used albums and they let me use the High end room to check out the music. A $50,000 Acoustic Signature Ascona, VAC preamp, Pass 250 Amp and a pair of Dynaudio C-2 speakers. Not bad for about $20 worth of vinyl.

Don't know where do you dig for the records, on fleamarkets? 
Every good seller (online) has grading systrem and customers feedbacks, no one is trying to sell VG- copy like M- Some sellers are extremely accurate with the grading, most of the top sellers use vacuum cleaning machines and every records is already cleaned. So your horror story is something special. 

Oh no, not at all. Good LP playback requires a proper turntable, and a proper pickup arm, and a proper phono cartridge, and a proper phono preamp. They must each be suited to the others, and they must all be properly setup.

And one more thing - a decent record cleaning machine. Almost no one back in the day of vinyl actually owned one, so most/many LPs are gunked up and will have lots of tics and pops but they cam clean up amazingly well and play with silent backgrounds if cleaned properly.

I find that classical are always pretty clean - perhaps payed fewer times?  But OTOH, I bought quite a few LPs from the library of a defunct classical station that must have played them many times, probably on indifferent equipment and they had pretty clean, quiet sides.

Rock records can be really bad - I've seen heavy metal stuff that looked like it had been used as the bottom of a hamster wheel, by a hamster in logging boots, and I have also seen LPs with unknown substances melted onto the surfaces....and one where the owner had scratched his initials into one side, no doubt while under the influence of something, presumably so no one would take his record!

Two things MattMiller said that really stands out and I agree with.

One, although there are nice modern sounding pressings, in some cases  I find early and original pressings to possess a depth or life to them that some reproductions are lacking. Sorry if that sounds a little to vague or metaphoric, I couldn't articulate at the moment.

Two, I know funds can be tight for some folks, ( they are for me at present) but in the past and in general it seems more people were willing to save and expected to pay more for quality. The patience was there. When I first got what I considered an upgrade turntable at about age 12 in 1982, it was a Technics with an Audio Technica cartridge that cost my parents around $250 to $300. Do the inflation math.

Happy holidays
Merry Christmas
JP:)

Mapman is off base.   The USA makes some tip top
TT's.  Sure you can buy $100.00 tables.  In the state's.   Like this guy has
With the dime taped on the tonearm. 
Rgt

If the records are years old how can it be known if it was this turntable that damaged them?

@cleeds

Oh no, not at all. Good LP playback requires a proper turntable, and a proper pickup arm, and a proper phono cartridge, and a proper phono preamp. They must each be suited to the others, and they must all be properly setup.

Are you talking about cheap portable Crosley turntables? If something wrong with the records it’s about the cartridge, not about the rest of the sh***t on those plastic tuirntables. If your records are destroyed then she played them on completely worn needle.

For me it’s still hard to imagine destroyed old records, just because someone played them on old and cheap turntables, good sellers have grading system for each record. And most of the old vinyl have been played for 40 years on average turntables with average cartridges and tonearms. Sellers and normal people are not audiophiles! Those vintage records are still amazing sounding today on our proper setup even if the condition is VG+ or higher. Poeple who cares too much about clicks on vinyl should really go digital.

I don’t mind to spend $100+ on rare original vinyl, but when reissue cost $50 new i will pass on it! Especially if the original first pressing of the same records available for $10

I find that good used records from decades ago (60’s 70’s 80’s 90’s) are much better sounding than almost all newly released records. And the fact that a lot of people are buying up these great sounding records and then taking them home and playing (wasting) them on a CROSLEY or some other POS system disappoints me. Young people today do not like spending very much money for music reproduction nor do they want to commit a whole room in their house/apartment, everything has to be small now... On the other hand why are there so many $35 new records? Are these same people buying a $35 record and playing it on a $50 turntable....or even a $300 turntable? So you see this loop? Buy a budget turntable buy these new records and know one ever knows how awful most new vinyl sounds because all of these systems will not show you and sound horrible. Buy a good sounding TT with a proper cartridge and tonearm $1000, budget integrated amp or receiver $1000, good sounding bookshelf speakers $500-$2000, add in cables and stands and were at around $3000 for a good budget system. (worthy of a vinyl record that is) a friend of my daughters wanted me to look at her Crosley saying "it wasnt playing to the end of the record". TIP...at least put the thing on a level surface.....just shoot me!

Boy do I miss my BSR Record Changer w/ceramic cart. Pop Pop  Clock Click. 

This Pyle would be a better choice than that Crosley. State of the art!
https://www.amazon.com/Turntable-Fashioned-Briefcase-Style-Pyle-PVTTBT9BK/dp/B01HXORB3E/ref=sr_1_5?i...

These were free (and I wasnt expecting much.) But I buy used that have been perfect, others less so. I have bought new that were noisy. I don't like spending $30 on a record.

rodman99999

Why would you buy records(assuming you paid for them) from someone that OWNS a Crosley(or any other junk) turntable? How much interest could one expect them to possess, with regards to cleaning/care of their vinyls?

Buying a used LP is almost always a dicey proposition. But using a decent LP cleaning machine, and then playing the record using a fine-line stylus, helps improve the odds that the playback will be satisfactory, or better.

Why would you buy records(assuming you paid for them) from someone that OWNS a Crosley(or any other junk) turntable? How much interest could one expect them to possess, with regards to cleaning/care of their vinyls?

chakster

It’s about cartridge, not a turntable ...

Oh no, not at all. Good LP playback requires a proper turntable, and a proper pickup arm, and a proper phono cartridge, and a proper phono preamp. They must each be suited to the others, and they must all be properly setup.

Vintage vinyl is a pure magic if the condition is fine, the advice to buy new vinyl is for those who prefer new music and new releases ...

Not necessarily. There are some exquisite new pressings that are well-done remasterings of classic LPs, such as some of what MoFi is doing these days.

It's about cartridge, not a turntable, but those portables always sucks. 

Vintage vinyl is a pure magic if the condition is fine, the advice to buy new vinyl is for those who prefer new music and new releases. 

@rbtstock  Sigh. I know. I buy some new. Not many. Many new are remastered and compressed. I'd prefer to suck up a little noise and have a wonderfully open, huge sound-staged, natural sounding, minute detailed recording than what happens once the digital remastering makes that magic disappear.

mapman

In the golden age of vinyl 99% of record players out there were similar junk.

That % is probably actually lower these days. More like 98%.

I'm not sure I agree with these percentages, but I agree with the general observation: most turntables are junk. It's always been true.

Of the better turntables, many are not properly setup.

Buy new then you wont have that issue!

In the golden age of vinyl 99% of record players out there were similar junk.

That % is probably actually lower these days. More like 98%.

Its the American way.  

Good times! 😉