A turntable to get you back in the groove

I ALWAYS feel I’m letting other middle-aged men down by the fact that it’s my wife, not me, who’s the vinyl fan in our house.

I’m just far too tight-fisted to pay £25 for a record I once owned in the 1980s, and probably sold to a secondhand shop for 50p.

My wife, however, is more than happy to run wild in the aisles with our credit card. Of course, I’m still involved in my unofficial capacity as in-house tech support – wrestling with cables and phono amps so she can enjoy Kate Bush’s shriek at its piercing best.

So I heave a sigh of relief with decks like Pro-Ject’s Juke Box E. It’s vinyl, minus the pain. You don’t end up turning round and heading straight back into town to get a cartridge: it’s all there in the box, from phono amp to amp to belt-driven deck.

Crucially, unlike most other all-in-ones for less than £400, it’s not terrible. Pro-Ject’s a decent, long-lived brand, and the sound via the built-in 25W amp is warm enough for you to bore your house guests rigid about it for the next few years. Even the Ortofon cartridge which comes with it is pretty decent.

Even if you are a hardcore hi-fi aficionado who would rather die than use anything but separates, you’d struggle to get sound as good at this price. You can connect up any old passive stereo speakers (or run it into the back of another system if you need).

There’s also a Bluetooth receiver built-in, so skinflints like myself can connect a phone and listen to Spotify (while quietly seething about the amount we’re spending on vinyl).