The House Of Marley Stir It Up Turntable is a seriously good-looking turntable that has plenty to offer. For starters, it’s made from eco-friendly materials and looks amazing, but more importantly it sounds great! The low self-noise is truly impressive and the stereo separation is superb. And when you consider how easy access to jacks and switches are on this model, not to mention the really attractive design, you’re looking at one heck of a turntable for an incredible price.
If you think this is an entry level turntable, keep reading…
Pros:
Personally, I really like this turntable. It has so many pros. Let’s cover the main advantages that this device has.
- Low self-noise: it really does produce a rather low level of noise. If you are in the same room as this turntable, there is no need to worry about any distracting hum or whine from these speakers; they remain practically silent when spinning your favorite vinyl records.
- The design is awesome and it looks very aesthetic. House Of Marley has really done a great job with designing this turntable. It’s very attractive and the materials used are environmentally sound, which is always important to me.
- It looks amazing, feels nice in your hands thanks to its lovely soft-touch finish that also adds an extra layer of protection for your records, and it sounds perfect.
- Jacks are placed in a convenient spot near the front, while switches are placed on both sides of the turntable.
- At this price point, you’ll be hard-pressed to find another product that delivers so much bang for your buck!
- The House Of Marley Stir It Up is a great buy if you’re in need of a new record player and want quality sound.
Cons:
There not much cons, but I will mention a few.
One is the power supply, which I found to be a little annoying. It’s just an extra cord that you need to plug in and it takes up additional space on your wall outlet. Plus it uses an adapter instead of just having something with a standard plug like most products these days do for whatever reason.
The other con would be that there is no closing dustcover lid attached to the turntable. The fabric cover that is included does not close, which can be a little annoying if you have cats like I do.
Also, the turntable has no wireless function, which sometimes can be very helpful.
Technical specification
Belt Drive Turntable
This turntable is belt driven. That means that the platter spins on a rubber belt instead of direct contact with the motor. This is supposed to reduce vibrations and noise, which it does very well in this case.
This turntable drives from a belt rather than directly contacting the motor like most do these days. It’s designed for reduced vibration and noise, which we all know are not what you want out of your turntables if you’re looking for quality sound!
The tonearm is not adjustable and there are only two speeds available for this model – 33 or 45 rpm.
Plinth
This device has a beautiful bamboo plinth, which looks amazing. The plinth of this turntable is bamboo, which looks amazing and happens to be an Eco friendly material–now that’s something you don’t see everyday in the realm of audio equipment (or anywhere else for that matter). You won’t have any worries about durability either: House Of Marley went all out on making sure their product can stand up to whatever life throws at it.
Platter
The platter is made of aluminium alloy, which recycled and is the best material for this part of the device. Also the slip mat comes created from a proprietary amalgamation of recycled plastic and rubbers.
Cartridge
The House Of Marley Stir It Up Turntable has an Audio Technica cartridge, a reputable company in the field of magnetic cartridges. The cartridge does not need an external power supply and is attached to the tonearm with three screws–no worries about it hitting any walls or getting loose during playback.
By the way, Audio Technica cartridge in my opinion is the top cartridges in the market right now and it’s also one of the best-selling cartridges in the world.
What I don’t like is that they have a proprietary (non-standard) cartridge, which means you can’t easily replace it if anything goes wrong with its performance or quality later on.
Built in Pre amp
The House Of Marley Stir It Up Turntable has a built in pre amp so you can hook it up to speakers, audio systems or amplifiers without the need for any external power supply. The turntable comes with a switch that allows you to turn off the internal phono preamp if you want to use an external one instead.
USB to PC recording
Another great feature is possibility of USB to PC recording. Which is great if you want to archive your vinyl records.
There is a separate USB output for this function, which makes it very convenient to use and without the need of extra cables. So you can have an instant digital copy of your favorite record. Just plug in the House Of Marley Stir It Up Turntable to your PC or Mac computer with a standard USB and record.
3.5mm Headphone Jack
If you want to listen your vinyl record using your headphones, The House Of Marley Stir It Up has 3.5mm headphone jack which is at the front of record player.
Anti-skate Control
The anti-skate control and the auto start/stop function protests your vinyl from scratching and damage.
Design
Let’s talk about the turntable’s design which is pretty amazing comparing to other devices.
If you like minimalistic design and aesthetic looks, this turntable is a perfect choice. Many of the metal components also use recycled aluminum alloy. Which is very important for eco-friendly trends nowadays.
Beside the bamboo plinth, turntable’s sides and bottom are covered in a cloth made from organic cotton and hemp.
The overall look of this turntable is 10/10 and it will lighten up any room it plays a part in.
Performance
I spent a few weeks testing the performance of The House Of Marley Stir It Up Turntable and I can see the sound quality for the price is really amazing.
The quality of sound was warm, deep, and pleasant – everything you need to enjoy music at home.
I have to mention, that if you want to experience the full effect of this device, you have to use good quality speakers, otherwise you won’t feel real benefits of this turntable.
The turntable itself is very well-built and solid with a good weight to it, which gives the impression of quality in my opinion.
It performs better than most turntable in the similar price range.
It’s good-looking and well made with some thoughtful features such as built-in stereo speakers for convenience sake. The sound quality is very decent too – it can be connected directly to your amplifier or receiver via its RCA output jacks if you want.
Bob Marley should be happy about his name record player.
In Conclusion
I really enjoyed using the House Of Marley Stir It Up Turntable (which is made of sustainable materials) and it looks great. As a mid-level unit, this turntable has more options than most in its price range. The sound quality is good too, especially for the price point. For those who are looking to buy a new turntable and care about aesthetics as well as sound quality then this model may be worth considering! Let me know what you think of my review on House Of Marley’s Stir It Up Turntables and if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below!
