1. The list in brief
2. Best overall
3. Best Bluetooth
4. Best hi-fi
5. Best automatic
6. Best for novices
7. Best hi-fi with phono stage
8. Best system
Being a vinyl fan isn't the cheapest of hobbies. From the price of records themselves to ensuring you have decent enough components and equipment to play them, it can all add up to one costly pastime. That means that a great turntable at an affordable price can be a godsend.
In this list, we've highlighted the best budget turntables currently on the market, all tried and tested by the expert review team in our dedicated listening rooms. Whether you're just starting out with your very first turntable, want to rip your vinyl using a USB deck or are simply upgrading an ageing entry-level model – you'll likely find a player here that will suit your needs without spending the big bucks.
The quick list
Best overall
Best overall
The best budget turntable for most people, this superb deck nails all the basics.
Best Bluetooth
Best Bluetooth
If wireless convenience is top of your wishlist, this user-friendly Sony is a real winner.
Best hi-fi
Best hi-fi
It might come at an entry level price, but the Planar 1 doesn’t put in an entry level performance.
Best automatic
Best automatic
Its combination of features and performance make the AT-LP3 an excellent (almost) hands-free choice.
Best for novices
Best for novices
Its plastic chassis gives away its bargain price but this plug-and-play turntable is great for vinyl newbies.
Best hi-fi with phono stage
Best hi-fi with phono stage
Looking to add to your setup but don’t have a phono stage? Look no further than the Planar 1 Plus.
Load the next product ↓
Best system
Best system
Pro-Ject’s brilliant all-in-one has all the amplification you need built in – just add speakers.
The best budget turntable overall
As its current What Hi-Fi? Award attests, the Pro-Ject Primary E is still our pick of the bunch as a truly affordable gateway into the world of vinyl.
The Primary E looks almost identical to the original Pro-Ject Primary, a sparsely designed turntable that also boasted a 22cm tonearm and Ortofon MM cartridge. The only real difference with this model is that the power supply is built into the deck, plus you've only got the choice of having it in a black colourway rather than the Primary’s rather fetching red and white options. It also costs a little less than the original model at around £150, which is a nice bonus.
£150 isn’t much for a turntable by anyone’s estimate, but the Primary E confidently nails the basics, providing an even tonal balance and a delivery that’s clear, clean and spacious enough to keep things coherent and enjoyable. Decent body and substance cling reliably to every frequency, made all the more enjoyable by a spirited sense of drive and momentum.
So impressed were we with the Primary E, that it’s won the best turntable under £200 trophy at the What Hi-Fi? Awards for five years in a row now. If you’re looking for your first turntable, the purist-design Primary E is the one to go for at this price.
Want to spend a little more? The Rega Planar 1 below (usually £250-300) is also a multi-Award winner and a very fine spinner indeed.
Read the full Pro-Ject Primary E review
The best budget Bluetooth turntable
The one thing you always seem to get these days with Sony is unerring reliability, not to mention effortless usability and construction that's truly built to last. While the name "PS-LX310BT" might not be the easiest to get your gums around, Sony’s fully automatic Bluetooth turntable is a cinch to use, working straight out of the box and providing a pleasing, stress-free vinyl experience.
There’s also a very decent built-in phono stage, with strong Bluetooth connectivity that works with up to eight devices – meaning you can stream your vinyl to a pair of wireless headphones or a Bluetooth speaker. The very best decks for the same money can beat it for pure sound quality, but you won't find many as fun, ridiculously user-friendly, and resoundingly listenable as the PS-LX310BT.
We’ve come to expect this sort of customer-friendly usability from Sony, but what we hadn’t quite prepared for was just how good the PS-LX310BT sounds. Sure, purists may look elsewhere for more detailed and dynamic alternatives, but Sony’s budget effort still provides an entertaining sound with a healthy dose of drive and attack.
If you want something fun, user-friendly and unquestionably listenable to get your vinyl adventure started – plus the added convenience of Bluetooth – the PS-LX310BT is a five-star recommendation. If you want something that looks a little flashier, Audio Technica's pricier AT-LPW50BTRW is also newer, but Bluetooth pairing is fiddlier.
Read the full Sony PS-LX310BT review
The best budget hi-fi turntable
If you're happy forking out a little bit more (around £100 or so), the Rega Planar 1 is a substantial step up from the excellence of the Pro-Ject Primary E at the top of this list.
British brand Rega provides consistent excellence across its range of turntables, seemingly taking as much time and care with its budget offerings as it does with its high-end heavyweights. The Rega Planar 1 is the cheapest turntable Rega makes, but the fact that it's been a What Hi-Fi? Award-winner since 2016 shows just how remarkable it is for the price. Built superbly to Rega’s typically high standards and featuring a Rega Carbon cartridge attached to a new RB110 tonearm, the Planar 1 is easy to use, simple to set up and hardly offensive to the eye.
It sounds great, too. Rega’s forensic attention to detail results in a roomy, spacious sound that never skimps on the particulars, while voices sound rich, full-bodied and alive. The Planar 1 delivers a combination of clarity and accuracy that's almost unparalleled at this price, providing an exciting and engaging experience no matter what you throw at it. It’s a clear step up in performance from the Pro-Ject Primary E, and if you’re able to spend the extra dosh, it’s absolutely worth it. Nothing else competes for the price.
Read the full Rega Planar 1 review
The best budget automatic turntable
Another five-star performer, the Audio Technica is genuinely one of the finest automatic turntables we’ve heard at this price – with the bonus addition of a built-in phono stage. In terms of ease of use, nothing really comes close to this Audio Technica deck, so you’ll only have to poke a few buttons before you’re enjoying your vinyl collection. Along with the integrated phono preamp, you also get a fool-proof set-up and a removable cartridge that can be traded out for another moving-magnet or moving-coil alternative.
Considering that this is still very much a budget option, none of what’s on display with the AT-LP3 feels cheap or flimsy – quite the opposite, in fact. You’ll be impressed by the powerful work the player does when it comes to playing records, too. Sound is robust and full-bodied, with plenty of space, detail and enthusiasm. Overall it’s a balance that keeps the music’s character its priority.
At this price, it’s an impressive combination of talents.
Read the full Audio Technica AT-LP3 review
The best budget turntable for novices
If budget really does mean budget, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better plug-and-play turntable than Lenco’s eye-catching, cheap-and-cheerful L-85. The semi-automatic, belt-driven turntable features a built-in phono stage and even supports USB recording so you can rip vinyl into MP3 files, so a desire to save money doesn’t starve you of features. Even the build quality is decent for the price, and colour options are theoretically plentiful, although you might have to shop around to find the shade you want from the retailer who will actually provide it.
There are plenty of trendy, cheap turntables available that sound poor at best or damage our vinyl at worst, but the Lenco does what the others haven’t been able to: deliver a likeable, enjoyable sound in a competent manner (without, crucially, gouging our precious records). This isn’t the sort of turntable that’s going to blow you away with incomparable sonic heft and detail to make a sound engineer swoon, but for the price you’re paying, you could certainly do a lot worse.
The Lenco L-85 handles vocals especially well, and while it’s not a remarkable performer for capturing rhythm or timing, the balance across the frequencies is admirably even and there are no coarse edges at the top end. Whether it’s for your kids or you’re a student keen on vinyl but needing to save money, this is a decent place to start.
Read the full Lenco L-85 review
The best budget hi-fi turntable with phono stage
If you liked the sound of the excellent Planar 1, then the Planar 1 with the added convenience of a built-in phono stage could well be music to your ears. You'll have to pay a little extra for the privilege, but, to our minds, it's worth it.
Rega tends to keep things pure on the analogue side, but it eventually succumbed to trends and delivered the Planar 1 Plus, the first time the British manufacturer has incorporated a turntable with its very own built-in phono stage. The result is a Rega Planar 1 turntable with the rather superb, five-star Rega Fono Mini A2D built-in. The Planar 1 Plus also costs less than if you were buying the two components separately, so the combination of both makes sense from a financial, as well as sonic, perspective.
Rega has built a reputation for bringing style, substance and consistently high audio standards with its turntables, and the Planar 1 Plus is no different. The deck looks identical to the straight Planar 1, which is no bad thing considering its sleek aspect and general ease of use.
It’s the audio quality, though, that makes the Plus a five-star triumph. Put simply, it sounds wonderful, and while it may take a while to fully reveal the warmth and depth of which it’s capable, give it a few days and it will be purring like the best. Rega's knack for delivering terrifically agile, subtle and hugely enjoyable dynamics is replicated in the Plus, with crispness and clarity that make the Planar 1 Plus a hugely appealing, talented package.
Read the full Rega Planar 1 Plus review
The best budget system turntable
Pro-ject's Juke Box E is a tad more expensive than some of the truly budget entries on this list, but you are getting a system – not just a turntable – for the increased financial outlay. This Pro-Ject Juke Box E is another What Hi-Fi? Awards winner, winning us over thanks to its potent mix of quality, usability and great range of features.
The Juke Box E is an all-in-one package combining a record player - based on Pro-Ject’s Primary turntable – with built-in amplification (25W per channel), phono stage, plus a Bluetooth receiver. We saw the concept initially flown up Pro-Ject’s flagpole with the original Juke Box back in 2010, but the E model gives a really comprehensive update to an already impressive recipe.
The listening experience, especially, has been superbly refined. It’s on the warm side of neutral with an impressively spacious soundstage and is capable of dealing with tricky rhythms and various genres deftly. Listeners will enjoy the detailed midrange and top-end brilliance, along with bass weight that’s ample if not as punchy or impactful as we’d like. Pair it with the right speakers though, and the system will shine. We recommend partnering it with speakers such as the Mission LX-2 or Q Acoustics 3010i to really get the full experience.
Read the full Pro-ject Juke Box E review
How to choose the best budget turntable for you
At its most basic, a good turntable will play your records smoothly to give you a steady sound that your integrated amplifier can work with. Many options these days handily come with a built-in phono stage, while there are (fewer) options that will let you rip that music to your digital archive in hi-res. We've even managed to track down an all-in-one turntable system that includes amplification and the ability to stream music via Bluetooth.
And despite what you might think, good turntables do exist at cheaper price points. Spinning vinyl doesn't have to be an expensive affair as this list shows – including long-running Award-winners and cheap-but-cheerful options.
If you need a bit more of a helping hand, we have a whole guide for choosing the right turntable for you, and once you do get your ideal deck, we have tips on how to set it up perfectly so you get the best performance always.
Our expert What Hi-Fi? team has thoroughly tested all of these record players in our dedicated test rooms, reviewing each budget unit and comparing it with its relatively priced equivalent - so you can be sure you're getting an authentic, authoritative recommendation.
How we test record players
Here at What Hi-Fi? we review hundreds of products every year, from TVs to speakers, headphones to hi-fi systems. So how do we come to our review verdicts and why can you trust them? Allow us to explain.
The What Hi-Fi? team has more than 100 years collective experience of reviewing, testing and writing about consumer electronics – and that includes plenty of record players. We have state-of-the-art testing facilities in Reading and London, where our team of expert reviewers do all our in-house testing. This gives us complete control over the testing process, ensuring consistency across all products. We always ensure we spend plenty of time with each turntable, setting them up correctly, trying them with different electronics, in different positions and with different music.
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 budget 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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