Crosley CR249 BK Keepsake USB Turntable (Black)

• USB Enabled for Connection to Windows Equipped PC and Mac
• Software Suite for Ripping and Editing Audio Content
• 3 Speed Belt Driven Turntable Mechanism
• Automatic Return Tone Arm
• Dynamic Full Range Speakers

Cheap, poorly made, poorly constucted.:
Waiting almost a month for Christmas Day opening. I was exited I had a portable record player. I opened Record player to find a defective product. Platform for Turntable tilted, with or without transit screw tightend down, as if a spring had sprung. Records then played as if warped. Tone arm couldn't track. The contruction of this product reminds me of a "kiddie' record player from the 60's & 70's but really poorly constructed. I am returning, and because amazon is out of stock am being issued a refund to credit card. I won't be seeking a new one from a third party. I will purchase a "real" USB turntable.

Stylish but difficult to use:
If you're buying this just to have a nice-looking portable record player, then you'll probably be happy with this. It's stylish (I actually got the tan one, but there wasn't a way to review it on Amazon) and has built-in speakers so once you turn it on, you're good to go. It's not a Bose sound, but it's not terrible, either. By the way, if you plug the usb cord into the PC you can play the turntable through your PC's speakers (though I don't know why you'd want to). However, I figure most people are buying this with the grand idea of transferring all their LPs to MP3s. You're going to be disappointed. First of all, the documentation is terrible. By the time you get all the connections right (it'll take a while) and get ready to make your first MP3 transfer from one of your favorite albums, you're going to realize you might have been better off just simply buying the CD or downloading the song(s) you wanted. To transfer an entire album to MP3 will probably take a couple hours or so. Then you'll find when you listen to the transfer, there are a few skips, loops, etc. I'm not a purist, but that will end up being as irritating as the way 8-tracks (remember those?) used to shift in mid-song. You're better off just transferring one or two songs individually from your favorite albums, which may be what you plan to do anyway since it'll take years to transfer each individual album if you have a large collection. By the way, I also never figured out how to separate the songs so the album is just one really long song. I THOUGHT I figured it out, but it didn't work. Frankly, I was grateful (and relieved) I got the thing working in any fashion after hours of frustration. Would I buy it again? I don't know. I'm tempted to return it, to be honest. Still, I like the look of it, and if it'll let me record a song or two from my favorite albums, then maybe it'll be worth it. Here is how Crosley could improve it. Get someone who can read and write English to write the documentation. I'm not trying to be a smartypants. I'm being honest--the manual is a joke. Crosley should also think about using something other than the free Audacity program (or at least including the dll file you're going to need to make MP3s which I had to research and then download from the Internet). There are some good user-friendly software programs out there that will help you record from LP to MP3--give us a break, Crosley, and give us a better one because it reflects on your company. It makes you look cheap.

Good except for one small detail....:
Great turntable for what it is, a good ole mono turntable. The only thing that I didn't like, and find troubling is that while it has 3 speeds, it doesn't come with the .50 cent adapter to allow you to play a 45 speed record. No point in having the speed if you don't have the adapter for the record. But if all you have are LP's then you're in luck.

Good Buy:
The player functions quite well, the sound is good and the USB feature to copy vinyl to a computer is one of the main reasons this was purchased.

Crosley:
This record player is a great vintage experience in sound. THe speakers are great provide a good --- though not ultimate hi-fi surround --- sound (but I don't think that is what one would but this product for). I have not tested the usb "burn" function yet.