By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance
This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.
The seven decks worth buying under £300
The budget turntables UK shops actually stock start at £119 and, for my money, stop at £300. Above that line the money goes into the plinth, the platter and the arm, which is a different argument. Below it, the money buys convenience, so the only question that matters is which conveniences are worth having. So I checked every price on 4 September 2026 and again on 11 September and read every maker's own specification. Then I wrote down what each deck gives up to hit its number.
Section 01 / What to look for
What actually matters under £300
Five things separate these decks from each other, and only one of them is sound quality in the way people usually mean it.
Can you replace the stylus?
Every deck here says yes, and it is the first thing to check. A worn stylus is what damages records, and a stylus lasts roughly 1,000 hours. If the maker will not sell you a replacement, the deck has a shelf life.
Can you replace the cartridge?
Two can. The cartridge is the body the stylus plugs into, and swapping it is the real upgrade. On most decks at this price the cartridge is moulded into the arm, so the stylus is the only part that moves.
Can you set the tracking force?
Two can, and they are not the two you would guess. Tracking force is how hard the stylus presses into the groove, and too much of it grinds the record away. A counterweight lets you set it. Without one you are trusting a factory setting that most of these makers do not even publish.
Is there a phono stage inside?
A record player puts out a signal far too quiet for a normal input, so something has to lift it. Six of these seven have that circuit built in, which means they plug into powered speakers or any amplifier. The Pro-Ject does not, so budget another £60 or so.
Belt drive, direct drive and Bluetooth
Belt drive isolates the platter from motor vibration and is the norm at this money. Direct drive starts faster and holds speed harder. Bluetooth is convenient and it is also a second conversion of the signal, so it costs you a little detail. Whether that trade is worth it depends entirely on what you are sending it to.
Every deck here lets you change the stylus. Two let you change the cartridge. Two have a counterweight you can set, and the cheaper of those is the £169.95 all-in-one.The finding
Section 02 / The picks
The budget turntables UK shops stock, cheapest first
Cheapest first, and each entry names what that deck gives up to hit its price.
Denon DP-29F
Denon has been making audio equipment since 1910, and the DP-29F is the cheapest turntable in the range still carrying the name. Belt drive, fully automatic, and a high-precision die-cast aluminium platter. The phono equaliser is built in, so it goes straight into an amplifier that has no phono input. The cartridge is a moving magnet and the stylus is a DSN-82 you can buy on its own.
What it gives up: Denon publishes no tracking force figure at all. The arm has no counterweight, and the cartridge body stays where it is. Denon quotes wow and flutter at 0.15 per cent WRMS. Denon's own shop lists the DP-29F at £179 and had it out of stock on 4 September 2026, so £119 at Amazon is £60 under the maker's price. Richer Sounds had only a refurbished one, at £99, on 11 September.
Who it suits: someone who wants a real hi-fi name on the shelf and has no intention of ever adjusting anything.
£119
Audio-Technica AT-LP60X and AT-LP60XBT
This is the deck most people end up with. Fully automatic, belt drive, and an anti-resonance die-cast aluminium platter. The phono preamplifier is switchable, so it works with a phono input or a line input. The stylus is an ATN3600LC and replacements are easy to find. The Bluetooth version adds aptX Adaptive for £26 more, which is the right call if the speakers you own are wireless.
What it gives up: the cartridge is integral, so the stylus is the only part you can change. Audio-Technica publishes no tracking force figure for either model. Stock at this end moves fast. Audio-Technica's own UK shop had the LP60X listed as out of stock on 4 September 2026. By 11 September Amazon's own stock had gone too, leaving a marketplace seller at £134, and Richer Sounds had dropped it from its range.
Who it suits: anyone who wants to put a record on without reading a manual first.
£134, or £155 for the Bluetooth AT-LP60XBT
Majority Folio
Majority is a Cambridge company, and the Folio is the honest version of the thing suitcase players pretend to be. There are 6W stereo speakers in the plinth, so it plays on its own. It also has RCA outputs, Bluetooth in and out, USB recording, an aluminium platter, an aluminium tonearm and a pitch control. The cartridge is an Audio-Technica AT3600L, a proper moving magnet, and Richer Sounds lists the replacement stylus under the same code. It also has the thing almost nothing else at this price has, which is a counterweight you can actually adjust. Majority's manual puts the recommended tracking force for the AT3600L at 3.0 to 4.0g, sets it at the factory, and then explains how to reset it yourself with a stylus pressure gauge and the lock screw.
What it gives up: the speakers are 6W and sound like 6W, and the upgrade path ends at a new stylus, because the cartridge body itself is not going anywhere. It is also manual, so you lower the arm yourself. Richer Sounds sells it for £169, or £149 to members of their free VIP club, which undercuts Amazon by £21.
Who it suits: a spare room, a student flat, anywhere a pair of separate speakers is never going to happen.
£169.95
Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT
The LP70XBT is the cheapest deck here wearing a cartridge from Audio-Technica's VM95 family. That one fact separates it from everything below it. The AT-VM95C tracks at 2.0g, with the specification allowing 1.8g to 2.2g, on a conical stylus. Every other stylus in the VM95 range drops straight into the same body: elliptical, nude elliptical, microlinear, Shibata. So the deck you buy today has a second life later for the price of a stylus rather than the price of a turntable.
Otherwise it does everything the cheap Audio-Technicas do and does it better. Fully automatic, belt drive, a die-cast aluminium platter, a three-piece chassis to damp resonance, a switchable phono stage and aptX Adaptive Bluetooth. The power supply converts outside the chassis, which keeps its noise away from the signal. Louder reached the same conclusion and made it their best budget turntable overall.
What it gives up: the cartridge body is fixed, so the upgrade stops at the stylus. There is still no counterweight to set.
Who it suits: the first deck you will not want to replace in two years.
£216.80
Sony PS-LX3BT
Sony replaced the well-reviewed PS-LX310BT with this, and it does the same job. One button, fully automatic, belt drive, aptX Adaptive and Hi-Res Wireless, and a built-in phono stage with three gain settings, low at minus 4 dB, mid at zero and high at plus 6. That gain switch is useful and nothing else here has one. It lets you match the output to a fussy amplifier instead of hoping.
What it gives up: Sony quotes a stylus pressure of 3.5g plus or minus 0.5g, against the 2.0g the AT-LP70XBT tracks at. Heavier tracking means more wear. Sony's specification says the cartridge is moving magnet and the headshell is not exchangeable, but it gives no model number, so I cannot tell you what a replacement stylus is called or what it costs. At £12 more than the Audio-Technica, that is a lot to not know.
Who it suits: someone who wants the deck to disappear into a Bluetooth system and never think about it again.
£229
Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB
This is the only deck under £300 with a counterweight, an anti-skate dial and a standard half-inch headshell. It arrives with an AT-VM95E elliptical cartridge in an AT-HS6 headshell. Because that mount is an industry standard, almost any moving magnet cartridge will go on later. Anti-skate runs from 0 to 4g. The arm takes cartridges weighing 3.5g to 8.5g, so what you can do to it later is real rather than theoretical.
The rest is properly specified too. Direct drive comes from a DC servo motor. Then there is a switchable phono stage, a USB output for archiving, quartz pitch lock and a pitch slider at plus or minus 8 or 16 per cent. It is also the only deck here that plays 78s. Audio-Technica's own UK shop lists it at £299.99. Amazon had it at £245 on 11 September 2026. That is £55 under the maker's price, and the reason it sits inside the band rather than just outside it.
What it gives up: no Bluetooth, since that is the £339 AT-LP120XBT-USB, and no automatic start. It is also far heavier than anything else here, 8kg against the LP70XBT's 2.9kg.
Who it suits: anyone who suspects they might get into this properly.
£245
Pro-Ject E1.2
The E1.2 has no phono stage, no Bluetooth, no automation and no USB. What it has instead is a 730g die-cast aluminium platter, damped and balanced. The tonearm is CNC-machined aluminium on a gimbal bearing with a pinpoint bearing system. Speed switching between 33 and 45 is electronic, so there is no belt to move by hand. The cartridge is a Pick it MM E moving magnet on a standard mount.
What it gives up: everything convenient. Pro-Ject sets tracking force and anti-skate at the factory and does not invite you to change them. You also need an amplifier with a phono input or a separate phono stage, which is another £60 or so. If you would rather it were built in, the E1.2 Phono is £279, and the Bluetooth E1.2 BT is £339.
Who it suits: someone who already owns an amplifier and wants the money in the platter rather than in the features.
£249
Section 03 / The one to avoid
Suitcase players wear your records out
This is the part of the aisle where £40 to £90 looks like a bargain. It is the one purchase here I would talk anybody out of.
Crosley, Victrola and the rest of the briefcase-shaped players are built to a price, and the tonearm is where the price shows. What Hi-Fi measured the Crosley Cruiser's downforce at just over 7g, against the roughly 2.5g they say is typical on most decks. There is no counterweight to correct it, so that figure is simply the figure. Their reviewer concluded that the heavy burden will introduce wear on your records over time.
Seven grams dragged through a groove wears it rather than polishing it, and the record does not come back. So the money you save on the player comes back out of the records, which usually cost more than the player did. If £119 is out of reach this month, a second-hand deck from a real brand beats a new suitcase every time.
Section 04 / Just above the line
The Rega Planar 1, at £329
It is £29 over the ceiling I set, so it is not a pick. It is the answer to the obvious next question.
Rega fits a handmade RB110 tonearm with the bias pre-set, a factory-fitted Carbon cartridge and a 24V low-noise synchronous motor, so there is nothing for you to adjust. There is no phono stage, so add one. Rega claim it has taken What Hi-Fi’s best turntable award at £200 to £500 five years running. Sevenoaks Sound and Vision listed it at £329 on 4 September 2026, though from their Yeovil store rather than general online stock. If the £300 ceiling is real for you, the AT-LP70XBT is where the money stops. If it was always going to bend by £30, this is what the bend buys.
Section 05 / Side by side
Every spec that matters, in one table
Where a maker does not publish a figure, the cell says so rather than guessing.
| Deck | Price | Drive | Operation | Cartridge | Phono stage | Bluetooth | Tracking force |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denon DP-29F | £119 | Belt | Fully automatic | Moving magnet, DSN-82 stylus | Built in | No | Not stated |
| Audio-Technica AT-LP60X | £134 | Belt | Fully automatic | Integral, ATN3600LC stylus | Built in, switchable | No | Not stated |
| Audio-Technica AT-LP60XBT | £155 | Belt | Fully automatic | Integral, ATN3600LC stylus | Built in, switchable | aptX Adaptive | Not stated |
| Majority Folio | £169.95 | Belt | Manual | Audio-Technica AT3600L | Built in, plus 6W speakers | In and out | 3.0 to 4.0g, counterweight adjustable |
| Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT | £216.80 | Belt | Fully automatic | AT-VM95C, whole VM95 stylus range fits | Built in, switchable | aptX Adaptive | 2.0g by cartridge spec, not adjustable |
| Sony PS-LX3BT | £229 | Belt | Fully automatic | Moving magnet, model not published | Built in, three gain settings | aptX Adaptive | 3.5g plus or minus 0.5g, not adjustable |
| Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB | £245 | Direct | Manual, auto lift | AT-VM95E in an AT-HS6 headshell | Built in, switchable | No | Counterweight, anti-skate 0 to 4g |
| Pro-Ject E1.2 | £249 | Belt | Manual | Pick it MM E, standard mount | None, £279 for the Phono version | No, £339 for the BT version | Factory set |
| Rega Planar 1 (above the band) | £329 | Belt | Manual | Rega Carbon, standard mount | None | No | Factory set, automatic bias |
Prices checked 11 September 2026. Amazon prices move, so the number you see on the day is the number that counts. Specifications read from Audio-Technica, Sony, Denon, Pro-Ject, Rega and Majority's own pages and manuals, plus the Richer Sounds specification sheet for the Folio.
Section 06 / Before you buy
Three things people forget to budget for
The deck is rarely the whole bill, and two of these three catch people out at the till.
Something to play it through. Six of these have a phono stage inside. So they will drive powered speakers over a cable, or without one on the Bluetooth models. If you are starting from nothing, a decent pair of active or Bluetooth speakers matters at least as much as the deck. I have gone through the ones worth having in my guide to the best portable speakers. The same logic applies to a shelf pair.
Records, which cost more than you think. A new pressing runs £25 to £40, so three albums can outrun the difference between the cheapest deck here and the best one. That is also the argument for tracking force: a deck that eats records is expensive twice over. If you want a sense of what a good pressing feels like, I wrote about the To Pimp a Butterfly reissue separately.
A stylus, eventually. Plan on one every thousand hours or so, which is two or three years of ordinary listening. On the VM95 decks that replacement is also an upgrade, since a better stylus shape fits the same body. Buying for somebody else rather than yourself? My gift guide for music lovers has the accessories that actually get used.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best budget turntables UK buyers can get right now?
Of the budget turntables UK retailers currently stock, the Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT at £216.80 wins on specification. It is the cheapest deck fitted with a VM95 cartridge, so its stylus upgrades to elliptical, microlinear or Shibata later without replacing the turntable. If you want to set the tracking force yourself, the AT-LP120XUSB at £245 and the Majority Folio at £169.95 are the only two under £300 with a counterweight, and only the Audio-Technica adds an anti-skate dial.
Do cheap turntables damage records?
Cheap decks from real hi-fi brands do not. Suitcase players tracking at three times the normal downforce do. What Hi-Fi measured the Crosley Cruiser at just over 7g against a typical 2.5g, with no way to adjust it. Everything in this list uses a moving magnet cartridge instead, and the heaviest published figure among them is Sony's 3.5g.
How much should I spend on a first turntable?
Around £120 gets you a fully automatic deck from Denon or Audio-Technica that will not hurt your records. Around £220 gets you a cartridge you can upgrade. Between those two numbers you are mostly buying Bluetooth and better platters. Above £300 you are buying the plinth and the arm, which is a genuine improvement but a different budget.
Do I need a separate phono stage?
Only for the Pro-Ject E1.2 and the Rega Planar 1. Every other deck here has the circuit inside and a switch to turn it off if your amplifier already has one. A standalone phono stage starts at about £60, so factor it in before the Pro-Ject looks like the cheaper option.
Is a Bluetooth turntable worth it?
It depends what you are sending it to. Bluetooth converts the signal twice, so it will never match a cable. Even so, aptX Adaptive on the Audio-Technica and Sony decks is good enough that most people will not notice on a bookshelf system. If your speakers are already wireless, it saves you buying anything else. If you own an amplifier, use the cable.
Belt drive or direct drive under £300?
Belt drive is the norm at this money because the belt isolates the platter from motor vibration cheaply. Direct drive gets the platter to speed faster and holds it harder, which is why DJs use it. The AT-LP120XUSB is the only deck here with it. For listening to albums at home, either is fine, so let the rest of the specification decide.
Can I upgrade a budget turntable later?
Partly. Every deck here takes a new stylus. The AT-LP70XBT takes any stylus in the VM95 range, which is a real jump in sound for about £40. Only the AT-LP120XUSB and the Pro-Ject E1.2 accept a different cartridge altogether, because only they have a standard mount.
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