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Sharp's new turntable is a great example of why people still love record players today.
"Hello everyone and welcome to another Gamereactor Quick Look.
It is a common complaint for a lot of people that we are moving hastily into a fully digital age and are leaving analog formats and ways of going about things behind."
"Some people don't like that.
You see that in broad consumerism trends today.
And there's even people that now want a dumb phone to actively help them turn down the amount of social media usage that they do."
"Or they want wired headphones because they prefer the sound signature from those.
In this day and age, we also see a constant rise in the sale of old vinyl records.
People not only like the sound that vinyl players and the format itself produces, the warmer sound signature that we've heard of for decades upon decades, but it's also because that it creates an intentional act out of something."
"Instead of just putting in your AirPods and listening to whatever Spotify regurgitates at you, you buy a record, you take it out of its little cardboard sleeve, you put it on, you put the pickup on there and you listen intently.
It was an act that you chose because you wanted it to be intentional."
"I think that is very important, particularly in this day and age.
And something like this, the Sharp Automatic Turntable RP-TT100, can actually help you achieve that, but by mixing in some of the conveniences that comes with modern day.
Now, first and foremost, this is just a vinyl record player, a turntable, but fitted with a digital recorder."
"Now what does that mean?
It means that in most cases, by the way, we haven't fully assembled this, we will for a full review, but right now I'm just removing this little plastic cover here.
It is nicely made, I have to say."
"It isn't all that expensive, but it does seem like the plastics, the material usage, the overall design, it is very sort of 80s and 90s reminiscent, but it feels like it's sturdy and that's good.
Now, the point is that here you have a belt driven, 33.5 RPM vinyl record player."
"It also has 45 RPM, depends on what you like.
Fitted with all the traditional knobs and buttons here, and it is a fully aluminum plate here fitted with this rubber padding here that means that it is smooth, won't scratch the record in question, and with this really nice arm here, which is fully automatic."
"So you get a vinyl player, you can buy those for next to nothing at like a yard sale.
So why is this different?
Well, first and foremost, it can record your records as they play.
There is a USB type C port at the back and it can fully digitalize your records as you play them."
"So that might mean that if you have a particular record that you love and you love it in this particular way, while you play it at home, it will digitize those songs and helps you listen to them on the go from your phone, for instance, if that's what you like.
But it goes beyond that."
"This is Bluetooth compatible, meaning that without any dongles or without any help, usually that's something that you would have to pay thousands for, for instance, for a Sonos compatible one.
This is built right in."
"And that means that if you want to play them, but you, for instance, don't want like a lot of extra gear below it that is all analog, you want the analog intention of putting on the record, but you want to use your Bluetooth speakers at home.
Well, this enables you to do that without any hassle or without doing anything extra."
"And I think that's great.
It is also obviously completely RCA compliant as well.
So that means that there are phone lines.
But Bluetooth 5.4 is quite the magnificent standard, which with great range."
"So chances are that even though this isn't Wi-Fi enabled per se, you should be able to put it centrally in your home and reach the Bluetooth speakers that you might have around in order to play something from this.
And imagine, sure, it isn't the analog connection, but it's a one-to-one recreation of what this machine creates, like the sound signature that it creates from the record, just playing from your Bluetooth speakers."
"To me, that is really, really promising technology because it completely threads the line between old analog intentional listening patterns and modern day conveniences.
But will it hold up to intense scrutiny?
We'll be putting our vinyl specialist here at the task and we'll see what he says."
