The 19 Best Record Player Under 100$ in 2023: Expert's Top Choices

The young nowadays are familiar with portable music players because of the extreme convenience brought back by mobile phones. However, no one can deny the quality of a traditional music player such as a high-end CD player, or above all a vinyl player. In this article, we will talk about turntables, how to choose a good one of them that best suits you, and the best record player under 100.

1. Design of the product

In the old days, when the turntables were first invented, they were usually made of wood for the luxury and retro look. However, when the modern ear comes, people have invented lots of other materials for working with the record players. Here are the most popular materials that are being used to make a record player:

• Wood: Wooden turntables are beautiful, luxury, but expensive and heavy. They would give your room the sense of traditions, and you would be considered a real professional listener or collector. 

• Plastic: Plastic record players are simple, cheap, and light. They don’t satisfy the requirements of making your look cool, but they still sound pretty good in your room.

• Metal - Steel or Aluminum: Metal record players often look modern, not as luxurious as wooden ones, but cheaper. Metal turntables are the toughest of them all, being able to handle external physical forces.

Does the material affect the music quality? Some people believe it does; however, it is not proven. Wooden record players usually produce better sounds than plastic players and metal players, but it might be because of the price instead of the material.

Record players are usually manufactured to be a suitcase, for you to pack it up and carry it around like a professional music maker. The suitcase comes with a handle, a power port and an external sound output.

2. The speed

A turntable has to turn, and it turns at a speed. A vinyl disc, in its production stage, is set to only be played at a specific speed. Therefore, the record players have to synchronize with the rotating speed of the vinyl disc in order for the system to work. This is the list of the most popular speeds out there in the turntable market:

• 33 ⅓: This is the most popular speed nowadays, because it features a Long Play playback, allowing you to play more music with the same diameter vinyl disc. Vinyls of this kind have to be made carefully with high-quality makers to be able to contain much more notes in the same disc.

• 45 rpm: The second most popular speed, appeared last after the invention of 33 ⅓. 45 Vinyls are easier to make and better when played, and still capable of playing lots of music.

• 78 rpm: 78 rpm used to be the king in the 1930s and 1950s. However, due to the music it plays and the size of it, it faded out in the middle of the last century.

33 ⅓, 45, and 78 rpm are three most popular vinyl disc speeds; therefore, they become the most popular record players’ speeds. It is the best to choose the record players with all three speeds, or most of them.

3. The output quality

There are two types of record players, one of which is the built-in speaker type and the other is the player only. The player outputs the sound to an external speaker of the customer’s choice, and these are some connectors that you should know of:

• 3.5mm jack: 3.5mm jack is the type of connector you often see in your smartphones; therefore, the range of speakers that go with it is wide. You should expect to see 99% of the speakers on the market support this type of connector.

• 2.5mm jack: This is the slightly less popular type of connector, featured in small speakers or headphones that doesn’t require lots of power.

• 6.5mm jack: This is the type you usually see in your microphone or high-end headphones. It uses high power to deliver high-quality music; therefore, normal speakers would be able to handle.

In conclusion, you have to keep in mind that the output connectors of your record players, so as to make the best out of the vinyl disc you have. 

4. The battery

Having a battery is the unlikely feature you would see in a record player; however, it’s not rare. A battery can support the turntables to play up to about 30 or 40 hours, depending on the motor type and built-in speakers. The usual power type is direct electricity, 110V or 220V. If you want your socket to work with your 220V record players, you might need a converter, as well as vice versa.

5. Additional features

Lastly, some additional features you should know before buying a record player include:

• Bluetooth streaming: Allowing your vinyl disc to be played over Bluetooth signal. Note that the Bluetooth quality might not be as good as wired connections

• Wi-Fi streaming: Wi-Fi streaming enables users to have a little more bandwidth and convenience; Wi-Fi connections, in exchange, require more processing power and electricity to function.

1. Victrola Vintage 3-Speed Bluetooth Portable Suitcase Record Player

You’ll be surprised by this record player. This has been the highest rated item we have come across when looking for the best record player under 100. Victrola Vintage 3-Speed Bluetooth Portable Suitcase Record Player features a  super wide range of styles and colors. 

There are totally 37 variants in styles you choose from to customize your device. Trust us, we gotta use a calculator for that. Firstly, the turntable is a 3-speed belt-driven turntable, which supports all the popular speeds out there, 33 ⅓ rpm, 45 rpm and 78 rpm. 

The record player is designed to look like a suitcase to carry around, for the motto of “Carrying the music around”. As for the connections, the player has both wireless and wired connections, for it to work with Bluetooth speakers in both ways. What it means by that is you can stream audio from your phone to the player’s built-in speakers and stream audio from your player to other Bluetooth speakers. 

The outputs include an RCA output, and Line output and a 3.5 headphone jack. The button list includes an Input knob, a power knob, a volume knob and a off-switch

• Best rated record player on Amazon - 40000+ good ratings

• 3 speeds: 33 ⅓, 45, 78

• Suitcase look

• Built-in speakers

• Wireless and Wired connections

• 37 predefined styles and colors

2. Innovative Technology VTA-200B MH Victrola

Innovative Technology VTA-200B MH Victrola is another upgraded version of the Vintage we introduced above. The player is advertised to be a 6 in 1 player, with the ability to stream music from various sources, including vinyl records, CD discs, cassettes, AM radio, FM radio, and from your phone via Bluetooth connections. 

The player is manufactured with a built-in stereo pair of speakers for a high-quality listening experience. Talking about the turntable, it standardly supports 3 speeds of vinyl records, including 33 ⅓ speed, 45 rpm speed and 78 rpm speed. 

The output also includes an RCA Line output, whose cable is included in the box. The output wattage is 30 watts, and the player takes input from a wired source of electricity. Finally, the record player uses an AC motor, working at 120V. The item weighs 17.6 pounds and looks vintagely beautiful.

• Vintage design.

• 17.6 pounds, 120V power source.

• AC motor, with 3 speeds: 33 ⅓ rpm, 45 rpm, and 78 rpm.

• RCA Line output and a built-in speaker

3. Byron Statics Vinyl Record Player

Though being the budget choice of ours today, Byron Statics Vinyl Record Player has received roughly 3000 good ratings on Amazon. The reason why the record player is loved so much is that it supports all the essential features of a record player out there. The speeds are supported in three kinds, 33 ⅓ revolutions per minute, 45 revolutions per minute and 78 revolutions per minute. 

The player uses a DC motor, which works under the voltage of 9 volts, meaning that it has to be backed by an AC-DC adapter. The highlighted feature of the record player is that when you move the arm away from the record, it automatically stops spinning and it would start spinning again once you move the arm towards the disc again. The player has two built-in speakers in the front face, an RCA jack on the back; however, it lacks a Bluetooth connection. 

• Well rated

• 3 speeds: 33 ⅓ rpm, 45 rpm, 78 rpm.

• Safe protection from overvoltage

1. What about the warranty of my turntable?

A turntable is usually warranted for a year as other standard warranty policies for other devices. However, the faults usually come from the user’s side, because the reading arm has to be light and slight, so it’s easy to be broken. Therefore, the users need to be extra careful when it comes to moving your turntables or playing a vinyl disc.

2. How do I set up my turntable?

To set up your camera when you receive it, follow these steps:

• Plug in the power cord to the record player

• Open your player’s lid

• Put the CD, cassettes, or vinyl disc in

• Move the reading arm to the position you like, if it’s a vinyl disc

• Connect your player to an external speaker if needed

Be noted that all the instructions can be found in the manual, so be sure to refer to it for guides.

3. What does the 33 ⅓, 45, 78 mean?

33 ⅓, 45, 78 are called the speeds of the turntable, which denotes the revolutions per minute or rounds per minute that the vinyl disc spins. It might vary around those values a little, and the higher quality the record player is, the more accurate the speed it performs. 33 ⅓ allows the longest play on a disc size, and on the contrary, 78 is the shortest play over a disc size.

4. How do I maintain a good turntable?

To maintain a good quality of turntables, there are do’s and don’ts.

Do’s are:

• Move your turntable around gently

• Use good-quality CD and vinyl records

Don’ts are:

• Don’t drop your turntable or let an external force affect it some ways

• Don’t try to disassemble your record player

• Use the appropriate power source

5. Can I replace parts of my turntable?

The parts of a turntable are replaceable; however, I would not recommend you to do that all by yourself. The reason why is that the parts, especially the arms, are so fragile which would immediately fall into brokenville if you handle them incorrectly. Therefore, you should take your record player to a professional shop to make any kind of repair or tuning.

A turntable has always been a cool thing to have in a professional audio lover’s house. Choosing a turntable is a fun process, however requires a very deep knowledge in the field. We have outlined the specifications of record players and the best items you can order online. Here’s the final list:

• The best record player under 100: Victrola Vintage 3-Speed Bluetooth Portable Suitcase Record Player

• The runner-up: Innovative Technology VTA-200B MH Victrola

• The best record player under 100 for budget: Byron Statics Vinyl Record Player 

• Another good record player: Vinyl Record Player Bluetooth Belt-Driven

That has wrapped up our article about the best record player under 100. We hope you had a great time reading about turntables, how to choose the best of them, and the reviews of the best picks we have selected from online stores. Thank you for reading our article, and see you in the next recommendations for other products!