There are a lot of buyers out there looking for a good all-in-one turntable, whether as their first fore into vinyl or a need for a compact solution for smaller spaces. There aren’t an abundance of good all-in-one solutions on the market. Most are eWaste, suitcase-style portables built for pennies in the hundreds of thousands with a proven reputation for destroying expensive vinyl. Others are built by audiophile companies out of touch with the needs of an ‘average’ consumer, costing the equivalent of a stack of new budget separates or a fine assembly of used equipment that would far exceed their performance.
When I saw the QlearSoul One-Q I thought it might offer a happy medium. Priced at around £200GBP, it is an all-in-one turntable, amplifier and speaker system with built-in Bluetooth playback, in an attractive black or Walnut vinyl finish that is approximately the size of a typical component turntable.
It’s made in China and is to some extent an assembly of parts from an existing OEM. The turntable itself has an aluminium platter and quiet DC motor, with electronic switching between 33 and 45RPM. The tonearm takes a standard 1/2 inch mount cartridge and comes fitted with an Audio-Technica AT3600L. An adjustable counterweight gives you full control over the tracking force and the ability to upgrade the cartridge should you wish – there’s even an alignment protractor in the box.
The turntable is mounted to a sprung sub chassis for isolation, because directly beneath is a four-speaker system in its own sealed enclosure, comprising a pair of mid woofers and a pair of tweeters. The amplification is basic with volume and source controls, no bass or treble adjustment, but you do get an auxiliary input via a 3.5 mm jack on the front. The package is rounded out by a thick felt platter mat, hinged dust cover and large isolating feet.
The turntable has a built-in RIAA preamp with line output on the back. The preamp is switchable and can be disabled should you wish to use the turntable with the internal phono stage of an external amplifier, you can do so.
Setup is easy, there’s a quick start guide included and a QR code on the box which takes you to a video tutorial if you need it.
The belt is already installed to the inner rim of the platter with a handy ribbon to help you pull it onto the motor pulley once the platter is seated on the spindle.
Install the counterweight and follow the usual procedure to set the tracking force of 3.5 grams recommended for the AT3600.
This is where we find the biggest downside, which is the lack of any form of anti-skate. The arm in general is quite flimsy, the horizontal bearing a simple pivot pin retained by an internal e clip. Likewise the vertical bearing is a metal pivot pin in a plastic housing. It’s rudimentary and though a cut above the likes of a Crosley, it could be a lot better for the money.
The lack of anti-skate isn’t a show stopping dealbreaker. There are some high-end turntables that lack anti-skate. Though any competent tonearm engineer would consider it an essential inclusion, as it counteracts the centripetal force pulling the stylus toward the centre of the record as it tracks the spiral groove in an arc. Without it, especially at a relatively high tracking force, you will exert greater pressure on the inner groove wall and cause uneven wear to both the stylus and record. For those who play a record once in a while, and have a collection large enough that the same records aren’t spinning on repeat, the wear shouldn’t be noticeable. If you play records over and over again, however, or have a collection of rarities, limited editions and expensive new releases, this is probably not the turntable for you.
The turntable has several modes of operation. Bluetooth and vinyl playback are handled via the respective controls on the front panel. Bluetooth pairing worked flawlessly with my iPhone and the sound is clear and punch with plenty of bass. You won’t get much in the way of stereo image with the speakers so close together, but it does get plenty loud enough to fill a large room. The stereo image you do get out of it is quite surprising, as is the level of detail.
The turntable holds speed well. For those interested the measurements are below. For 33RPM we see an average of 33.09 RPM which is acceptable, most people won’t hear the difference. Wow and flutter figures are surprisingly decent.
45 is a little worse at 44.47RPM giving a -1.18% deviation. That can be adjusted by tweaking the speed controls on the bottom of the motor, but those aren’t readily accessible to the user.
Getting at the speed controls requires the base be removed. Two of the screws to remove the base are hidden beneath the self-adhesive feet at the back.
The turntable sounds very good. Noise levels are low and there is a respectable amount of detail. The AT3600 is quite a soft-sounding cartridge that is able to hide many of the turntable’s shortcomings. It’s still several orders of magnitude better than most all-in-one turntables however. Maximum volume hasn’t been limited in the circuit and even at high volume the isolation does a decent job of keeping vibrations out of the turntable mechanism. The cartridge was also perfectly aligned from the factory, though they did wire the left / right channels in reverse.
The One-Q is an interesting product and a good first attempt at an all-in-one turntable that is better than the norm. My advice would be to ditch the line output and RCA outputs, spending the money instead on a better tonearm with anti-skate function. Improve quality control at the factory to better optimise the speed or provide easy end-user access to the speed controls. But for what it is, the One-Q is an excellent Bluetooth speaker and a perfectly acceptable turntable for occasional playback, and is easy to recommend over any of the typical alternatives currently on the market.
