MPK TT270 - Finally a portable record player that doesn't suck!
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- Опубликовано: 10 июл 2024
- A portable suitcase-style record player that actually sounds good and is built well, with a high-quality, light-tracking tonearm and cartridge. I just wish it had a handle!
Time flow:
0:00 Design & features
4:30 What's in the box
7:01 Playback tests
10:53 Direct hookup samples
13:03 No skipping
14:14 Lid clearance
14:48 Styrene 45s
15:26 Auto-stop
15:59 Technical details
19:02 External battery
20:29 Conclusion
#mpk #turntable #vinyl 
Наука
Agreed this is probably the best suitcase player we reviewed as well.
I bought this used. I'm curious how much it retails for. I can't find it and Amazon doesn't have it. Thanks
After watching video we ordered One can can't wait to it to be delivered 🙌 😀 🤗 😍 😄
Just seen it on eBay,here in the U.K. for £132.00 odd-with 2 day postage !!
@@EthicRadioArchiveReels How do you like it? Looks like you have had it for about 9 months now?
Does it have a headphone output?
ELTON JOHN: "I don't wanna go on..."
MPK TT270: "OK."
After these become popular, hipsters will get all nostalgic and start paying exorbitant prices for Crosley Cruisers because they have that vintage 2014 sound.
God!
I'm waiting for hipsters to get into wax cylinders.
@@alanorange9376 I'd love that!
heheheh, good one. I'll admit I do have a c200a and it's not bad for the money.
Yup, that will happen.
Its so nice to see something without that horrible plastic tonearm with the weird fingerlift on the headshell. Glad someone went to the effort to make something better, which it absolutely looks like it is. Would be nice to see a version with a full size platter...But you can't have everything.
That would be great to see implemented, but any improvement to portable record players is welcome.
You could add an acrylic mat, that could solve that problem 🤔
For a decent kiddie turntable, this looks excellent, but it’s really not for the audiophile who wants something reasonable. For me, it simply has to be fully automatic quartz-locked direct drive. Peace.
Hey vwestlife! Things have been meh recently and seeing a new video from you made me feel a little better, thanks for making great vids as always.
Thank you for your help in buying a 1st record player for my granddaughter.
I first spotted this on Record-ology's channel a short time ago. This really is an excellent little portable player at only a slight price premium.
I really enjoy your videos and your attention to be fair and objective about the machines you review. Your attention to detail is awesome!
After seeing this video, I sought one out online and immediately lucked into one on eBay for $75. Everything you said here in regards to the sound quality and functionality was on point. Oddly enough, though, mine didn't come with the record cleaning brush but it *did* come with a 45 RPM adapter. Needless to say, it sounded leaps and bounds better than my previous turntable, especially in conjunction with my speakers and subwoofer hooked up to the RCA ports in the back.
You helped me pick out a much needed upgrade and for that I'm grateful. Fantastic work as always! 👍
You had me the second the lid came off and there was actual metal and an AT3600. 👍🏻
Won’t lie, from the outside, this looks like it should have the standard Chinese plastic fantastic record deck and red flag ceramic cartridge, but I’m pleasantly surprised. 😎
it actually reminds me of those old literally school classroom record players
Sometimes there's a chinese factory out there where they really care about providing good value rather than just being cheap. This is one of those happy cases. :)
@@ryjelsum oh yeah for sure!
I was just talking about that with one of my friends the other day. Now a days there are a lot of pretty neat items which came from china that I have been pretty impressed with. This player is one of them, several inexpensive tools that I have recently ordered for working on electronics, as well as microphones and bookshelf speakers
Thank You so much for the accurated review, and as always the stuff you present to us is very entertaining and informative.
Hi VWestlife I just wanted to say thank you for your excellent review. I already have a decent Project turntable with Ortofin Red cartridge and hi-Fi set up, but have been looking for ages for something to play some of my older vinyl and charity shop finds on and this looked perfect. I just received a red and cream one of these beauties using an Amazon birthday voucher from my colleagues at work and I have spent a happy evening reliving my youth and playing my old singles and some of the LPs from my teenage years again and there is just something about playing a record on aa good old fashioned type record player all in one unit that just takes me back to my youth. To my ears the sound out of the speakers at the front while obviously not being great stereo, still sounds really full and musical. As you say you can crank up the volume and the thing doesn’t skip or jump and the cartridge and needle are perfectly good. It reminds me a little of a Dansette I had as a young lad back in the 60s and is a solid bit of kit. Thanks again for your excellent, as ever review. You and Techmoan are my two go two guys for honest, thoughtful and highly entertaining tech reviews.
You have a great channel, I like how you get right to the details! I just subscribed! Thank you for the video!
Just ordered one for my sister. She really wanted a mint-green (or similar) colored suitcase-style, but she didn't get one after I gave my honest opinion on the build quality of those. Very happy that there's something decent in this style available now, she's really happy about it :)
UPDATE: It arrived, but it should be noted ours did not come with the record brush, which is a bit disappointing, but at least a 45RPM adapter was included.
Seems that the mechanism is absolutely fine for this level! I would find the little omissions (handle, headphone jack, battery) crucial design flaws though, this is not something you would want to take to a record fair, summer cottage etc. Would also like to see a modern portable with bigger separate speakers on the lid like a 60's-70's standard portable. The European Philips portables from that era were actually pretty much the same than their lesser home hifi line.
Or even better , the sharp 80s boomboxes with the vertically loaded tt.
Love your channel - Thanks for what you do.... It's smashing
Finally, been waiting for this one ever since you mentioned working on a new video, on AK. Thumbs up as usual! 👍
The stereo seperation on that cartridge from the direct feed into my headphones is very nice.
Nice video Kevin love your videos hope you had a nice day!
Good job as always man keep up the good work.
Wow they are heading in the right direction with this. Love the metal knobs. Little things like that are great wish the platter was metal though
Great review! Really like that record, too!
This will make an excellent gift for my father thank you! Also I kinda want one and mod it for a headphone out because with the miniups it’ll be a killer record digging tool!
Excellent presentation and review.
I would like you to revisit this unit and connect some high quality external speakers and let us know how that sounds. Thanks for the great review!
I always enjoy your videos. This looks to be the best compromise of any portable to date. It does mystify me how these manufacturers have certain feature sets they integrate, but decades later they ignore all feedback and continue to do odd things like no handle, external power supply with no internal storage for the supply, and all the other things you brought up.
But on the positive side the sound seems fair through the built in speakers and really good on line output for external powered speakers, at least as far as I can tell via RUclips with good headphones.
How I would change it -
Beyond all the things you brought up, I would add a storage compartment for the wall wart, and a built in rechargeable battery like the external one shown. Make the speakers face out on the sides in detachable boxes using similar components to the small 6” + dome tweeter, 2 way ported boxes that come with many Chinese table top stereos and sound very decent. Bring back the 78 speed option. Give it a mono switch and a wired Aux in as well as retaining Bluetooth in (and maybe Bluetooth out as well).
This last is controversial, but I would prefer a properly terminated banpa cartridge with a flip stylus if the 78 speed and mono switch were added. Of course one could just buy the 78 stylus for the AT magnetic cartridge, but it’s a bit more awkward to switch the stylus in that cartridge.
There. MY perfect portable player.
I've been looking for a portable player so that I can take a few records with me in my motorhome, ideally 12v so I can run it off the leisure battery, this is perfect for me. Thanks very much for the review, I ordered one from Amazon in the UK for £67.90 after watching the video.
Thanks so much for this in depth review. I was looking for info on the tonearm (whether it would ruin records) so I was really happy that you covered that so well. Because of it I have bought one (under the Audizio brand) and I think it's very good for a modern day portable. I'm sure I'll get a lot of enjoyment from it. Futher note - interesting that on yours the tracking force was 3.1g. On my one it was 4.1!
It's great to see something that is a step up from the norm. A nice quality all considered.
Thanks for this review mate, this turntable is perfect for me, €80 here in Ireland is a great price. I've been wanting to get a record player but didn't want to buy a Crosley Suitcase, so i was thinking that my only option was to buy the ATLP 60x/120x and some powered speakers, but both setups would cost €200+ and €300+ respectively. I can buy the MPK and use that while i save and upgrade to a higher quality system in a year or two. Thanks again and keep op the good work.
YES i AM SO HAPPY YOU REVIEWED THIS Thanks :)
Nice thorough review Kevin.
That sounds pretty good, I’ve been waiting for a MM portable to come along... ordered one, arrives tomorrow :-)
This is quite the redemption arc for MPK, possibly the best on VWestlife!
definitely grabbing this!
thanks!
You and techmoan love making record player reviews...I'm not complaining tho.
Vwestlife. You care fantastic. A fantastic honest review of a turntable that is respectable for the price. I have just learnt from your video of the mini powered ups (it would be handy for my home automation projects!)
Wow for a portable record player this thing is nice! I think I’d wait until a never version where they add those few things you mentioned like a handle and headphone jack.
Another awesome video ^^
Monday with a cherry on top, thanks to your video @vwestlife :)
Props for Jon Astley. I think you’re the only other person who owns a copy of that record besides myself, which I got when it was released so long ago. Listened at work 2 weeks ago, I think it holds up well over time. Great video of a nifty little player. 👍🏻
I own a copy as well 🙂
Holy moley the line-out test is enlightening. That first Jon Astley song sounded amazing even through RUclips compression. That kind of stereo separation and sound staging is just something you don't hear from portable players. That AT-MM stylus really does steal the show. Good to know the tone-arm and other hardware can actually communicate that quality all the way through. I hate when companies use high quality parts but by the time it gets to the output it's lost half it's fidelity to the hardware in between. The hardware connecting the sensors/input/pickups/stylus/etc. to the rest of the system is just as important as the thing itself.
(Fun side-note: one of my guitars came with some really nice EMG 707 active pickups which was the main reason I bought it and I was disappointed by the quality. I got on one of my ADHD hyperfixation kicks and rewired the whole thing with a new switch, new pots, a new jack, and some high quality gold wire and it literally brought back all the brightness, sustain, and tonal clarity that I was missing. The pickups were good, but the cheap switch, volume pot, wire, jack, and solder was choking the life out of the sound.)
I'm sure the handle was left of purposely because they probably don't want you carrying it like that.
Nice review!
Hiya! I'm Ruprot from reddit, I was asking for help on a player. My phone sometimes glances over parts of comments and didnt see you recommended this particular unit. Looking back at the comments I saw you recommended this and decided to search up some reviews and voila you are here. I have to thank you for making this video as it comforts me knowing I'm buying something that relieves me enough to give as a gift. Aside from the 45 rpm adapter is there anything else I should know going into record collecting?
the sound is perfectly fine
I very much like your tip for evaluating anti-skating. Thanks. I believe that anti-skating is important for stereo records but not for monaural records. Sometimes eliminating the anti-skating is enough to stop an old record repeating the same thread over and over.
Hey man, watched the video twice and I don't think you mentioned it, or my mind just wanders too much... Does this have a switch for phono out or is it just line out? Cheers.
No, it's line output only.
@@vwestlife thank you very much
@@vwestlife I'm wondering if with an adapter from RCA to mini jack if I could connect this to my headphones.
@@AdrianChristian You'd need a headphone amp of some kind. The RCA's are line level.
@@denizenofclownworld4853 thanks very much
I have really enjoyed mine. It is far superior to the crosley and my small house is filled with the sounds of my favorite musicians on vinyl and the sound is warm, bright, and rich. This is a good way to get into vinyl before investing in a full stereo system. Thank you for making me aware of this little player.
Looks alright 68 pound on UK Amazon for the UK viewers. I'll stick to my trusty JVC , but this is fair price for a newbie , good video buddy as always 👌👍
That Jon Astley track was used in a Heinz ketchup commercial starring Matt LeBlanc back in the late 80s. I've had that synth bass line stuck in my head since they used to air that commercial. Recognized it immediately. I wouldn't have guessed they used a copyrighted track for the ad.
Thanks for posting
When moving it you can put cardboard shims under the platter to prevent the arm and platter from knocking about.
That sounds 100 times better than I thought it would.
I purchased a Ricatech EP1970 player for $60 at Frys in Las Vegas. It had an audio technica cartridge, pitch, Bluetooth, dampened cue devices, and I could rip to either a flash drive or SMDI , and of course audio output.This was from the Elvis estate, and it was really rare to see a suitcase unit, with a magnetic cartridge. Ricatech hasn't made a magnetic turntable since
I'm definitely gonna get it but somewhere around maybe may or June when an updated version comes out
Now if they stuck the two mid-tweeters on the sides to improve stereo separation and put an oval 3x4 or 6x9 speaker with a crossover filter in the front for bass, this thing would be excellent! As it is it's pretty good though.
A 6x4 speaker would be the biggest possible fit
Stereo separation from the main drivers will be completely lacking anyway, since they won't have separate sealed enclosures. The drive units are acting as both drive unit, and passive radiator. They will be producing summed mono at low and low mid frequencies. And then there's phase cancellation...
Excellent suggestion. Or side firing 4x10 drivers for low frequencies and stereo pair of high frequency drivers facing forward.
@@vaughntonkin539 someone could totaly do a mod on this and make a vidio about it!
it could definitely be done
Looks like a pretty nice machine
I don't know what Jarrett New would think of this. Ahh, I love the smell of Crosley Cruiser prejudice in the morning... 🙃
Hey man i love your videos they are always honest and well informed. I have a jensen jta-230 turntable. I get noise coming from the ceramic cartridge that it comes in. What would be a great upgrade for it? Or is it fucked?
Vwestlife, quickly off the top of your head, what are your top 3 records that you like from beginning to end? Keep up the awesome content!
The bass from the direct-out sounded a little thin to me but the rest was great, very nice dynamic range
The form factor reminds me a bit of those suitcase style tape recorders from the 60s.
that is like the style of a Voice of Music record changer that they used in schools but looks very nice. and yes finally they got something that has a headshell mount stylus vs the cheaper option. what it is missing is the tone controls like a emerson wildcat would have . my moms had i beleve bass and treble on it.
Just got one of these as a gift for my girlfriend, bought in the UK, it came with a 45 adapter but no cleaning brush. No cardboard sleeve for the manual, which was still printed on glossy paper. Pretty much the only differences.
strange as i think the large hole 45s were less common here in the uk and more common in the usa .?! maybe this one got missed when it was packed! they couldve integrated the 'adaptor' into the turntable, i have an old panasonic one(with combined radio) that does, 3 little triangles pop up from the platter and are very lightly sprung so easily pushed down when playing a small hole record
I am impressed, someone out there knows what their doing! Although the actual turntable mechanism looks like a modified "crosley" type. They could have gone the extra mile and used a bigger, metal turntable platter though, like the old turntable platters were.
It does look like they could add at least another inch of diameter to the platter while still being able to fit inside the case with the lid closed.
still a great and excellent balance of quality overall.
Remember metal is heavy and things like that would only hike up the price.
The table is plastic but imo it doesnt deteriorate the sound at all especially when you use the pad that comes with it.
You could probably mod this thing though if you really wanted to.
Personally Im ok with mine how it came from the factory but:
you could go to the home depot and get some handles and drill some holes into the sides and put them in yourself
you could also probably get a compatible metal platter somewhere to swap into the deck as well.
I just hope they put out more variations of this player.
like one with squared off corners with metal bumpers would be nice, and a handle on the side to carry the player, one with a removable lid, and one with a headphone jack and tone controle as well as one with a mono 6" by 9" speaker for a reduced cost
Got one for my birthday the other day. Love it except sometimes the little bar that lowers the tonearm doesn't always go low enough and causes distortion. Please can you suggest a fix. Thanks.
why was the video down? i clicked on the video when i got the notification but it said the video was priavted
Hi VWestlife, I'm looking for a new turntable. My current one has no springs, no visible cartridge and sounds like crap. Is this the best turntable for the price or is there something non-portable that's better?
Thanks!
I have a Ricatech EP1970 (Elvis Vegas record player) I bought at Fry's in Vegas for a shocking $70.00. It was areal bargain. Has magnetic cart, real time mp3 recording with SMDS or USB drive downloading, pitch control, dampened cueing, but the only drawback was spring tracking, no anti skating. But I am happy and recommend it if you can find it. I'd love to see someone make a suitcase changer, with all the goodies above, with counterweight, and fold out speakers. Yeah a real pipedream. Imagine a Dual 1019 in a portable changer
Best of its kind ive seen so far, of course not available now imagine that.
I just got mine yesterday
any idea what the screw to the upper right of the platter, upper left of the tonearm is for then if it doesnt put tension on the mechanism for transport?
Also I got the white one.
It didnt come with the cleaning things it came with the puck for the american standard 45s though
I absolutely love this little record player.
Its exactly what I wanted its like a modern version of a califone or something.
It would actually look good in a classroom or dance studio and it would still be very useful beyond just playing records. It gets pretty loud too!
Still wish it had a handle like the califones and audiotronics did as well as corner braces instead of being rounded off but it is still a cool player and sounds awesome and looks aesthetic.
thanks man!
Wow, I actually would buy this if I was in the market for a portable record player! $150 isn't an unreasonable price either, although a headphone jack might have been nice.
All around a nice little record player. The missing features others have mentioned would be nice. My main quibble is with the turntable itself. The small platter is causing my LPS to skip thru at least the first 2 songs on any lp. Including brand new vinyl.
I purchased an acrylic platter to go over it and that seems to have remedied the problem.
(Like the MPK, my Victrola has never skipped once since I bought it in June 2022.)
That ups is on banggood too, looks like it uses LipO cells and a boost converter in there
It’s like the Audio Technica LP60 and the Crosley Cruiser had a baby
I keep an eye on your channel, I must’ve missed this video. Anyway I am after a portable to take to boot sales and so on, where we sell records. It’s my new little business which I started earlier this year. I’m totally blind, and I love all the description you take the time to give in your videos. However you rather glossed over a bit quickly the battery pack that you bought for it. I haven’t been able to find one on Amazon, so not quite sure what to look for. Also it would’ve been great if this did 78 as I collect and sell those two. Do you know if there is an alternative which has come out since which is as good but does 78 and ideally has a rechargeable battery?The lack of a handle is tricky, but as we normally put our tables by our car boot it’s not too much of a problem. Anyway thanks for all your great videos, I’d love to get in touch with you for a chat sometime, but I’m not sure how I could do it.
9:02 it's not the suspension that prevents it from skipping, but near total absence of bass from the speakers.
The speakers are still new and breaking in, so the bass response will improve as I play it more. If you listen at the end when I played it on battery power, it already started sounding better after I gave its speakers a workout with the Daft Punk record.
@@vwestlife you are right, it becomes less nasty in the end. But i really doubt if some bass tubing inside would have really been impossible. All those more modern Alexa-type speaker have amazing sound in relation to their small cabinets. (and i assume that most customers would like to spend additional 20-50 currenty units for a nicer sound.)
@@vwestlife What's breaking in is your ears, not the speaker. There's little evidence to support a substantial enough change in speaker parameters through "break-in". The only part of a speaker that breaks in is the spider, and that only accounts for a small downward shift in resonant frequency of the driver after a very short period. I highly doubt that would be audible. Even in something this crude, the vast majority of influence on the bass response will be the effect of air mass loading on the speaker cone. That is far more of an influence than the driver's suspension. Mounted in the cabinet as it is, I doubt you could measure any differences between a new driver and a "broken in" one. Full disclosure: I worked in the loudspeaker driver industry on a highly technical level for over 20 years, and we did numerous experiments around the "break-in myth". We found that any driver would stabilize its Thiele/Small parameters after no more than a minute or two of run-in.
Finally, a modern record player I can recommend to friends!
As those speakers don't really do that great a job playing stereo, the better solution would be one bigger mono speaker in the lid allowing better frequency response!
Or mount the speakers on the sides, like the Jensen JTA-230 record player I reviewed years ago.
or one big oval speaker like they did it on older generation califones and audiotronics classroom record players some of them mounted on springs as well.
Were buying on right now
The Columbia 45 in the video with the orange label, not all were made of styrene. Operating until maybe 1981?, the Columbia, Santa Maria pressing plant only used vinyl. Other Columbia pressing plants also produced vinyl 45's while the orange label was still being used for years later.
What a great record player
That case looks like a printer. ☺
Spring mounted sub chassis is a plus.
looks like a califone
Hi there. Do you know if this turntable exists in europe? Where can i buy it? Thank you
A padded shopping bag used as record player gig bag and painters tape for securing the tonearm. Did they leave the handle off so the innards wouldn't get jostled like the sub-par tonearm clamp?
I just got this record player and I’m having an issue with it playing. Once I set it on any part that plays music the record repeats itself. I believe it has to do with the anti skate but how do I fix this
16:08 - Yep, best keep that Hooters moment short! I used them in a review video, and SME ultimately threatened a takedown. Bedwetters that they are.
It's just like MJ said, $ony kills music.
I don't understand why they don't just use the lid for the main speakers like some old suitcase players did. They could even make it come apart and have a decent and compact setup out of it! That'd allow you to have more power, too, for people who like that.
hi- how to adjust pitch ? does it has a pitch control knob anyway?
I love vinyl, but never understood the utility of a portable player, are people actually going to the park with one and a whole set of lps in tow to go on a picnic?
not necessarily, though.... def agree with you on that; but say....
maybe, you're going away on a vacation, a trip, business trip, etc., and you may be gone awhile and you know you're going to be really missing listening to some vinyl, or maybe you love vinyl but don't really want the full-ranged (home) set-up..... these reasons I believe that this type of player is more what's for.
@@DarkMetalSpider yeah, lots of those Crosleys get set up in teenagers' bedrooms. Actually carrying it around doesn't seem to be a high priority, it seems to be more just the aesthetic of having the lid propped open against the wall.
Mostly people just want something cheap and self-contained.
@@vwestlife that's a good point. Like a laptop! Even people who never take it anywhere prefer being able to close it, put it in a drawer, and only plug one thing in.
I have seen it before where people have brought these outside to parks for example. Its not common though.
Perhaps a pitch control also
I'm glad this plays daft punk well because that's exactly what I was looking for
If you have to transport it, just jam cloth or tissue paper under the turntable. Tie the tone arm with cord or whatever. I'd like to know where I could get one?
A new contender for best portable might be the Victrola VSC-750SB. Saw one in Target a few days ago. AT MM cartridge, 3 speeds, stereo speakers, Bluetooth, built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery. 199 bucks. Appears to use the same turntable mechanism as all the entry-level Crosley/Victrola models, but with an AT3600L cartridge instead of a CZ-800.
I also noticed that all of the MPK record players are listed as "unavailable" on Amazon. Not sure if they've been discontinued or what.
I think the returns on all their bad products might have put them out of biz, but they may return under another name. I would love to see the inside scoop on all the companies in China cranking out record players, cheap or good ones. What a crazy industry.
It looks good for a mid-level suitcase player. Can you go higher? I think so. We have our uncle's old vacuum tube record player from the Fifties. It is in a suitcase style although it is quite large and heavy. We don't have the front speakers anymore. They hung on hinges which also worked as terminals to the amplifier. It produces a rich sound with some good speakers. It even has a subwoofer. We haven't used it in over ten years. I would seriously look into changing the capacitors before using it again.
Heyya! I bought this player based off your video and it's working pretty dang great. Just wondering though, are there any stylus replacements you think would work well? Mine is fine but I want to order one to have on backup just in case, but I can't find a 3600l cartridge on Amazon and I know very little about this world of tech
Hi Tilly, i saw someone mentioning the Stanton 500 in another review on youtube. I'm pretty new to turntables, didn't tried this one but maybe the info helps you.
Music Public Kingdom has disappeared from Amazon. I think their slot loading record player contributed to their demise, but who knows, they may come come back. Maybe Covid shut down their production. With some improvements this would have been a good basic record player. Maybe they will bring back record changers? Imagine a modern version of a portable Magnavox stereo with a Micromatic type changer. Woo hoo.