The only turntable that can rip you vinyl to lossless formats. In fact the lowest res it will do is CD quality. The lowest!
All that would be for nought if it was a rubbish turntable. Bit it is brilliant, regularly getting 4 and 5 star reviews from HiFi publications.
Latest comments (47)
uni
22 Dec 16#47
again you are wrong. you were wrong when you said "Sony is geared towards HiFi, the Pioneer towards making noise. "
you were wrong when you said "the Sony is more hifi and living room friendly. " as the pioneer is more upgradable
you were also wrong when you said "and have not as yet experienced or noticed wow and flutter" as all analogue playback suffers from this. it's just that you don't realise or notice it
in regards to being patronising and condescending, i haven't made such comments yet your comments such as "Sony looks better in a home setting to me. The Pioneer may look better in a teenage DJ's bedroom.
Sony is geared towards HiFi, the Pioneer towards making noise" and "I don't like my hifi to look like the deck of the starship enterprise. "Now have a Merry Christmas with your DJ turntables and may Santa bring you what you need...a decent turntable may I suggest?" would perhaps been seen by others are being particularly condescending, as well as showing you to be a hippocrite
it does also sound like i was correct in my assumption that you never bothered to test the deck yourself before buying, instead relying on comments made by other people instead of using your own ears. no incorrect judgements from me as i choose my words carefully, which is why you will find there's not a single thing i've said that is factually false
FunkiestMonkey
20 Dec 16#46
Nothing I said is factually incorrect. All I have said is that wow and flutter have not affected me because I do not and have not noticed it. That is a fact.
Again you have made incorrect judgements on how I purchase my equipment by way of patronising and also being condescending. I did not just read one opinion and I compared this deck, by way of multiple professional, I.e. expert, reviews, to others from that, Proje, and yes, direct drive decks,e.g. Technics.
This is now becoming boring and personal and I bid you a good day and happy Christmas.
uni
17 Dec 16#45
just because you haven't read something, doesn't mean it's not true. there are many factual science books i haven't read. i don't discount the facts because i haven't read them. the issues with wow and flutter on belt driven analogue equipment is well known and has been for decades
as for being condescending or questioning what you are saying. i'm doing neither. that's simply your own thoughts. if you think what i've said is condescending then perhaps you are a hippocrite for posting your remarks above? not exactly the qualities most people would seek from someone they would like technical advice from i bet
as for belt drive or direct drive, i've pointed out several times that people should do their own research and make their own decisions to choose what is right for them. chosing something just because they've read what one person on the internet has said, without checking for themselves, may not give the buyer the best option. that's why i don't make such recommendations. based on what you have said, it appears that's how you may choose to purchase, rather than doing your own research or testing. that's your perogative. however much of what you have posted on this thread is simply factually false
FunkiestMonkey
16 Dec 16#44
So condescending.
To clarify, I have not read that wow and flutter is a noticeable problem with this turntable during my research before I bought this turntable.
My current system was assembled specifically to reproduce SACD to the highest standard I could afford and as such I will not be questioned by someone as to my HiFi detection credentials by someone who espouses direct drive as a superior system to belt driven when clearly top end turntable companies use belt driven systems from their budget models all the way to their esoteric models. Now have a Merry Christmas with your DJ turntables and may Santa bring you what you need...a decent turntable may I suggest?
uni
14 Dec 16#43
if you grew up on tapes then you most definately experienced wow and flutter. you are perhaps used to it, and all the issues analogue tape has, such as muddy bass and rolled off top end and that's why you can't appreciate good quality audio
as for it being mentioned in reviews, it depends on what reviews you read. if you are familiar with quality hifi journals of the past 30 or so years then you would have read about it
FunkiestMonkey
14 Dec 16#42
I grew up on tapes and have not as yet experienced or noticed wow and flutter so I guess I am not that sensitive to it. Not a problem and doesn't get a mention in any professional reviews as an issue so I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens to you or me personally.
FunkiestMonkey
8 Dec 16#38
I have not had any issues. I do run the signal through my AV amp and so any frequency reverbs that cause a greater audible effect of wow and flutter are probably made negligible.
Sorry it didn't work out for you.
uni to FunkiestMonkey
9 Dec 16#41
I suggest you google what wow and flutter means as running it through an amp isn't going to help.
it's the term used for speed variations on analogue equipment and as I mentioned before, belt driven equipment usually suffers from this as rubber belts can be stretched or shrink during use or non use and depending on temperatures
servoyguru
8 Dec 16#39
I'm sorry to... Spent time yesterday listening on high quality headphones to all my DSD rips and could hear it quite clearly on a number of tracks, some of which I have CD versions of to compare against (as well as my memory)
FunkiestMonkey to servoyguru
8 Dec 16#40
I listened to some DSD rips from this turntable and they sounded great. For some reason it did not work out for you.
servoyguru
8 Dec 16#37
Further to my earlier comments, I have now noticed on certain recordings some wow & flutter, enough to cause me upset & I think I might be returning it :disappointed:
Jimbo123
3 Dec 16#36
Oh it's for the sound, right right. I take it you use one of these on your morning commute:)
I'm only messing about, I'm a hi-fi fanatic and think is a amazing bit of kit from Sony
Jimbo123
3 Dec 16#34
Wonderful isn't it , you buy music on vinyl , Discover how inconvenient it is and then recoded back to MP3 format or CD audio files
FunkiestMonkey to Jimbo123
3 Dec 16#35
Some music is worth making an effort for.
The ripping on this is in DSD, which means to all intents and purposes it sounds like vinyl, when you can't be in the same.room as your turntable.
P.s. finally set it up last night. No pops or crackles. I do brush my records before playing.
And they are quite new.
uni
1 Dec 16#33
that's fine, but not everyone would make the same decision, at least not on the budget end. ultimately it's up to the individual to do their homework and make their own choices of what they want to buy
as for the sony benefitting from a belt drive, that's simply subjective
Savo
1 Dec 16#32
If I had a budget of £250, I'd buy a belt driven Rega Planer. 1. Fantastic value and sound. If I had a fortune then I'd buy a belt driven Kronos turntable at £30,000 also belt driven. I'm sure this Sony TT also benefits from belt drive. Anyway I'm happy enough with my belt driven TMS :-)
uni
1 Dec 16#31
your words not mine
with most things in life you have options available and few things are perfect at the price point you are willing to spend, so compromises are made. it's up to the individual to choose depending on what is most important to them. we are discussing a budget range of turntables and that's often where issues with timing on belt drives will become the most apparant
Savo
30 Nov 161#30
So Linn, Roksan, Michell, Rega, VPI, Thorens, Void, Pink Triangle, etc all got it wrong. :stuck_out_tongue:
Mathaeus
30 Nov 161#29
Finally a vinyl player that doesn't look like i wish I was a DJ.. or nostalgic..
I'm tempted :/
uni
30 Nov 16#28
as i mentioned before, less wow and flutter. or in other words DD turntables usually have better speed accuracy than belt drive turntables that can suffer from speed variations due to the belt stretching over time, or shrinking due to drying out, or being at an angle or not 100% perfect on the platter, and in some cases you can get reasonable variations if the platter doesn't have grooves to keep the belt in. when the record runs at a different speed, the pitch of the music changes and the tempo of the music changes
uni
30 Nov 16#27
true, however the accuracy of speed and pitch is more important to the overall sound as far as i'm concerned. variations of speed or the speed not being correct means your audio isn't playing in the right pitch, so everything you hear is not what was intended, whilst the rumble and platter noise is usually less noticable and has less overall effect. the newer DD TT's in particular do well in avoiding this compared to older models
if you are ripping music from vinly to digital for example, test using a vinly copy of an album and make your rip and rip a cd and stick the two side by side to see the variances in length of track (using suitable software of course). this is where you will usually spot the biggest difference between belt and DD turntables. and if you are ripping to archive rare tracks you usually want to get the speed and pitch right, even if you can adjust with software
Bad Actor
30 Nov 16#26
Sigh, I had a Technics direct drive linear tracking turntable back in the day.
You could program it to play your lp tracks in any order like a cd, bloody good it was, then my wife bought a Sigue Sigue Sputnik album which had adverts between tracks :disappointed:
less wow and flutter on a direct drive but more rumble usually, and platter noise.
Savo
30 Nov 16#23
Don't see why you'd want a direct drive TT for proper listening?
neva2bizy
30 Nov 16#22
You gents have my respect.
FunkiestMonkey
30 Nov 16#15
uni, I would like to address a few misconceptions you have about this deck. I take everything you say about the Pioneer, so I do not wish to argue for this or against that. But in case others are swayed by your misinformation, I would like to point out these facts:
-The DAC contained within the Sony deck does Analogue to DSD. What is more, it is a very good DAC. I take this on face value based on a review. If you Youtube some videos you can hear how good the digital rip is, even on youtube. The pure DSD signal gets fed to a PC which can then record it as such. You cannot replicate this using a soundcard.
If you do not appreciate DSD, you can stick to PCM at the highest bitrate. 24bit192kHz I think.
-You can output the phono level signal and thus bipass the phono stage in the player, although again, in reviews the internal phono stage gets praise.
-You can swap out the cartridge if you so desire.
-I don't buy my hifi based on THD and Wow and flutter figures. In fact, a review actually says, there is no audible effect of the relatively high wow and flutter numbers.
P.S. I have a Pioneer DVD/SACD/DVD-AUDIO player and love it to bits and would happily drop £2k on a Dolby Atmos made by them, so I have nothing against Pioneer.
uni to FunkiestMonkey
30 Nov 16#21
what misconceptions about the deck do I have? you've not listed one. I've not posted any misinformation either. furthermore, my advice to people is to see the decks in person to compare and make their own decision
most of what you have said is simply subjective and opinion rather than fact. the DAC being "very good" is subjective as opposed to you providing some facts comparing that DAC against others
whilst the sony let's you bypass the DAC and use phono, the PLX500 let's you completely change and upgrade that audio component to something potentially far more expensive than the sony and pioneer decks cost added together. in other words the pioneer can let you upgrade to a far higher quality output than the sony which doesn't have the same upgrade potential. in other words the pioneer can output a higher quality audio in order to make a higher quality digital rip than the sony can, and with potentially better timing and accuracy in records to speed and pitch, and less distortion. those are typically the things of interest to those truly interested in hifi
now if you don't take into consideration THD and wow and flutter and want to pick your hifi simply based on the review of someone else, that's your personal choice. other people consider those things to be very important, and it's worth pointing those things out to people so they can get information about it and make their own decisions
servoyguru
30 Nov 162#20
Firstly, this is a HOT deal!
It was tempting at original price of £449, but at £299, I jumped on this on Friday, got it late Monday and spent yesterday ripping some of my old vinyl that has been impossible to find in 'digital' form anywhere.
I consider myself an 'audiophile' and have to say that I am very happy with the quality of sound from the Sony (comparing it against my Linn Sondek LP12 / Ittok / Koetsu Black). It obviously isn't as good, but for ease of ripping vinyl, I am more than happy.
I can't compare it against the Pioneer, but having a quick look, I can't see what the bitrate for it's USB is, and most USB turntables are just 'CD' quality (16 bit etc.), whereas to get the best out of your vinyl, you need higher rates, such as offered here by the Sony.
My only 'heads-up' is that when ripping to DSD (2.8Mhz/Single), the size of a ripped LP is about 1.6Gb!
(And I haven't noticed any issues with wow or flutter on the recordings I just made)
For quality & convenience of converting your Vinyl to Digital, I think that this is a wonderful (minimalist) product that does a fantastic job & I'm looking forward to hearing when 'out and about' my LPs.
got_the_feelin
30 Nov 16#19
A good price for this. I wouldn't fall for the marketing BS from Sony though. A company who released a Hi-Res SD card!
It's debatable whether people can hear the difference between CD quality and Hi-Res. The ones who say they can have very expensive sound systems in acoustically treated rooms. You're certainly not going to notice the difference on a Walkman!
Also recordings that were made to be heard on a record, were recorded and mastered to sound their best on a record. A record isn't a Hi-Res format. The noise floor and channel separation are poor compared to a CD, let alone a Hi-Res recording. Transferring a record to Hi-Res is overkill and just takes up more space on your hard drive.
gsusx
30 Nov 16#18
Yeh 6 b.
M1LFHunter
30 Nov 16#17
*facepalm
FunkiestMonkey
30 Nov 16#16
P.S. I would not have paid £400 for this deck as not worth that for the USP of convenient high res recording for me. But in my opinion it is a good turntable for £299 no matter what, and at this price point, the high res digital ability is a bonus that noone else has right now.
uni
30 Nov 16#14
that AT is £500 compared to the PLX500 being £300. the PLX1000 is the more comparable model pricewise at around £500
personally I have all the stuff under the sun to rip from anything, so I don't need the USB functionality. so it then depends on your budget and what else you want to do. I personally would opt for the PLX500 and get 2 of them to dj with, adding to my growing collection of turtables. two of which I dj with and the other is my "hifi" deck which I use to record vinly to digital
there's also the AT5 which is a DD model without pitch control that's similar to the sony but about £500 too. if you don't need the pitch control the AT5 may be a better option and it looks more like trad hifi whilst the LP1240 looks like a flashier version of the SL1200's - not flashy in a good way in my opinion. the pioneers look a bit more discreet
I suggest you go to a store and try them out before you buy. I wouldn't be put off by the lack of USB as you can buy a box separately if your soundcard doesn't take a phono input
whilst you say the sony is a better bet for hifi, I disagree and say the plx500 is the better bet for hifi. you can swap out the internal phono stage on the plx but not the sony
as for looks, it's a matter of opinion really, however typically it's the sound that's most important in hifi. I can't hear what a turntable looks like. as for the DSD and PCM recording, it's irrelevant. you can connect almost any turntable up to record to digital. not everyone is interested in that, so the sony is supplying something that will have a bearing on the overall performance of the turntable, and not in a positive way, and it's not necessarily always going to be used
it's not to say the sony is a bad choice, but if it's true hifi quality sound you are after then technically the pioneer can offer better performance than the sony. better timing, less wow and flutter, less THD and more upgradable. if you do want to record vinly to digital you would obviously need a relevant soundcard or device to do that. the pioneer has put the money into the quality of the deck whilst part of the sony budget has went into offering the USB elements that may not be required
FunkiestMonkey
30 Nov 162#11
Correct. Not usually. USUALLY it is just convenience. But in this case, it does double DSD or lossless PCM recording. And as I said originally, that would be pointless if the original signal coming out of the player was crud. But I trust the reviews which are universally full of praise.
So there is no doubt in my mind that the Sony is more hifi and living room friendly.
I don't like my hifi to look like the deck of the starship enterprise. Don't mind my comments if you have the Pioneer. I'm just saying for hifi purposes, the Sony is a better bet.
P.S. I could not find any hifi reviews of the Pioneer.
narry
30 Nov 16#10
I do like the Sony and understand where it sits in the market, but if you wanted to 'play' a little and still make decent recordings via USB, which would you chose PLX500 or Audio Technica ATLP1240USB USB DJ Turntable ?
uni
30 Nov 16#9
the reviews would disagree on you. the PLX500 is more upgradable too. less wow and flutter on a direct drive too. a hifi purist wouldn't usually consider USB on a turntable to be something "hifi"
Good if you want bottom dollar, but it is open box. I would rather pay £31 more and get brand new.
instant_classic
30 Nov 16#4
Hmmmm this or the pioneer Plx 500....
uni to instant_classic
30 Nov 16#5
plx500 easily. direct drive turntable. great reviews
FunkiestMonkey to instant_classic
30 Nov 16#7
I see them as different machines. Sony looks better in a home setting to me. The Pioneer may look better in a teenage DJ's bedroom.
Sony is geared towards HiFi, the Pioneer towards making noise.
So it depends on what function you want it to perform.
FunkiestMonkey
30 Nov 162#3
Thanks for info, narry.
I ordered from Amazon even though it was OOS on Monday but was in stock yesterday, because I am a Prime member and feel it beneficial to build up my relationship with those tax dodgers because their customer service is top notch and convenient. I have bought from HiFi confidential, sevenoaks, and richer sounds and to be fair they all have given good CS.
narry
30 Nov 162#2
Other retailers include Richer Sounds for same price, extra 6 year supercare is another £29.90
Sevenoaks also doing it at this price.
Voted hot.
FunkiestMonkey
29 Nov 16#1
Also available at couple other shops for this Cyber Week price. E.g. HiFi confidential
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Opening post
The only turntable that can rip you vinyl to lossless formats. In fact the lowest res it will do is CD quality. The lowest!
All that would be for nought if it was a rubbish turntable. Bit it is brilliant, regularly getting 4 and 5 star reviews from HiFi publications.
Latest comments (47)
you were wrong when you said "the Sony is more hifi and living room friendly. " as the pioneer is more upgradable
you were also wrong when you said "and have not as yet experienced or noticed wow and flutter" as all analogue playback suffers from this. it's just that you don't realise or notice it
in regards to being patronising and condescending, i haven't made such comments yet your comments such as "Sony looks better in a home setting to me. The Pioneer may look better in a teenage DJ's bedroom.
Sony is geared towards HiFi, the Pioneer towards making noise" and "I don't like my hifi to look like the deck of the starship enterprise. "Now have a Merry Christmas with your DJ turntables and may Santa bring you what you need...a decent turntable may I suggest?" would perhaps been seen by others are being particularly condescending, as well as showing you to be a hippocrite
it does also sound like i was correct in my assumption that you never bothered to test the deck yourself before buying, instead relying on comments made by other people instead of using your own ears. no incorrect judgements from me as i choose my words carefully, which is why you will find there's not a single thing i've said that is factually false
Again you have made incorrect judgements on how I purchase my equipment by way of patronising and also being condescending. I did not just read one opinion and I compared this deck, by way of multiple professional, I.e. expert, reviews, to others from that, Proje, and yes, direct drive decks,e.g. Technics.
This is now becoming boring and personal and I bid you a good day and happy Christmas.
as for being condescending or questioning what you are saying. i'm doing neither. that's simply your own thoughts. if you think what i've said is condescending then perhaps you are a hippocrite for posting your remarks above? not exactly the qualities most people would seek from someone they would like technical advice from i bet
as for belt drive or direct drive, i've pointed out several times that people should do their own research and make their own decisions to choose what is right for them. chosing something just because they've read what one person on the internet has said, without checking for themselves, may not give the buyer the best option. that's why i don't make such recommendations. based on what you have said, it appears that's how you may choose to purchase, rather than doing your own research or testing. that's your perogative. however much of what you have posted on this thread is simply factually false
To clarify, I have not read that wow and flutter is a noticeable problem with this turntable during my research before I bought this turntable.
My current system was assembled specifically to reproduce SACD to the highest standard I could afford and as such I will not be questioned by someone as to my HiFi detection credentials by someone who espouses direct drive as a superior system to belt driven when clearly top end turntable companies use belt driven systems from their budget models all the way to their esoteric models. Now have a Merry Christmas with your DJ turntables and may Santa bring you what you need...a decent turntable may I suggest?
as for it being mentioned in reviews, it depends on what reviews you read. if you are familiar with quality hifi journals of the past 30 or so years then you would have read about it
Sorry it didn't work out for you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow_(recording)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow_and_flutter_measurement
it's the term used for speed variations on analogue equipment and as I mentioned before, belt driven equipment usually suffers from this as rubber belts can be stretched or shrink during use or non use and depending on temperatures
I'm only messing about, I'm a hi-fi fanatic and think is a amazing bit of kit from Sony
The ripping on this is in DSD, which means to all intents and purposes it sounds like vinyl, when you can't be in the same.room as your turntable.
P.s. finally set it up last night. No pops or crackles. I do brush my records before playing.
And they are quite new.
as for the sony benefitting from a belt drive, that's simply subjective
with most things in life you have options available and few things are perfect at the price point you are willing to spend, so compromises are made. it's up to the individual to choose depending on what is most important to them. we are discussing a budget range of turntables and that's often where issues with timing on belt drives will become the most apparant
I'm tempted :/
if you are ripping music from vinly to digital for example, test using a vinly copy of an album and make your rip and rip a cd and stick the two side by side to see the variances in length of track (using suitable software of course). this is where you will usually spot the biggest difference between belt and DD turntables. and if you are ripping to archive rare tracks you usually want to get the speed and pitch right, even if you can adjust with software
You could program it to play your lp tracks in any order like a cd, bloody good it was, then my wife bought a Sigue Sigue Sputnik album which had adverts between tracks :disappointed:
Roksan TMS
-The DAC contained within the Sony deck does Analogue to DSD. What is more, it is a very good DAC. I take this on face value based on a review. If you Youtube some videos you can hear how good the digital rip is, even on youtube. The pure DSD signal gets fed to a PC which can then record it as such. You cannot replicate this using a soundcard.
If you do not appreciate DSD, you can stick to PCM at the highest bitrate. 24bit192kHz I think.
-You can output the phono level signal and thus bipass the phono stage in the player, although again, in reviews the internal phono stage gets praise.
-You can swap out the cartridge if you so desire.
-I don't buy my hifi based on THD and Wow and flutter figures. In fact, a review actually says, there is no audible effect of the relatively high wow and flutter numbers.
P.S. I have a Pioneer DVD/SACD/DVD-AUDIO player and love it to bits and would happily drop £2k on a Dolby Atmos made by them, so I have nothing against Pioneer.
most of what you have said is simply subjective and opinion rather than fact. the DAC being "very good" is subjective as opposed to you providing some facts comparing that DAC against others
whilst the sony let's you bypass the DAC and use phono, the PLX500 let's you completely change and upgrade that audio component to something potentially far more expensive than the sony and pioneer decks cost added together. in other words the pioneer can let you upgrade to a far higher quality output than the sony which doesn't have the same upgrade potential. in other words the pioneer can output a higher quality audio in order to make a higher quality digital rip than the sony can, and with potentially better timing and accuracy in records to speed and pitch, and less distortion. those are typically the things of interest to those truly interested in hifi
now if you don't take into consideration THD and wow and flutter and want to pick your hifi simply based on the review of someone else, that's your personal choice. other people consider those things to be very important, and it's worth pointing those things out to people so they can get information about it and make their own decisions
It was tempting at original price of £449, but at £299, I jumped on this on Friday, got it late Monday and spent yesterday ripping some of my old vinyl that has been impossible to find in 'digital' form anywhere.
I consider myself an 'audiophile' and have to say that I am very happy with the quality of sound from the Sony (comparing it against my Linn Sondek LP12 / Ittok / Koetsu Black). It obviously isn't as good, but for ease of ripping vinyl, I am more than happy.
I can't compare it against the Pioneer, but having a quick look, I can't see what the bitrate for it's USB is, and most USB turntables are just 'CD' quality (16 bit etc.), whereas to get the best out of your vinyl, you need higher rates, such as offered here by the Sony.
My only 'heads-up' is that when ripping to DSD (2.8Mhz/Single), the size of a ripped LP is about 1.6Gb!
(And I haven't noticed any issues with wow or flutter on the recordings I just made)
For quality & convenience of converting your Vinyl to Digital, I think that this is a wonderful (minimalist) product that does a fantastic job & I'm looking forward to hearing when 'out and about' my LPs.
It's debatable whether people can hear the difference between CD quality and Hi-Res. The ones who say they can have very expensive sound systems in acoustically treated rooms. You're certainly not going to notice the difference on a Walkman!
Also recordings that were made to be heard on a record, were recorded and mastered to sound their best on a record. A record isn't a Hi-Res format. The noise floor and channel separation are poor compared to a CD, let alone a Hi-Res recording. Transferring a record to Hi-Res is overkill and just takes up more space on your hard drive.
personally I have all the stuff under the sun to rip from anything, so I don't need the USB functionality. so it then depends on your budget and what else you want to do. I personally would opt for the PLX500 and get 2 of them to dj with, adding to my growing collection of turtables. two of which I dj with and the other is my "hifi" deck which I use to record vinly to digital
there's also the AT5 which is a DD model without pitch control that's similar to the sony but about £500 too. if you don't need the pitch control the AT5 may be a better option and it looks more like trad hifi whilst the LP1240 looks like a flashier version of the SL1200's - not flashy in a good way in my opinion. the pioneers look a bit more discreet
I suggest you go to a store and try them out before you buy. I wouldn't be put off by the lack of USB as you can buy a box separately if your soundcard doesn't take a phono input
there's a hifi review of the plx500
whilst you say the sony is a better bet for hifi, I disagree and say the plx500 is the better bet for hifi. you can swap out the internal phono stage on the plx but not the sony
as for looks, it's a matter of opinion really, however typically it's the sound that's most important in hifi. I can't hear what a turntable looks like. as for the DSD and PCM recording, it's irrelevant. you can connect almost any turntable up to record to digital. not everyone is interested in that, so the sony is supplying something that will have a bearing on the overall performance of the turntable, and not in a positive way, and it's not necessarily always going to be used
it's not to say the sony is a bad choice, but if it's true hifi quality sound you are after then technically the pioneer can offer better performance than the sony. better timing, less wow and flutter, less THD and more upgradable. if you do want to record vinly to digital you would obviously need a relevant soundcard or device to do that. the pioneer has put the money into the quality of the deck whilst part of the sony budget has went into offering the USB elements that may not be required
So there is no doubt in my mind that the Sony is more hifi and living room friendly.
I don't like my hifi to look like the deck of the starship enterprise. Don't mind my comments if you have the Pioneer. I'm just saying for hifi purposes, the Sony is a better bet.
P.S. I could not find any hifi reviews of the Pioneer.
Sony is geared towards HiFi, the Pioneer towards making noise.
So it depends on what function you want it to perform.
I ordered from Amazon even though it was OOS on Monday but was in stock yesterday, because I am a Prime member and feel it beneficial to build up my relationship with those tax dodgers because their customer service is top notch and convenient. I have bought from HiFi confidential, sevenoaks, and richer sounds and to be fair they all have given good CS.
Sevenoaks also doing it at this price.
Voted hot.