House of Marley Stir it Up Lux turntable review: Ode to the ultimate listening experience

In the age of streaming, most people are focusing on subscriptions to listen to their songs with ease. While I'm a day one Apple Music subscriber, I have always found value in owning records, although, for most of my life, I didn't have a proper turntable – or the ones I had didn't work properly. Even so, this didn't stop me from collecting old and new records.

As I started reviewing House of Marley products, I began to admire the brand for its refined products with a focus on great sound quality and care for the environment. After recently trying the company's Get Together 2XL Bluetooth Speaker, I was excited to test its ultimate audio product: Stir it Up Lux wireless turntable, model EM-JT010-SB.

Over the past few weeks, I have used this turntable with a bunch of LPs and singles alongside the Get Together 2XL Bluetooth Speaker and Beats Studio Pro headphones. This is everything you need to know about it.

House of Marley Stir it Up Lux turntable specs

Design: Crafted for the ultimate sound quality

The Stir it Up Lux turntable design is all about creating the best sound experience for listeners. Despite being a beautiful piece of furniture, as it is crafted with a solid bamboo plinth and has a glass platter, it is denser and heavier than most turntables, which helps absorb motor and bearing noise to provide a cleaner and more accurate audio experience.

It has a lightweight aluminum headshell and forearm to help follow the record's contours to improve tracking and add less distortion. The company says the redesigned headshell requires less tracking force for proper stylus contact, which means less wear on the stylus and the records, ensuring a longer lifespan for both.

The replaceable AT-95E elliptical stylus also has anti-skate and balance weight customization, so you can ensure the perfect force applied to the record – which House of Marley says you should set both to 2.

The turntable has one main button, which you must spin to turn on/off and choose between 33 RPM or 45 RPM. It also works for setting the volume, although you might need to tweak it and the speaker's volume as well. It features a headphone jack for a more intimate listening experience.

There is a switchable pre-amp, 3.5mm aux out, RCA (phono/line), and a power adapter on the back of the product. Like the Get Together 2XL, House of Marley adds a bunch of different plugs for customers all over the globe, so you don't need to worry about plug compatibility

Setting up the Stir It Up Lux turntable

Although I've been covering tech for almost a decade, I still feel pretty dumb when setting up some devices. Do you know the feeling of not finding the correct button on your TV remote? Or not being able to pair your newest wireless earbuds? Well, I've been there too.

The first 30 minutes with the Stir It Up Lux turntable made me feel a bit dumb. Rushing to set it up before reading the user's guide was a wrong choice, so I suggest you follow all the steps.

Although the process is straightforward, it took me forever to discover that I should set the anti-skate and adjustable counterweight to 2. After that, the issue was pairing the Get Together 2XL with the turntable. One device couldn't find the other, no matter what.

That said, it's important to highlight that despite the Stir It Up Lux offering Bluetooth capacities, it doesn't mean it will work with your Bluetooth speaker. For example, it doesn't work with the HomePod or Sonos speakers, so buying a House of Marley solution is the best option.

To prevent you from having the same issue to pair the speaker with the turntable, follow this simple step: Make your iPhone (or Android phone) forget the speaker from your Bluetooth connections. After that, both devices will find each other once you put them on pairing mode.

Finally, depending on your record, you might need to add more or less pressure to the stylus. I feel it needs more pressure for older records, but for newer ones, such as my special The Killers' Battle Born LP, the pressure needs to be more subtle. Otherwise, the disc will spin sloooooow.

Sound quality: It's all about the speakers

With the design of the House of Marley Stir It Up Lux turntable doing all the hard work, all you need is a good pair of speakers. Since it doesn't have built-in speakers – and, honestly, you shouldn't rely on turntables with only their built-in speaker – House of Marley offers two bundle options, whether with the Get Together Duo or the Get Together 2XL, reviewed by BGR.

Combining the Get Together 2XL with the Stir It Up Lux was a perfect match. While I praised the speaker's sound quality in my review paired with the iPhone, I think it really shines with the turntable.

Overall, I felt the sound quality was slightly more pleasant, and I could take advantage of the different records' little details. To my surprise, while trying the turntable with the Beats Studio Pro, Apple's first Lossless headphones, the sound was very similar to what I would get with the speakers – and I don't think it's bad.

In my opinion, this means House of Marley did a great job combining its products, as the sound quality is superb.

Price and final thoughts

House of Marley Stir It Up Lux Wireless turntable costs $399.99, but the company usually makes sales. At the moment, the product costs $329.99 at their website. The bundle with the Get Together Duo is $449.98 (usually $569.98).

That being said, I couldn't be happier about re-experiencing my favorite albums with great audio quality. The Stir it Up Lux turntable is beautiful, and once I settled everything up, the usability was superb.

I wish it could bring the stylus back to its original position once the record stops playing or that it would work with more Bluetooth speakers, but for its price and what it delivers, I think this is one of the best turntables available on the market right now.

The post House of Marley Stir it Up Lux turntable review: Ode to the ultimate listening experience appeared first on BGR.

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House of Marley Stir it Up Lux turntable review: Ode to the ultimate listening experience originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 10 Jan 2024 at 11:06:21 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.