Ariston TT420

Impulse buy from Richer Sounds. The RS catalogue implied it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Having upgraded virtually everything else, the limitations of my old Fisher M27 turntable were painfully apparent. However, although the Ariston TT420 is certainly a cut-above my old Fisher, it's ultimately a very disappointing product. It certainly handled some of my old warped 45s very well, but sound quality was ultimately very disappointing. Symbols, for example, were very splashy and poorly reproduced. The product itself felt cheap and the tone arm was difficult to handle manually.

Worst of all, the transformer in the thing buzzed irritatingly - not loudly enough to disturb play, but loudly enough to irritate when I was working and wanted silence. The lack of an on-off button was also annoying, which meant it had to be turned on and off at the plug. For goodness sake!

I took it back to Richer Sounds the next day (who very kindly gave me a full refund) and went across the road to buy a Pro-ject Debut 2 from Sevenoaks Hi-fi. This is absolutely superb - even if having to change speed manually is still a little pikey - and only £20 more at £119.