The Collegiate is a vintage inspired portable turntable, the speaker, set at the front of the turntable, and the Carrera style font is supposedly meant to resemble the grill of a sports car. Without reading this on their website, I wouldn’t have made the connection but that doesn’t detract from the Collegiate classic good looks.

The Collegiate is very simple to use, it doesn’t matter if you have never had your hands on a vinyl record before, there are 3 speeds, 33 1/3, 45 and 78 RPM and it can play 7", 10" & 12" records, the volume button doubles as the on/off switch and there is a tone adjustment button to control bass and treble. One of the coolest things about the Collegiate is the USB connection port, you can use this with the included software to rip music onto your computer straight from the turntable, allowing you to preserve treasured albums forever. The 5-watt drivers kick out enough noise to fill a small room (bedroom, living room for example) but for a larger space, there is a jack for external speakers. The Collegiate isn’t here to replace your Hifi and it doesn’t pretend to be but I was still disappointed with the sound quality, the bass is muffled with an annoying ambient hum when it is turned down low and when you push the tone up into the high notes the sound becomes quite tinny and flat. The Tone adjustment button doesn’t provide a smooth increase and decrease of tones, at the 11 o’clock point the bass drops significantly however if you find the sweet spot in the middle of the tone dial and with the right amount of volume it produces an adequate sound that would be acceptable to a less critical ear.

My other issue with the Collegiate is the build quality, the whole turntable has a cheap plastic feel, the speed switch moves the entire plastic panel its built into and the arm just feels flimsy. I would worry about the durability of this product over time, especially as one of its key selling points is that its portable I wouldn’t trust that it won’t fall apart after time. The Collegiate is an ok product but is certainly not suitable for audiophiles or sound snobs, the build quality should be improved for its price tag. It’s more of a gimmicky product suitable for someone who would like to hear their old vinyl that’s been in the attic for the last 30years or perhaps more a decorative item than a serious piece of audio equipment. RRP $149.95

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3 out of 5

Pros

Portable

Built in speaker

USB Enabled (software included)

Headphone jack (can be used for external speakers)

Cons

Cheap plastic build quality

Not very loud

Only adequate sound quality