This new cheap record player is one of the most ’60s things I’ve ever seen, and is all that vinyl beginners need to get started

• The Gadhouse Retro Brad Mk II turntable is available now for $149 / £99 / AU$169
• Retro looks but modern tech including Bluetooth 5.3
• Built-in stereo speakers, and three rotation speeds

You never forget your first love, and that applies just as much to products as to people – and my first turntable love was the brightly colored Fisher-Price toy turntable of the late 1970s. So I'm delighted to see a new, non-toy record player that looks just like the plinky-plonk one I used to drive my folks round the bend with as I rocked out to my favourite deep cut, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

The Brad Retro MKII is Gadhouse's best-selling Brad Retro turntable reimagined, so it has the same retro styling cues as before, but comes with an updated motor and belt-drive system to reduce resonance and vibration. It's also better isolated than before, which should mean less external noise.

Gadhouse Brad Retro MKII: key features and pricing

The Brad Retro MKII has RCA outputs so you can connect external speakers or hi-fi components, and there's Bluetooth 5.3 for streaming to wireless speakers or headphones. There are also twin 5W stereo speakers on board and an aux-in for external audio sources.

The turntable is switchable between 33 and 1/3, 45 and 78 rpm and there's automatic start-stop to keep things easy as well as pitch control to adjust the playback.

It's got big chunky control dials on the front, and I'm always happy to see those. What would hi-fi be without them?

I'm not sure this is going to push out the big names in our list of the best turntables, but for this price, with these features, it could definitely be a tempting option for people looking to start collecting vinyl without committing to a big setup.

The listed price is $149 / £99 / AU$169 – though I notice that in the UK, £99 is only for the Ivory colour option at the moment: Currys is listing the Green, Grey, Tangerine and Navy ones at £129. Either way, it's not a lot of money for a good range of options, and the ability to play whatever I want. Even Itsy-Bitsy Spider.

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