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Rock On with the Stack Stone "Savage The One" Belt Drive Hi-Fi Turntable
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May 29, 2025
LP records aren't just nostalgic, they sound better than digital streams and CDs, at least according to many audiophiles. If you're just starting out in the fun world of LPs and albums, however, it's a bit daunting to know what components to acquire. Solution: The Stack Stone "Savage the One" belt drive turntable with built-in speakers. Tech expert and long-time LP owner Dave Taylor walks you through all the key features, with demos, and shares his honest opinion of its strengths and weaknesses. You'll want to watch this before making a purchase decision. Check it out at: https://amzn.to/4iPPGGL Visit Dave's Q&A Web site at: https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ 0:00 Introduction 1:11 Key Features 2:44 LP Play Demo & Specs 3:52 Bluetooth Functionality 4:53 Ports on the Back 6:03 Cartridge Closeup 7:16 Top of Player Controls 8:28 Dust Cover 10:13 A Candid Assessment 11:46 Pricing and Conclusions #recordplayer #stackstone #lps #records #turntable #hifi #askdavetaylor
View Video Transcript
0:00
there's something about vinyl that just
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makes it really appealing it's just a
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great classic music experience but a
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record by itself doesn't get you very
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far you need a turntable and that's what
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we're going to check
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[Music]
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out dave Taylor here feeling pretty
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nostalgic i grew up with vinyl with long
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playing LP albums and having a turntable
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and going through the ritual of putting
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it on the turntable and cleaning it as
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needed and then spinning it up and
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moving the turntable arm so that the
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cartridge needle goes just in the right
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spot and then enjoying the music there
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are millions of albums and records out
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there and you can typically get them at
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an incredibly good price at a used
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record store but that turntable so enter
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this this is really a great idea this is
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the
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Stackstone Savage the One record player
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why is it called Savage the One i have
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absolutely no idea but it's a really
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cool record player cuz it has built-in
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speakers so it is a belt drive turntable
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which means that under the platter
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there's a disc and a band that goes to
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the motor and then that is how it turns
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things so if I turn this
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on then let's see it starts turning the
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record so it's ready to go and one of
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the other smart pieces of design they
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have here is you notice there's a space
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between this portion and the speaker
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that goes all around because they have a
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dual layer vibration isolation and
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that's pretty important because you
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don't want it where if you touch the
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table or the surface that the
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turntable's on you don't want it to
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balance having said that you also need
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to balance the tone arm so it's not
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pushing too hard which will be bad for
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your records or being so light that if
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it hits a dramatic passage it literally
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just bumps up and then bounces back down
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you don't want either of those and so
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for that you need to be able to adjust
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it and so that's what they have here
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here that's what this whole back
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assembly is is there's an adjustable
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anti-kate system and there's a counterwe
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that should be just about the same
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weight as the cartridge itself and this
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is something you can adjust so you can
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get the balance just right now let's
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actually try a track so I'm going to
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just put it into the middle it's a
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little hard from this angle but then I'm
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going to drop it
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down
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and turn up the volume
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[Music]
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okay so I am picking very nostalgic
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music it's a bit loud there
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but you can hear it's actually really
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nice sound they've done a really good
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job here i'm going to lift it up again
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which you should do with this not by
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using this though it does have the
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little handle depends how steady your
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hands are but let me tell you some more
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specs and I'll show you some of the
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other features too so it has 78 dB of
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sensitivity with a signal to noise ratio
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of 89 dB and it has built-in 12 watt
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speakers behind here and on the sides
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there are two tweeters two mid-range
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speakers and two bass reflex tubes to
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get the maximum bass out of the system
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itself giving you a pretty darn nice
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sound i'll come back to the sound in a
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minute it also supports Bluetooth but
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disappointingly it's not a Bluetooth
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transmitter it is a Bluetooth receiver
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so if I flip this switch up to Bluetooth
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then it will be paired with my phone and
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let's double check that that pairing
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worked and where are we and it looks
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like it did so now on my phone I could
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pick some music like
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this adjust the
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volume so I can use this as a Bluetooth
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speaker independent of it being a
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turntable which is a nice additional bit
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of functionality but I know what you
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really want i'm going to stop that maybe
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stop that there we go what you're really
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curious about is okay can I hook this up
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to other speakers and the answer is yes
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let's have a look at what's on the back
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there's a ground connector if you find
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that you really need to ground this to
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get rid of any sort of hum that you
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might have from your electrical system
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and phono and line out switch and phono
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and line out jacks and fine adjustments
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for speed for both 33 and a3 and 45
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and there's that DC input jack one of
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the other things that's important to
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consider is the cartridge itself because
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this really does much of the work and
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this is going back to gosh what the
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1700s it's a long time ago that people
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figured out that if you had wavy lines
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on a piece of vinyl or plastic and you
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ran a very sensitive needle over that it
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could pick up those variations and then
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be amplified into producing actual sound
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and that's exactly what this does and
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the cartridge they've chosen is a nice
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one it's the Audio Technica
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AT3600L magnetic cartridge here's a
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closeup doesn't look like much but it is
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probably the most important component
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here and again I'm going to switch back
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to LP and I'll let you have a closeup as
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I put the needle down on the album
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[Music]
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i was doing all right
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it's pretty nice now I admit it's tricky
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to get all of the balances correct and
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one of the ways that you can test it
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when you're getting this adjusted
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yourself is that it should be able to
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play the innermost track and it should
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be able to play the outermost track
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without any bouncing or skating and you
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you'll know if you have skating issues
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because literally the needle will just
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sort of bounce along towards the center
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and I remember from the old days when I
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had my original record player that that
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was just something that you just kept
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fiddling with so I appreciate that once
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I've got this set up it'll be great for
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a good long time now it comes with
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everything you've seen here's a closeup
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of the controls on the top so you can
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see that it supports both LP or record
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player mode and Bluetooth and on the
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other switch you can go between 33 and
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a3 which is big albums and 45 which were
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little albums and then you have the
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onoff and volume control so those are
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all the primary controls here there is a
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45 adapter because remember 45s were the
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smaller albums but for reasons I cannot
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tell you they didn't have a small hole
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for the spindle they had a big hole for
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the spindle so everyone had to have
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these adapters to make it work on their
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record player they also include
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conveniently a little piece of bamboo
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that you can put your album cover on
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just purely for show so you can have it
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if you are for example a cafe or a a
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bookstore or you have an antique store
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you might have this behind the register
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and then the album cover you actually
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have shown here so when people come up
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and say what am I listening to you could
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just be like there that's what you're
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listening
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to includes instructions and I do want
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to show you one more thing that I'm
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actually not a big fan of i'm going to
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take the album off we're just going to
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put it here for a moment this is not a
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recommended storage strategy but that's
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okay cuz it also comes with this dust
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coverish thing and so the idea here is
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that you put it on the spindle and now
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you have this cover for when you're not
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using the record player don't do this
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with an album on your record player that
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will not end well i am not a big fan of
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this particular piece so I expect I will
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just leave it in the box but this might
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be something that you find useful um I'm
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more used to record players that have a
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sort of large plastic cover over the
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whole thing which is more typical but
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this is a little more streamlined and of
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course it does have the built-in
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amplifier and the built-in speakers so
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it's not exactly like most turntables on
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the market so let's put this back
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on and that's pretty much what we have
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so I'll tell you dimensions wise it's
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16.5 in x 14 in x 7.8 in and it's pretty
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heavy at 21 lb and that's because you
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want your turntable to be heavy because
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you want it to be stable and remember
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this top part and you can see here it is
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independent cuz it has vibration
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isolation so if things happen like
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someone puts a cup down on the table
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it's not going to cause your album to
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suddenly skip or anything so really lots
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to like here so let's talk about that
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sound it's not great sound it's good
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sound it's listenable sound but the
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louder you make it the more it sounds
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like it's not really going to be super
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high fidelity but that might be sort of
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a retro thing too if you have it on low
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to medium volume it actually does sound
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really nice and these speakers you want
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to have them pointing in the direction
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you want to be listening but it does
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give you nice sound so I guess my
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biggest criticism is if you want to
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really crank it up then you're better
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served by plugging in an amp and
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speakers that can handle that than
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trying to get this to be as loud as
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possible but to me the whole experience
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of having a record player is something a
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little bit more chill a little bit more
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zen maybe it's just cuz I grew up
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listening to jazz but be that as it may
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you know this will play any sort of
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music if you want to use acid rock or
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classic 70s hair metal or something then
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it can handle that too it doesn't really
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care obviously it's completely
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agnostic so really fun device it's
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really if you have stacks of LPS this is
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an all-in-one unit there's a little bit
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of assembly involved when you first get
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it but put aside like 15 minutes you'll
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get it all set up you'll be ready to go
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and then everything that's just been
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sitting and collecting dust will
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suddenly have a whole new life and you
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will have so much enjoyment with this
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really a solid option i am going to
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invite you to subscribe to my channel
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click or tap on that subscribe button
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hit that bell icon for notifications do
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me a favor give me a thumbs up excellent
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this is the Stackstone Savage the One
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record player and it is
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$249.99 at
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amazon.com if you have no albums this is
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a great way to get started but
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especially if you have stacks of albums
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or boxes of albums it will be so fun
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there's such a wonderful sense of
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nostalgia for me at least when I'm going
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through some albums that I have had for
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a super long time and playing them this
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and be like "Oh yeah." And it does sound
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different it is a qualitatively
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different sound than if you're listening
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to a CD or you're listening to a digital
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stream or something people still love
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this stuff and there's a reason for it
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and this is a great way to get started
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that's what I got i'm going back to my
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music so I'll hope to catch you in my
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next video
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[Music]
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