Target's Heydey $99 Turntable

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by jmobrien68, Dec 3, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. MondoFanM

    MondoFanM Member from ATX

    Location:
    Austin
    Damn. I ordered one for pickup today. I couldn’t resist. Worst case scenario i give it to my mom and I take back my Music Hall MMF 5 she never uses and just sell it.
     
    ranch 22b, lightbulb, Manimal and 2 others like this.
  2. rockin_since_58

    rockin_since_58 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Simi Valley, CA
    Be sure to post your thoughts on this after you give it a spin...I am interested in this as a bedroom unit with BT speakers.
     
    lightbulb, Grant and vinylfilmaholic like this.
  3. jmobrien68

    jmobrien68 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toms River, NJ
    But with the counterweight allowing you to adjust the tracking force, it's not like you're slicing through new vinyl with a Crosley groove slasher coming in at 5+ grams of force.
     
  4. usethefourth

    usethefourth Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Chicago
    The comparison for me would be this vs. something like an AT-LP-60 more than a cruiser. Neither 60 or this Heyday come with speakers so that's an add'l cost over the Cruiser. This at glance looks to have more features than the AT60 given tracking force and anti-skate and could be worth the 100 bucks. The main benefit is if these were widely available and of decent quality, it gives newbies who don't know much an option beyond a cruiser at a place they already shop.
     
  5. MondoFanM

    MondoFanM Member from ATX

    Location:
    Austin
    VinylFanMichael on Instagram: “OK...i couldn’t resist and went and bought one of these. Sound wise I hear some distortion and a little background hum in silent sections…”

    You can see it in action on my instagram well as some photos.

    Better than a Crosley, not audiophile. If it was all I had I’d be happy with it for sure. I would have loved something easy like this in 1999 when I bought a Pioneer 5.1 receiver and relized it didn’t have a phono in.

    I hear some distortion. Could be the cart. I couldnt get it set to 2.5 and have it set at 2.4. There some hum noticable. A pop when the platter stops spinning. If you want a $100 turntable, and thats your budget, this is the one.

    The dustcover is pretty thick. Better than Uturn’s. I will play around with it a little more but i think my mom will be happy with it and I will get $300 maybe for selling my old Music Hall.

    Not sure how to test bluetooth. Dont think i have a speaker.
     
  6. uzn007

    uzn007 Watcher of the Skis

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    Pull your car up next to your living room?
     
  7. forthlin

    forthlin Member Chris & Vickie Cyber Support Team

    Oh come on Bill, if we start getting "normal people" in on the hobby what fun will that be?:p The thing I like best about this is that people are buying cheap crap like Crosleys for the same price, at least folks have a shot at getting something half-way decent for the same money.
     
    displayname, scott palmiter and Bill like this.
  8. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I'd like to see a video that focuses on the sound quality.

    This does indeed look like a big step up from the Crossley, maybe even the Audio Technica.

    You guys have to remember that there are a lot of consumers who will not pay $299 for a U-Turn table. $99 sounds just right, and you can pick it up at Target, probably just down the street and around the corner from where you live. Just the fact that it has a counterweight and an anti-skate, along with the ability to switch out any cart, tells me that it's worth taking a look at. Its price point indeed says they had to cut a corner somewhere, which is why I wonder about the wow and flutter spec. But, still, it looks like a viable option.
     
  9. jmobrien68

    jmobrien68 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toms River, NJ
    and save 5% if you use your Target Red Card :wiggle:... lol
     
    displayname and lightbulb like this.
  10. PhilBiker

    PhilBiker sh.tv member number 666

    Location:
    Northern VA, USA
    With a counterweight and anti-skate this thing should be orders of magnitude better than the AT-LP60.

    That's post 1. Is there a reason you re-posted?
     
    displayname, nosliw and uzn007 like this.
  11. classicrocker

    classicrocker Life is good!

    Location:
    Worcester, MA, USA
    My apologies I missed the original so deleted my post
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  12. SpeedMorris

    SpeedMorris Forum Resident

    Location:
    Iowa
    The thing is undeniably a toy, so the question is whether it's a toy that works, or will last a few years. (Aren't they all just toys?)

    I gave my first Beatle, etc albums to a high school senior a couple of years ago. Even though I would never be playing them again, I felt a twinge of regret when I learned he had a Cruiser- not that he was going to damage them much. He wasn't going to get good sound even if he'd had a nicer system; I just figured he could explore the catalog and maybe some day maybe pick up nicer copies if he decided he valued any of the albums.

    I told him he shouldn't ever play anything nice on the Cruiser and to give me a buzz if he ever had some extra funds to upgrade to a "real" (budget) system, telling him that, barring some outstandingly cheap used finds, he'd be looking at $300-500 depending on his goals. He's far from a poor kid, but I could tell that those numbers sounded daunting as he was heading off to college.

    If he'd owned this thing- assuming motor-bearings work decently- I needn't have had that twinge about the albums. He could have heard them in a better light just with something like the $70 BT speaker I got for my grand daughter. He could pick up some decent albums without much concern of damage. His dorm room upgrade path could have been a Lepai-Lepy-SMSL or a used receiver and Monoprice-Dayton-Micca-Fluance-Pioneer speakers. Maybe a cheap Behringer, etc phono amp and the LPGear stylus upgrade.
     
    nosliw and PhilBiker like this.
  13. Manimal

    Manimal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern US
    Seems alright and hey if it hits a kid like a bolt of lightning and he grows to have a love for quality playback I’m all for it. Also fits the bill for a parent who has no idea about vinyl themselves and won’t likely peruse the dark audio web for a decent 150 dollar eighties pioneer or something.
     
    displayname likes this.
  14. PhilBiker

    PhilBiker sh.tv member number 666

    Location:
    Northern VA, USA
    This looks like it would be a good fit into my Grundig console to replace the old broken turntable in there.
     
    nosliw likes this.
  15. nosliw

    nosliw Delivering parcels throughout Teyvat! Meow~!

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON, Canada
    The Heydey turntable reminds me of the House of Marley's Stir It Up turntable.

    [​IMG]
    Regarding the Stir It Up, there's been quite a few reports of QC problems, chiefly the motor being unstable or too slow/fast.
     
    Aftermath and PhilBiker like this.
  16. SJP

    SJP Forum Resident

    Location:
    Anaheim
    Looks like a decent starter TT.

    Crosley gets a lot of bad press, and rightfully so in many cases. But last Christmas I bought my now 13 year old daughter this Crosley from Barnes & Noble...

    [​IMG]

    I forget exactly what I paid but it was in the low-$100's which isn't bad given that it includes bluetooth speakers. My only criticism is that the speakers are pretty thin. My other daughter who is a couple years older started with an entry level Audio Technica and we bought some wired speakers which are clearly higher quality and sound sweet.

    Most important though is that all three of my kids have their own TT's and it has served to keep them with at least a foot in the door with respect to physical media. My girls despise CDs yet they are asking for vinyl albums for Christmas. I'd say mission accomplished in my family and hopefully these starters will do the same for others.
     
  17. uzn007

    uzn007 Watcher of the Skis

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    Hope your back is strong when it's time to move them into college dormitories and apartments. :D
     
    scott palmiter, Bill and bever70 like this.
  18. vwestlife

    vwestlife Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Keep in mind that Crosley now sells a full range of turntables, many of which are even better than this one.

    AT-LP60:
    fixed cartridge
    fixed counterbalance spring
    fixed anti-skating

    Heyday turntable:
    upgradeable ½"-mount cartridge
    adjustable counterweight
    adjustable anti-skating

    However, those things may not necessarily be an advantage to its target (no pun intended) demographic. I wouldn't trust most beginners to know how to properly balance a tonearm and adjust a counterweight. It might be a bit daunting to figure out, especially if they've never used a turntable before and haven't yet grasped the concept of what all its parts do.

    It might've been better if they had adopted the U-Turn Orbit approach of shipping the turntable with the counterweight already installed and pre-adjusted, and held in place with a set screw, so that a beginner doesn't need to worry about it, but still providing adjustability if the owner ever decides to upgrade the cartridge in the future.
     
  19. uzn007

    uzn007 Watcher of the Skis

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    Yes, but their name will always be synonymous with cheap crappy suitcase record players, even if they're branded as "Victrola" or whatever. :D
     
  20. uzn007

    uzn007 Watcher of the Skis

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    PS: I appreciate everyone clarifying the functional differences between this and the AT-LP60. I'm not much of a turntable geek (I've been using the same one for 30 years) and haven't really looked at any of the currently-available cheap turntables very closely.
     
    displayname and PhilBiker like this.
  21. vwestlife

    vwestlife Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    And at one time, Volkswagen was synonymous with the frugal but unsafe little Beetle. For millions it was their first car, and for millions of others it was the butt of jokes. But then they started selling a full range of vehicles, many of which were genuinely very good. Crosley is following the same approach.

    But for the record, Victrola (trademark owned by a company called Innovative Technology) is actually the best-selling brand of record players, not Crosley: https://blog.discogs.com/en/best-selling-turntable-united-states-might-surprise/
     
    rockin_since_58 likes this.
  22. SpeedMorris

    SpeedMorris Forum Resident

    Location:
    Iowa
    I'd like to see a @vwestlife video investigation. Do you still have the Pioneer PL-990 in house for comparison?
     
  23. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I keep forgetting this one exists. We even had a thread about it last year. But, not only do I not ever see them for sale, they are cursed with the name.
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  24. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    A $100 turntable would have cost about $15 in 1970 — around what it cost to buy a kid's toy record player from Sears. I'm enough of a hi-fi snob to think nobody over the age of 12 should be playing vinyl on a toy.

    I'll be keen to check out the upcoming Schiit turntable, which pricewise (rumored to be around $700) will be more in line with what it cost to buy a nice mass-fi teenybopper portable in 1970 — around $100, give or take. Except it'll probably be much closer to modest audiophile specs and will sound better than decent. But no amp or speakers of course.

    Here's a page from the 1970 Sears catalog:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2018
    ranch 22b and PhilBiker like this.
  25. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Oh Brave New World which has such things in it! When I started out, mine looked like Mickey Mouse...:sigh:
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine