HIT THE DECKS

With vinyl making an unexpected comeback, here are three of the best turntables under £400

Reports of vinyl’s death have been greatly exaggerated. In 2014, sales of music on vinyl hit a 20-year high; in 2015, they reached a 25-year high; in December 2016, vinyl sales outstripped sales of digital downloads for the first time since the latter became legally available. It’s not just a hipster thing, either – you can now buy records in Tesco and Sainsbury’s for the first time in decades. This has led to a boom in sales of vinyl turntables, with high street stores full of sub-£100 ‘briefcase’ models, often complete with built-in speakers.

But those players are often of quite dubious quality: they don’t sound great, they’re not built to last and the worst offenders can actually damage your precious records. For discerning types – which naturally includes BBC Focus readers – that’s just not good enough, when for just a little more money you can get something that’ll sound much better and last you a lifetime. Here, we put three well-regarded but affordable decks through their paces…