Do You Need Speakers for a Record Player – What You Need to Know

Do you often wonder if you need speakers for a record player? Are you sick of subjective notions, and do you simply want a definitive answer?

Then you are in the right place, for today we will be briefly running through whether a separate set of speakers is necessary for using a record player. The short answer, they are not, though we will also be exploring today why you might want to consider investing in a pair, even despite this.

Table of Contents

• Well, Do You?
• Final Tones
• FAQs Do You Need Speakers for a Record Player

Well, Do You?

Not strictly, no. By definition, record players will come with all they need to play vinyl records right out of the box: built-in phono preamp, built-in speakers, stereo system, and sometimes even a USB output.

However, if you are looking for a listening experience defined by better sound quality, then an all-in-one record player simply is not going to cut it when spinning your vinyl record.

The turntable needs speakers in order to be heard loud and clear, and thankfully most modern examples come with a built-in preamp that seeks to amplify the signal before it even reaches the separate amplifier itself.

Though a record player like so will do the job, a pair of the best powered speakers for turntable, passive speakers or even active speakers is going to perform the same job to a devastatingly higher standard. Heck, even Bluetooth speakers would do a better job of tracing the record groove of a turntable setup, and they have been shown not to have the best sound quality.

If you are in possession of a Crosley – one of the most popular all-in-one record players on the new vinyl boom market today – then the least you could do is change over the cartridge.

The cartridge that the Crosley Cruiser, for example, comes fitted with out of the box from the factory is beyond inadequate and will tend to do more harm than good in realizing the vibrational data imbibed within the grooves of the record, scratching them beyond relief.

Any audiophile, upon hearing that you are using a Crosley Cruiser without the intention of purchasing something else, will point you towards switching out the cartridges, an act which is guaranteed to improve the entire listening experience beyond belief.

Final Tones

So, there you have it! Hopefully, your curiosity is now feeling satiated and you are feeling wiser and more able to deal with the sometimes overwhelming question of do you need speakers for a record player.

Even though the answer to this eponymous question is a resounding no, I hope at least that you are feeling a little more aware of the perks of using separate speakers for a record player, as well as of why some might choose to feed their record player through separate speakers in the pursuit of a wholly more nuanced listening experience.

FAQs Do You Need Speakers for a Record Player