Introduction

My dad is stuck in the old school, listening songs from LPs (Long Play), while I play songs on my iPod. The AKAI USB Turntable kills two birds with one stone. My dad can listen to those old LPs and I can do some music mixing. AKAI's USB turntable not only plays your collection of vinyl, its USB ports allow you import the songs from LP for digital storage and playback on PC.

Design

The ATT10U USB turntable from AKAI sports a professional look and plenty of functionality wrapped up in a modern-looking case. The turntable has rounded edges and polished alloy for the record turntable while tone-arm and head are constructed of solid, heavy materials. The base of the unit is built of plastic, with a wide and flat design keeping it sturdy on a table.

Features

The turntable allows you to play anything from older vinyls to brand new LPs, through a Hi-Fi system or PC, supporting selectable settings for 33, 45 and 78 RPM play back speeds and a reverse button.

To ensure smooth playback the detachable head is well constructed and made of high quality metal delivering a clear, balanced sound. Additionally, the turntable features an anti-skating control for minimizing the “skating” force as it pulls the tone arm towards the centre of the record. A slip pad is a feature that allows you to become DJ and add other special effects without damaging your disc.

The manual slide control allows you control the rotating speed of the disc by a fraction. The device features a groovy LED light that can be illuminates the LP and the two large play/pause buttons on the unit comes in handy when you are playing the DJ.

The AKAI ATT10U in Use

The turntable is wide enough to accommodate a full size LP. To play a record, just place the LP on the turntable, lower the tone arm and hit any one of the two play buttons. If you want you can just grab the LP to stop and scratch the disc or play around with the reverse button. While these are basic functions of a turntable, you can also rip your LP music files MP3.The system comes bundled with Audacity, a free audio recording application that gives you plenty of features to capture audio files to PC. The freeware is compatible with both PC and Mac and the USB output works well, installing drivers is easily.  Once connected to the PC, hit the record button and the software will record and display the recorded data. There are a handful of options like cross fade, fade in/out plus noise filters including high and low pass filters to remove unwanted background noise. Files can be saved and exported in a wide variety of formats, ranging from MP3 to WAV to FLAC. When you’re converting a music file for the first time the software prompts you to install Lame MP3 encoder, which is a free download. This encoder allows you to export your music files to MP3 format.  By default Audacity exports to WAV format.

Conclusion

The only drawback is that it doesn’t have a dust cover. The music you get from an LP-USB-MP3 conversion files may not as good as a CD recording but they are far better than the original LP.  The AKAI ATT10U is priced at US$200 (AUD$299.95). At that price, the AKAI USB Turntable distinguishes itself with its features, ease of use and modern styling. If you are a DJ, its a fabulous product as its heavy, solid, has smooth operation, multiple playback speeds, and the multiple play buttons come in handy while you are performing a music mix. Using the AKAI ATT10U was very simple – plug in power, plug via USB to a PC, play a record, save the audio file – done. This is a great gift idea for anyone with a collection of LPs they’d like to bring out of the closet.

 You can also view a tkGuru video about AKAI USB Turntable