A turntable is the revolving platter on which the vinyl record is placed.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can start to explain a little more in-depth. To put it simply, all record players have turntables, but not all turntables are record players. There are important distinctions between the two that first-time buyers could find extremely valuable. With so many new listeners entering a world that up until now had an air of exclusivity, we thought it important to shed some light on one of the most frequently asked questions in vinyl what’s the difference between a turntable and a record player? “Turntable” and “record player” may seem like interchangeable terms, but we promise we wouldn’t be wasting your time on simple semantics. Listeners flocked to their local record stores for new records, some seeking to capture the nostalgic, uniquely special sound of their favorite music on vinyl, and many for the very first time. Major releases from the likes of Taylor Swift and Adele, among others, helped to establish vinyl as the dominant format for physical music. It was announced recently that in 2022, for the first time in 35 years, vinyl records outsold CDs.

Table turners