Stanton T.90 USB Turntable Review

Whether you've got a few boxes of records collecting dust in your basement or you're an aficionado with a valuable vinyl collection that you'd prefer to keep in as pristine a condition possible, you've no doubt wondered whether or not it might be possible to digitize your albums to make them as easy to play, sort and arrange as any of the other music you've collected on your computer in the past few years.

Fortunately, science has heard your silent pleas, and there are now a few different USB-based turntables out on the market that not only play your records, but let you record them into your computer so you can turn them into whatever type of sound file suits your fancy. The Stanton T.90 USB turntable, the subject of today's review, makes the same claims to quality as any other USB turntable, and brings a few other interesting features to the table, but we're interested in the truth, not marketing. Let's see how the Stanton T.90 stacks up.

The setup instructions for the T.90 USB turntable are pretty basic, and if you haven't set up a turntable before, beware: you may want to practice on another unit (with a better instruction manual), read the instructions very, very closely, or just get someone else to help you. The problem is two-fold: first, Stanton wrote the instructions to help you set up a number of related products, which probably saved them some money in printing costs, but doesn't help if you have no idea if you're using one of their "1/2 inch mounted products with a headshell in a mobile application."

Second, there are very illustrations in the manual, so when you're going through the multi-step process of mounting the cartridge to the tone arm and then balancing the tone arm so the turntable plays records and doesn't turn your vinyl into scratched piles of plastic, you're much more likely to get lost.

Blacks, dark grays and sky blues pick out the Stanton T.90's many features.

Once you get past that first tricky area, however, you can start to appreciate how the T.90 turntable is a very carefully crafted, complex tool: while the T.90's USB output makes it useful to collectors looking to digitize some vinyl, Stanton is first and foremost a manufacturer for DJs and the T.90 USB turntable's design reflects that focus. All of the wires, including the AC cord, detach from the T.90's body for easier carrying.

The shock-absorbing footpads on the bottom of the turntable act like an independent suspension on an automobile, allowing you to rest the T.90 on soft surfaces without any balance problems. Blue LEDs, perfect for highlighting in a dark club, pick out controls beyond what you'd see on a standard turntable, including speed controls, a pitch and key slider, and a reverse button, while dots on the side of the platter give you a rough sense of spinning direction and speed.

Want to play records on the T.90 USB turntable? Then you'll need to figure out how to adjust that big metal knob at the end of the tone arm.

Of course, unless you've got aspirations of doing some remixes or going out on the club scene, these admittedly attractive features won't do anything for you but hurt your wallet, an unfortunate side effect of buying into a repurposed product. On a related note: the T.90 doesn't include a dust cover; no doubt unnecessary for DJs, but a nice feature for the home stereo owner who doesn't always want to put that record away when they're done playing it.

Recording Audio via USB
The Stanton T.90 USB turntable ships with a disc copy of Cakewalk's Pyro 5.0, a simple editing, ripping, burning and music organization program that includes a recording function so you can record outside music sources (like a turntable) into the software, do some basic editing, add a few effects and turn it into a Wave or MP3 file for later enjoyment. Installing Cakewalk Pyro and the drivers for the turntable is very simple: the turntable installs automatically via Windows Plug & Play, and Cakewalk Pyro is a few quick steps through an installation program. Cakewalk Pyro is a commercial program, and there's a registration code that you need to plug in to get rid of a nag screen that comes up every time you start the program. The registration code gives you a certain number of installations before expiring.

Mac users take note: Calkwalk Pyro is for Windows machines only, so you won't be able to use its features to record your albums unless you're running Boot Camp or something similar on your Mac. However, Stanton doesn't leave you in the dark: they dedicated the last few pages of the manual to software installation, and take the time to mention that Mac users can download and use Audacity, a freeware audio editor and multi-track recorder, instead of installing Cakewalk Pyro. I do find this practice a little shady, though: no doubt the price of the Stanton T.90 USB turntable includes the cost of Cakewalk Pyro, which leaves Mac users paying for a program they can't use. As we'll see, however, Mac and Windows users can unite in common outrage over the inclusion Calkwalk Pyro.

Cakewalk Pyro 5, the T.90's bundled software, provided less than inspiring results.

To test the Stanton T.90 USB turntable's digital playback capabilities, I used the copy of Queenrÿche's Rage for Order that I had purchased for an earlier USB turntable review. The album is an older (vintage 1986) piece of vinyl rated B+ by the store's proprietor that I originally chose for two reasons: first, I suspect the majority of potential USB turntable users will be people with vinyl collections in less than mint condition dating back twenty or more years - records just like this particular album. Second, I happened to have a remastered copy of this particular album on CD, so I could make some comparisons between the digital version of the record and a ripped audio file from the CD.