Best Bluetooth turntables Buying Guide: Welcome to What Hi-Fi?'s round-up of the best Bluetooth turntables you can buy in 2023.
The popularity of vinyl continues and that means more and more people buying turntables for the first time or upgrading their existing record players. And one turntable feature that's proving increasingly popular is Bluetooth.
The best Bluetooth turntables deliver great vinyl sound from your deck to a pair of compatible Bluetooth speakers or headphones, making listening to records – and building your vinyl system – easier than ever.
How to choose the best Bluetooth turntable for you
Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
As with any new purchase, you need to decide on your budget. We'd suggest limiting it to around a quarter of your system's cost if it's being added to an existing hi-fi set-up. With that in mind, make sure you read up on the sonic characteristics of all your components – even five-star products benefit from the right partnering.
If you're only planning on using the Bluetooth turntable with a wireless speaker or pair of wireless headphones, then you don't need to spend a fortune. You won't be needing any extra cables, either, and can be flexible with placing them anywhere in the room. And there are a couple of affordable options to choose from below.
Once you've decided on your budget, decide on the features you require besides Bluetooth. Belt drive or direct drive? Do you need a phono stage built in? What about the cartridge? USB? Make sure you have a checklist based on your needs to help you narrow the search.
In this list are talented turntables ranging from affordable to expensive, and there's even an Award-winning just-add-speakers system fully loaded with onboard amplification that makes streaming to wireless speakers and headphones dead easy. There's also scope to listen to your vinyl in 24-bit hi-res streams, with the right partnering kit. The Elipson at the bottom of this list can even rip records to digital files courtesy of its USB output.
The landscape of vinyl is changing with the times, and with our pick of the best Bluetooth record players, you can come along for the ride too.
Not only does this Sony leave you with little to do during set-up – just attach the belt to the platter – it does pretty much everything but shaking the vinyl from its sleeve, too.
You can pair the PS-LX310BT with up to eight Bluetooth devices and, in our tests using headphones, the connection was strong enough to walk into another room, close the door and even go outside.
Sony has given us a ‘plug and play’ fully automatic deck, included a phono stage, thrown in Bluetooth and priced it at the low end of the market. It could only score more highly for usability if it somehow took the LPs from their covers.
What's more, it sounds ridiculously fun. More traditional decks, such as the Award-winning Rega Planar 1 can be more mature in their performance, but when you consider this fully-automatic deck's list of features, it's hard to believe it can sound this good with such a price tag.
Read the full review: Sony PS-LX310BT
The Pro-Ject Juke Box E is based on Pro-Ject’s well-regarded Primary turntable and is tricked out with an Ortofon OM 5E cartridge, built-in amplification (25W per channel into 8 ohms) and a Bluetooth receiver. It's an all-in-one turntable package – all you need to do is add a pair of speakers or headphones and you're good to go.
Right from the off, this is recognisably a Pro-Ject turntable. It carries the brand’s sonic signature as surely as some sports brands carry three stripes. In essence, that sonic signature is one of easy-going fidelity – the Juke Box E establishes a decently spacious soundstage and positions instruments upon it securely in their own space even as they integrate and interact together. It’s untroubled by even tricky tempos or gimpy rhythms; it has reasonable shine and brilliance at the top end; its midrange reproduction is detailed.
It’s an all-in-one turntable system that demands very few compromises, given its price. It’s also an all-in-one system that we can’t easily argue against in favour of separates. The Juke Box E delivers convenience and backs it up with Award-winning sound quality. You can't really ask for more than that.
Read the full review: Pro-Ject Juke Box E
This is no ordinary premium turntable. Cambridge Audio has added a twist or two of its own by fitting it with a built-in phono stage, direct drive motor and Bluetooth connectivity.
The fact it's aptX HD Bluetooth means the Alva TT can stream your vinyl wirelessly to compatible Bluetooth headphones or a wireless speaker in hi-res audio quality, at 24-bit/48kHz.
The Alva TT is a direct drive design – unusual at this price point but it does promise a number of improvements over belt-driven designs, including speed stability and accuracy. Sound quality is good, too, with vinyl records given an open and airy soundstage and vocals a particular highlight.
Here, Cambridge Audio has managed to put an interesting spin on a premium turntable. It’s a brave and bold move that, on the whole, has paid off. If you want a simple home hi-fi system with a premium turntable as your source, the Alva TT could be just the ticket.
Read the full review: Cambridge Audio Alva TT
Note: There is a new Alva TT V2 version of this turntable, with a new tonearm, switchable phono stage and Bluetooth at £1700 / $1999 – we will be putting it through the review process very soon.
How we test Bluetooth turntables
The What Hi-Fi? team has more than 100 years of collective experience in reviewing, testing and writing about consumer electronics – and that includes Bluetooth turntables. We have state-of-the-art testing facilities in London, Reading and Bath, where our team of expert reviewers do all our in-house testing.
We test Bluetooth turntables just as we would any normal turntable – taking the time to set them up correctly on a level surface. We ensure we spend plenty of time using and listening to each turntable, noting how easy or difficult it is to use as well as testing any extra features they have. We'll try them with different partnering electronics and various genres of music, too. With Bluetooth turntables, we also test them with some of our favourite compatible wireless speakers and Bluetooth headphones at relevant price points, to gauge how they sound when streaming vinyl.
All new turntables are tested in comparison with rival turntables at the same price (and often cheaper and more expensive alternatives, too), and all review verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole rather than a single reviewer, helping to ensure consistency and avoid individual subjectivity. That's why our reviews are trusted by retailers and manufacturers, as well as consumers, the world over.
From all of our reviews, we choose the top Bluetooth turntables to feature in this Best Buy. That's why if you take the plunge and buy one of the products recommended here, or on any other Best Buy page, you can rest assured you're getting a What Hi-Fi?-approved product.
You can read more about how we test and review products on What Hi-Fi? here.
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- Here are the best Bluetooth headphones to pair with your Bluetooth turntable
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- One for your bucket list: 25 record stores to visit before you die
