VMP Magazine

Graphics by Julia Fletcher

The process of buying a turntable can feel like buying a car. While it’s a vehicle for practical use, you still want to enjoy riding the soundwaves. Perhaps, like moving on from your first car, you want to move on from the basics of your turntable and upgrade its pieces as you become even more invested in the hobby.

Knowing where to start, without a doubt, is an arduous task. Beginning with the basics — knowing the anatomy of your turntable and its functions — can ease you into the process, especially when understanding how the pieces work together to affect your sound quality.

We’ve done a bit of the dirty work and broke down and illustrated the parts of a turntable to give you a head start on figuring out how to elicit the best sound possible from your machine.