The Victrola Journey (thing)

The Victrola Journey is the name of a portable suitcase turntable produced by Innovative Technology, a company that licensed the venerable Victrola brand name. I am not sure on the nomenclature of this record player, whether it is "The Journey by Victrola" or "The Victrola Journey", and indeed, the name "The Journey" only exists on marketting materials, and not on the record player itself. Neither does the manual use that name, referring to it by its much more prosaic model number, the VSC-550BT.

This is an entry level record player that is cheap and reliable. I bought mine a year ago and it is still working smoothly. The name "The Journey" refers to it being a portable record player, and it is small and light: a little more than a foot square and five inches when closed, and weighing about five pounds, it is easily transportable. It retails for between $50 and $75. It is a belt driven turn table, which is not the state of the art of turntables, but is quite reasonable for the price. It also lacks a USB port, but does include bluetooth functionality, although that is merely that the record player's speakers can play from bluetooth devices, not vice-versa. (I have never used it). The built-in speakers on this record player are not large, so they aren't exactualy audiophile quality, but again, they are good for the price. The record player also has auxillary output if you want to attach it to better speakers.

I would usually not be one to cheer on consumerism, but I would recommend this as a purchase. The price range is very cheap, and having a record player quickly gives access to a lot of "forgotten music", again, for very cheap. My familiarity with different forms of music went up once I bought this record player. It is not the only low-cost record player, and using the "Victrola" name might be more of a gimmick than anything else, but nevertheless, I recommend this model for someone who wants to start exploring musically.