Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsQuestionable durability: Main cam gear post broke after 1 year
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2021
The durability of this turntable is questionable, perhaps not surprising at such a budget price point.
Right after the 1 year mark (when the warranty expires), the black plastic post around which the main cam gear rotates broke off of the plastic plinth. It appears to have been glued on, and the glue failed. I'm not a turntable expert, but my impression is that the main cam gear puts a fair amount of force on that post as it actuates the tone arm. I'm surprised it wasn't at least screwed on, or made out of metal.
I tried in vain to superglue the post back on with JB Weld. Each time, the post quickly broke off again after the main cam gear spun a few times.
I finally got the idea to use a drill to widen the 2.5mm hole in the plinth where the post had been mounted using a tiny nub at its end, and then screwed a 30mm M4x0.7 bolt from the underside of the turntable. It is pretty easy to remove the bottom cover of this turntable by taking out a bunch of screws. I then used a hex nut on the top of the bolt to fasten the main cam gear back on. It took some doing to get it aligned, but I managed to get the turntable to start/stop again. I am hearing some background noise from the spindle and the cam gear perhaps not being perfectly aligned with each other, but it's not audible once playback starts and maybe it was there all along.
So I just barely managed to save this turntable from the trash heap only 1 year after getting it. Also, the belt got broken somehow. I was able to get a Sony OEM replacement from parts-distribution.com. I think the belt has a tendency to work its way off the inner circle of the platter, and there's nothing really preventing it from slipping off the platter, so I'm wondering if that's how it got broken so quickly. I feel like I'll have to monitor that from now on.
It is pretty packed with features for such an inexpensive turntable. The auto-start and stop is convenient and the Bluetooth connectivity has worked well for me. (It is weird, as others have mentioned, that the RCA output plugs are dangling out the back instead of just providing female ports.) I haven't tried the USB feature but it's cool that it's there. You get what you pay for. While I wouldn't say this is junk, I bought this thinking "Sony doesn't sell junk," and so I am disappointed about some of these important pieces being not only plastic but apparently just glued on. (I understand this isn't a product Sony built in-house but is a rebadged product manufactured by Hanpin.)
In short, it's fixed for now using $5 in hardware store parts and I'm going to try and get as much mileage as I can out of it, but I don't think I would buy this turntable again. If I were spending this little, I would probably go for something fully manual... less complicated mechanisms to break!
