Every Prime Day I get a sea of vinyl-curious people, ranging from close friends to acquaintances of my partner I’ve never met (she needs to stop giving random people my details) asking one question: which turntable should I get if I want to get into vinyl?
And because I’m beginning to feel like Phil Connors in Groundhog Day, repeating the same answer over and over again, I’ve decided to share it here, with the whole world – or at least the part of it that reads What Hi-Fi?.
If you want a starter turntable, or just love vinyl and are on a strict budget, just buy the Pro-Ject Primary E, which is available at Amazon for £199 right now (US N/A and AU$476 if you're in Australia).
Why are you recommending the Pro-Ject Primary E over the sea of other turntables when it’s not even been heavily discounted for Prime Day you ask? There are two reasons.
First, it’s just that good. We’ve spent more time than we care to count looking for a rival affordable spinner to dethrone it, and to date we haven’t.
The closest record player in the same class is the Sony PS-LX310BT (available in the UK for £189, US for $268 and Australia for AU$305).
But while it’s a five-star player in its own right and offers a lot of the same perks as the Primary E, including its low price, having tested both, we found the Pro-Ject delivers better holistic audio quality.
This is the silver bullet reason, despite having come out all the way back in 2018, it won yet another What Hi-Fi? Award last year and remains the primary cheap recommendation in our best turntable buying guide – see what I did there?
As our testers said in What Hi-Fi?'s Pro-Ject Primary E review:
“Pro-Ject has revised a budget deck to nail the entry-level market, and has succeeded on every front. For purists at the head of the beginner’s vinyl revival path who have this kind of budget and aren’t fussed about features such as record ripping and automatic operation, the multiple Award-winning Pro-Ject Primary E could be just the ticket.”
The second reason? After covering Prime Day since the event started, trawling its hi-fi deals section for hours upon hours, I can confirm 99 per cent of what it’s pushing simply isn’t worth it.
If you go to the section now, you’ll see a sea of suitcase systems and affordable “turntables” from unknown brands, many going for as little as £30.
Look at this one I found on Prime Day 2025’s front page as an example. Or even this one, which costs nearly as much as the Pro-Ject.
We haven’t reviewed these specific options, but we’ve had countless others like them pass through our listening rooms over the decades. Two recent highlights include the two-star Crosley Cruiser and Crosley Keepsake.
Trust me when I say that if your turntable costs as much as a new vinyl record, you’re in trouble. These systems tend to have serious issues. For starters, every one we’ve tried sounds terrible. Second, many aren’t set up correctly and have massive build quality issues.
One of the first articles I wrote for What Hi-Fi? details a common one with their tracking force. There’s nothing wrong with a turntable wanting to be as plug and play as possible at this end of the market.
But a lot of the cheap models we test either have their tracking force set so insanely high it will gouge any record you put on it, or is so low the tone arm will hop about like a caffeinated toddler.
Neither is a good thing, especially given the cost of vinyl these days.
Which is why, once again, I’m going to warn you: if you want a good entry level turntable, just buy the Pro-Ject Primary E.
MORE:
Great savings on hi-fi systems at Richer Sounds
Plenty of hi-fi and audio deals at Peter Tyson
Check out all the home cinema package discounts at Sevenoaks
This five-star Cambridge Audio desktop DAC is also 20% off for Prime Day
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