Marley Stir It Up Turntable review – Will You Love It?
House of Marley has been making some waves in the turntable world for some time now. And that’s because the company offers a very attractive record player at an even more attractive price point. So in this House of Marley Stir It Up Turntable review, I test our this record player to see how easy it is to use, how good it sounds, how you can troubleshoot any potential problems, and reveal whether or not it’s worth your hard earned money.
| PHOTO | TURNTABLE |
|---|---|
 | Marley Stir It Up Turntable |
 | Victrola Re-Spin |
 | Victrola Revolution GO |
 | Denon DP300F |
 | Audio Technica AT-LP120XUSB |
House of Marley Stir It Up Turntable review (Summary)
If you’re just looking for the cliff notes version of this review, here it is: the Stir It Up Turntable (priced between $200 and $250, depending on which version you get) offers great value for the money. Looking far more sophisticated than most record players in its price range, this record player offers up helpful features (like a built in phono pre-amp and bluetooth capability), while also being very plug and play.
The sound is also quite good, giving you a strong, even sound (albeit a compressed sound). You’re not going to enjoy a wide soundstage here, or great instrument separation either, but for less than $300, you get a very solid record player that looks beautiful on the shelf and is a pretty good entry into the world of manual turntables.
- You Might Also Like: Victrola Re-Spin review
Marley Stir It Up Turntable Setup
The first thing I like about the Stir It Up Turntable is that it punches a bit above its weight class. Yes, the tonearm is relatively lightweight, and the cue lever and On/Off switch could be higher quality, but what you get here is pretty darn good and simple to use.
First, it’s worth noting that the Stir It Up Turntable comes with a built in phono preamp than can be turned on or off. So if you don’t have an external phono preamp that you prefer using (like the Schiit Mani, for example), you can keep the phono preamp turned ON and simply plug your included RCA cable into the back of your receiver or amplifier (into a input like AUX or A1, for example).
If, however, you do have an external phono preamp that you love using (for example, I enjoy using the Vincent PHO 701), then you can turn the built in phono preamp OFF and utilize the external phono preamp of your choice.
Marley’s Stir It Up Turntable will require you to do a few small additional things too. The first is that you’ll need to install both the metal platter and place the belt around the motor pulley. Thankfully, if you look on the underside of the platter, you’ll see that the belt is already installed.
So now, you just need to simultaneously put the platter onto the spindle while gently pulling the drive belt around the motor pulley (or drive motor). When you do this correctly, you’ll notice that the plater should be able to smoothly spin around clockwise thanks to a belt now being fully installed.
Next, you’re going to want to place the balance weight (which you’ll notice has numbers affixed to it) onto the back of the tonearm. This counterweight exists to make sure that your tonearm is properly balanced, and that enough weight (or pressure) is calibrated for the stylus when playing your records.
If this is setup incorrectly, your records may sound poor coming through your speakers (for example, if the sound is muffled or harsh, the balance weight is enacting too much pressure or weight onto the tonearm—and thus the stylus).
So, for this turntable, make sure the counterweight is installed all the way onto the back of the tonearm. According to House of Marley, the counterweight should be set to 2.5. The anti-skate dial, which you’ll see is located very close to the balance weight, should also be set to 2.5.
With that said, there is a little bit of confusion about this. While Marley’s website says the anti-skate should be set at 2.5, the manual that comes with the website states the anti-skate should be set at the most minimum setting.
That’s personally how I had the anti-skate setting set for my testing, and I ran into no issues. So, unless you’re dealing with some sort of playback issue (for example, if your record is skipping), you may want to keep the anti-skate lower (at 0 or 1, for example).
You should now be ready to start playing your records. But before we do that, I wanted to go over how you can troubleshoot some problem that you may run into with the Stir It Up Turntable.
| PHOTO | TURNTABLE |
|---|---|
| Marley Stir It Up Turntable |
| Victrola Re-Spin |
| Victrola Revolution GO |
| Denon DP300F |
| Audio Technica AT-LP120XUSB |
- You Might Also Like: Victrola Revolution GO review
House of Marley Turntable Problems
Now in testing out this turntable, which I received from House of Marley to review (the regular, or non-bluetooth, version), I ran into a couple problems. These ended up being user error problems, but I wanted to mention them here (and how you can resolve them) before someone starts pulling their hair out in frustration.
House of Marley Turntable Skipping
Now, when I first opened up the Stir It Up Turntable and began testing out a record, I immediately noticed a problem: the record kept skipping while playing. Ugh.
Vinyl record skipping, of course, is a pretty common problem when playing records (especially playing records on cheaper turntables). However, in this particular situation (and potentially for you too), this isn’t caused by the Marley turntable. It’s due to human error.
What I ultimately noticed was that the balance weight (which I mentioned earlier) actually wasn’t fully installed on the back of the tonearm. It was pushed onto the back of the tonearm about 80% of the way, and I had just assumed it was fully installed.
So when I took off the weight to examine it and re-installed it, I pushed the weight firmly all the way up to the final small metal nodule on the tonearm. As you can see in these photos, that’s as far as the weight can go on the tonearm. Now, it is correctly (and fully) installed.
Once I did that, I noticed that the music coming out of the speakers was no longer skipping and everything sounded normal.
Secondly, although this next problem didn’t occur during my time with the Stir It Up Turntable, I want to mention it here: always double check that you removed the stylus guard.
There can be times where you start playing a record, and you’re shocked and confused to see the tonearm gliding across the surface of the record (along with not being able to hear any music coming through your speakers). This can be due to a variety of factors, but one problem people often overlook is the fact that they may have simply forgotten to remove the stylus.
So always check to make sure the guard is removed from the stylus before you play your records.
Stir It Up Turntable Sound
In testing the Stir It Up Turntable, I utilized the player’s built in phono preamp. I then connected one end of the RCA cable to the back of the turntable, and the other end into the A2 input of my Cambridge CX AX60 amplifier.
To turn on the record player, I turned the knob from “0” to “33” or 33 RPM. I then placed a throwback Mariah Carey vinyl record onto the turntable. Do note: the player was not yet rotating simply because I turned the knob to 33 (33 RPM).
To initiate the player’s rotation, you’re required to lift up and move the tonearm closer to the record. Once I did that, the platter began spinning and I hovered the tonearm over track one. I lowered the cue lever and began assessing the music I was hearing.
What I enjoy about the sound from this Marley turntable is that it’s a strong, even, and full sound. It sounds pleasing to the ear, isn’t too harsh, and there’s certainly not an overwhelming sense of bass response that can hurt sensitive or senior ears.
In short, you can crank the music up relatively high with this turntable without feeling like the highs or lows of the music are going to bother you after a short while.
With that said, I think the best way to describe the good sound of the Stir It Up Turntable is moreso to talk about what this record player isn’t when it comes to sound rather than what it is.
It’s important to know that a $200 to $300 turntable, in the vast world of vinyl, is considered relatively lower end or lower budget. That’s not a bad thing at all—you just have to know what you might be sacrificing when you purchase a Marley turntable.
You’re not going to get a big, wide soundstage with the Stir It Up Turntable. In testing this record player, the music (again, using the built in phono preamp, which I believe most people will opt to do) felt compressed and quite centered to the middle of the room. As a result, if you’re looking for a record player that’s going to give you that vivid, soaring, sparkling experience, you won’t get that here.
Similarly, this Marley turntable is not particularly great with instrument separation. When you listen to turntables that cost more money (and have higher end cartridges affixed to their tonearms), you’ll begin to hear clearly defined instruments in the music. You’ll be able to easily make out the saxophone coming through the left speaker, or the violin coming through the right.
That, again, isn’t present here on the Stir It Up Turntable. Everything sounds even and quite pleasant because the music is compressed and a bit undefined.
Still, this is solid, pretty good sound here. But to get great or excellent sound, you’d have to be willing to invest in a much more expensive turntable, cartridge, and even phono preamp.
So who is the Stir It Up Turntable ideal for? I think anyone that’s interested in enjoying records without breaking the bank, someone that will listen to records very casually and not regularly, someone brand new to vinyl that wants a very solid record player at a fair price, and someone that cares about the visual aesthetic of their record player.
| PHOTO | TURNTABLE |
|---|---|
| Marley Stir It Up Turntable |
| Victrola Re-Spin |
| Victrola Revolution GO |
| Denon DP300F |
| Audio Technica AT-LP120XUSB |
Listening to 45 RPM Records
The great thing about this record player is that it can also play 45 RPM records. I threw on Kendra Morris’ “Banshee” album (which is a 12” record that actually plays at 45 RPM speed). I then turned the dial to “45,” lifted the tonearm, and played the track “If You Didn’t Know.”
Kendra sound very nice coming through my PSB Imagine Mini speakers. And although the music wasn’t quite as defined or full of life as it is on my Clearaudio Concept Black turntable, I was impressed by just how strong and enjoyable the sound was on this far less pricey Marley turntable.
On top of that, this turntable comes with a 45 RPM adaptor (picture above) so you can play 7” records, as well. I personally love the fact that there’s a knob on the plinth of the record player that serves as your 45 adaptor holder. You can easily take it off and place it back on the knob at your convenience. You now no longer have to worry about trying to store your 45 adaptor in a drawer or closet and eventually losing it one day.
Marley’s Get Together Duo Speakers
If you get the bluetooth version of the Stir It Up Turntable, you can pair it with the Marley Get Together Duo Speakers. Unfortunately, I was sent the wired Stir It Up Turntable and the wireless Get Together Duo Speakers to review. Therefore, I wasn’t able to test out the bluetooth functionality of their Marley record player, and how it interacts with their bluetooth speakers.
Nevertheless, these speakers do have RCA inputs in the back, and while I did attempt to hook the Stir It Up Turntable to the RCA input on one Duo Speaker, I was unable to get the music to correctly emit from the speaker. I didn’t spend an overwhelming amount of time trying to troubleshoot the problem, so I can’t say for sure what the problem was or how it could’ve been resolved.
But, based on my experience, if you are planning to buy the Stir It Up Turntable and pair it with Marley’s own speakers, I’d probably recommend you go with the bluetooth version of the Marley turntable. It makes the most sense. If you prefer to save money and go with the cheaper wired version of this turntable, then you can connect it directly to a pair of powered speakers (that have RCA inputs in the back).
Wrapping It Up
The House of Marley Stir It Up Turntable is a beautiful looking record player that offers good functionality and sound for a very reasonable price. With a built in phono preamp (and bluetooth capability for an extra $50), this is a record player that offers you great value for the money (while also looking like a premium product).
Rating: 8/10
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