Buying a turntable to listen on, rather than to mix on, changes the questions. Pitch control and motor torque stop mattering, and two other things decide almost everything: what the deck plugs into, and how much of the work you want it to do for you.

Where it plugs in comes down to the phono stage. A cartridge puts out a signal far too small for speakers or an amplifier's line input. Records are also cut with the bass turned down, so something has to boost that signal and restore the balance before you hear anything. Some decks here do the job inside the turntable and plug straight into powered speakers. Others need an amplifier with a phono input or a separate phono stage, and every entry below says which.

How much work you do is the other question. At one end sits a fully automatic deck that plays a side at the press of a button. At the other, you lower the arm by hand. The cheapest deck here is also the one that takes our Wavemaker.

The FiiO TT13 takes our Wavemaker because it asks the least of you. Press start and the arm lifts, finds the lead-in groove and lowers itself, then returns to its rest when the side ends. Press repeat and it plays the same side again until you stop it, a feature that all but disappeared from turntables after the automatic decks of the 1970s and 80s.

The phono stage is built in, so the TT13 connects straight to powered speakers with the supplied RCA lead, and the Bluetooth version also transmits aptX HD to wireless speakers and headphones. FiiO builds it around an aluminium alloy top panel, a die-cast aluminium platter and a brass tonearm carrying an Audio-Technica AT3600LA cartridge, with the tracking force set at the factory.

The catch is how much is fixed. The phono stage cannot be switched off and there is no phono output, so a better external phono stage is off the table later. The factory-set tracking force also makes a lighter-tracking cartridge harder to fit. Our full FiiO TT13 review found it sounds far pricier than it is, and goes through the setup, the Bluetooth and the lighting in detail.

Audio Affair has the Bluetooth version at £239 at time of writing. Mimic Audio sells it in the US, and FiiO's own EU shop covers Europe.

Step up from an automatic deck to a manual one and you often have to buy a phono stage as well. The Rega Planar 1 Plus skips that step. Rega took the Planar 1, the deck it calls the most successful it has ever made, and added a moving magnet phono stage based on its own Fono Mini. The output is ready for any line input or a pair of powered speakers.

The jobs a first-time owner might get wrong are done before it leaves the factory. The Carbon cartridge arrives fitted and the bias on the RB110 arm is preset, which is why Rega describes the Planar 1 Plus as its most "Plug & Play" turntable yet.

It is still a manual deck. You lower the arm onto the record yourself and lift it off when the side ends, and there is no Bluetooth. The plinth comes in matt black, matt white or a walnut effect that ships with a smoked dust cover, and Rega backs it with a lifetime limited warranty against manufacturing defects.

Doug Brady HiFi has all three finishes at £399 at time of writing. In the US, Safe and Sound HQ has the matt white version on sale at $549.99, down from $725, and HiFi-Regler stocks it in Germany.

Pro-Ject launched the Debut in 1998, and more than a million have sold since. The Debut Carbon followed in 2012 and gave the range a carbon fibre tonearm, and we own one ourselves.

The Original is Pro-Ject's new take on that 2012 deck. Its 8.6in arm is one piece of carbon from the tube to the headshell, with adaptive anti-skating and a damped counterweight. A pre-adjusted Pick it S2 moving magnet cartridge comes fitted. The platter is 1.7kg of steel, chosen for its rotational mass, on a glass-fibre reinforced sub-platter.

The motor arrangement is the clever part. Pro-Ject feeds the AC motor from its own DC/AC generator rather than straight from the mains, so the motor's speed does not depend on how clean your household supply is. The motor also sits on its own suspension, which keeps its vibration away from the stylus.

There is no phono stage inside The Original. It needs an amplifier with a phono input or a separate phono stage, so budget for one if your system lacks it. Speed changes between 33 and 45 are done by hand.

UK shops started selling it in November 2026. Audio Affair has it in stock at £499 at time of writing, and Richer Sounds is taking pre-orders. Pro-Ject lists it at €599 in Europe and $649 in the US, though no shop in either region had it listed when we checked.

Every other deck in this guide turns its platter with a belt. The Technics SL-1500C drives its platter straight from the motor underneath. Technics built the first direct drive turntable in 1970, and the SL-1500C belongs to its Premium Class hi-fi range rather than its DJ line. The SL-1500C's coreless motor takes the platter from standstill to 33⅓rpm in 0.7 seconds, and Technics rates wow and flutter at 0.025%.

It is also the most flexible deck here to connect. The phono stage is built in, but Technics gives the SL-1500C separate PHONO and LINE outputs, so it can run straight into powered speakers now and through a better phono stage later. An Ortofon 2M Red cartridge comes in the box, and the headshell detaches, which makes swapping cartridges a quick job.

When a side finishes, the auto lifter raises the arm off the record, and you return it to the rest yourself. The SL-1500C also runs at 78rpm, though shellac needs a 78 stylus. At 9.9kg it is the heaviest deck in this guide, so check what it is going to sit on.

Technics' own UK store has it at £899. Fewer than five were left at time of writing. In the US it costs $1,499.99, and with Technics' US store sold out, the button below goes to Vinyl Sound. Fono sells it in Germany for €989, just under the €999 list price. Delivery there takes 10 to 14 working days.

Rega builds the Planar 3 RS Edition around two things the standard Planar 3 goes without: a metal-skinned plinth and the Neo MK2 power supply. The plinth is a laminate skinned in brushed aluminium and edged in gloss black, with a second brace added for stiffness. The Neo MK2, which Rega also sells as a separate upgrade, changes speed electronically and trims it in 0.01rpm steps. Rega tunes its anti-vibration circuit by hand to the motor it ships with.

The arm is a hand-assembled RB330 carrying a factory-fitted Nd5 moving magnet cartridge, and the platter is 12mm of float glass under a smoked dust cover.

Like The Original, the Planar 3 RS has no phono stage. Its RCA leads carry a phono-level signal, so it needs a phono input on your amplifier or a separate stage such as Rega's own Fono MM.

In the UK, Doug Brady HiFi has it at £1,099 at time of writing. Audio Advice sells it for $1,795 in the US. Fono lists it in Germany at €1,399. As with the Technics, delivery takes 10 to 14 working days.

The FiiO TT13 takes it, and the Wavemaker with it: automatic play, a built-in phono stage and aptX HD Bluetooth make it the shortest route from a record to your speakers. If you would rather cue records by hand without adding a separate phono stage, the Rega Planar 1 Plus is the one to buy.

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