Sony PS-LX5BT review

Good news, everyone! Sony is back making Bluetooth turntables, introducing two new decks into the fold: the Sony PS-LX5BT and its slightly cheaper sibling, the PS-LX3BT.

The just-reviewed PS-LX3BT did a sterling job in combining Bluetooth streaming, a built-in phono stage, fully automatic operation and superb sonic performance at a very affordable price. While the PS-LX5BT promises all of those same features from a more premium deck, it will have its work cut out if it wants to justify the step-up in price from its five-star sibling.

After all, the differences between the two fully automatic turntables are subtle: a step-up cartridge, slightly different arm tube, mat and finish, and detachable interconnect cables. For those seemingly minor differences, you’ll be paying roughly £100 / $100 / AU$150 to get your hands on the more premium model.

That seems like a rather steep advance, so has the PS-LX5BT done enough to make itself recommendable over its more affordable alternative?

Build & design

While it’s a step up from the PS-LX3BT in terms of price, telling the PS-LX5BT apart from its cheaper sibling does take more than a mere glance. Given its identical shape and layout, you’d be forgiven for getting one deck mistaken for the other in a game of spot the difference.

That extra money has gone somewhere, though. The darker finish of the PS-LX5BT is a little more appealing than its cheaper counterpart, while the provided rubber mat is slightly thicker and of a noticeably better quality. Also, whereas the PS-LX3BT has captive audio interconnect cables, the cables on the PS-LX5BT are detachable, offering the potential for improved performance if you wish to swap them out for a better set of interconnects.

This being a fully automatic turntable, operation is not a complex affair. The PS-LX5BT is easy to use and responsive to our commands, without you ever needing to touch the tonearm (bar unclipping it from the arm rest). Playing and pausing tracks is performed via ‘start’ and ‘stop’ buttons respectively, and once your record arrives at the end, the tonearm will automatically move back to its start position without the need for a manual reset. Handy.

Elsewhere, the belt-drive design features an aluminium tonearm with a precision pivot bearing, as well as an aluminium die-cast platter, all of which are made to a satisfying solid standard.

The PS-LX5BT is supplied with a pre-fitted moving magnet cartridge with a 2g tracking force, and we suspect that a good deal of the money you’ll pay, and hopefully the performance you’ll receive, is down to this step-up model over the one on the LX3BT. Additionally, you can remove the cartridge from the tonearm in this turntable, although you can only do a like-for-like replacement here, as you can’t adjust the tracking weight or bias for a different cartridge, which limits its upgradability somewhat.

Even with these minor tweaks adding to its prestige, the PS-LX5BT doesn’t necessarily exude high perceived value. It’s well made and reasonably substantial, but this is clearly a turntable that’s been designed for usability first and aesthetics second. Everything is functional and a tad utilitarian, and doesn’t have the glamour or sleekness of, say, a price-comparable Rega Planar 1 Plus (currently £399 / $599 approx / AU$899).

That, of course, is much of the point. Record players such as these are supposed to be minimum-fuss affairs, and, thanks to those large, hard-to-miss buttons for starting and stopping your records, as well as the dials for switching between 33 ⅓ and 45 RPM speeds and 7 and 12-inch records, that aim is achieved admirably by Sony’s simple, intuitive layout.

Still, we do have a few very minor quibbles. The player’s on/off button is found at the back, making it hard to access, while a permanent ‘on’ light might have been useful for taking the guesswork out of whether your PS-LX5BT is actually ready to use. Minor things, but worth noting.

Aside from that, this isn’t a turntable that’s likely to cause many problems for the user. Thanks to its automatic design, all you have to do is pop the rubber mat onto the platter, select your favourite record, hook up your cables to an amplifier or active speakers, switch your deck on and press start. Bob’s your uncle, you’re a vinyl aficionado!

Features

The PS-LX5BT sports Bluetooth streaming powers to satisfy modern users with varied listening devices. There’s support for the hi-res aptX Adaptive codec for streaming files wirelessly up to 24-bit/96kHz to compatible Bluetooth speakers and headphones, with the PS-LX5BT letting you have up to eight different devices paired at any one time.

Bluetooth streaming is reasonably easy to get up and running: just press the Bluetooth button in the front left corner of your turntable to put it into pairing mode and wait for it to connect to your nearby wireless device. As we found with the PS-LX3BT, however, there are a few minor pitfalls of which to be aware.

The Sony deck won’t play anything if you’re stuck in pairing mode, for instance, and sometimes you might need to switch out of said mode with a forced reset, either by turning your turntable off and on again or by changing the input on your connected amp and switching back to the correct phono one. That worked for us, anyway.

Those few kinks aside, it isn’t tricky to get sound beaming from your turntable to, say, a nearby JBL Charge 6 portable speaker or pair of Sony WH-1000XM6 over-ears. Nor, in fact, is it particularly challenging to get the PS-LX5BT cooperating across all modes of use – everything is clearly laid out, boldly labelled and, for the most part, doesn’t require any fiddly setting up in the first place.

Like its cheaper sibling, the PS-LX5BT comes fitted with a built-in phono stage, making it more versatile to use. This means you can connect it to an amplifier that doesn’t have its own internal phono stage, or even plug it directly to a pair of active speakers.

The operation is switchable too, meaning you can opt to bypass the Sony’s phono stage entirely to use either a separate external phono stage or one built into your stereo amplifier. Just remember to toggle the ‘line/phono’ switch found at the back of the record player for your chosen set-up.

Sound

Most of our listening to the PS-LX5BT is performed with a pair of Epos ES-7N speakers alongside the Award-winning Arcam A5+ amp (£749 / $1200 / AU$1595). We’re also keen to see if the LX5BT is a major upgrade from the PS-LX3BT, so we do a little switching between the two to discern whether those minor additions have paid sonic dividends.

What we find is that the PS-LX5BT is noticeably better, and does a fine job of justifying its not-inconsiderable price increase over its more entry-level sibling. The costlier deck is more open, spacious-sounding and more detailed than the LX3BT. It grants more space around instruments and gives the music greater breathing space within its broader, wider soundstage.

The PS-LX5BT is clearly the better option sonically, but even in isolation it’s an excellent turntable that soon proves itself worthy of consideration. The Sony spinner’s organised, authoritative sound deftly balances poise and punch, as evidenced by the manner in which it handles the heavier tracks peppered across Nas’ Illmatic LP.

Some acoustic guitar-focused loveliness courtesy of Will McNicol gives the PS-LXB5T a chance to show off its handling of subtle instrumental textures, and the Sony rises to the task with aplomb as accompanying violins and resonant cellos sing with authority. These are mature, finely-composed compositions, something which the PS-LX5BT seems to understand as it reflects such characteristics in its mature, even-handed delivery.

Sony’s well-priced player can cut loose and have a good time when called upon, too. We spend a good chunk of time ploughing through some contemporary drum’n’bass courtesy of Rudimental’s Rudim3ntal album, with the PS-LX5BT capably switching gears as it sheds its opening night tuxedo and dons its roadman tracksuit to bring weight, muscle and rhythmic propulsion to track after heady track.

Bluetooth performance is solid, too. Naturally, you’ll get more detail and clarity when going wired, but as we beam Arcade Fire’s Pink Elephant record to a nearby JBL Charge 6, we’re impressed with how much of the music’s inherent feeling is retained. Voices remain authentic and natural sounding, while instruments and textures are still clear, nimble and punchy enough to keep us invested in our tunes.

If you want to push things further, then switching to an outboard phono stage will proffer even greater sonic gains. When moving over to the phono input of the Arcam A5+, it’s clear that the Award-winning stereo amplifier’s phono stage is clearer, more detailed and more musical than the one built into the Sony deck.

Verdict

The PS-LXB5T is an excellent do-it-all turntable. More purist alternatives, such as the Rega Planar 1 Plus, will reward you with a more musical, engaging sound and, to our eyes, a more attractive design, but that’s a deck with no Bluetooth and a manual operation.

On paper, the cheaper PS-LX3BT might appear to be the better-value buy. But if you’re looking for longer term satisfaction thanks to a noticeable step up in sonic performance and versatile features, the PS-LX5BT more than justifies its place within the market.

Review published: 15th April 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Pro-Ject T1 Evo BT

Also consider the Sony PS-LX3BT

Read our Rega Planar 1 Plus review

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