Sony Hi-Res USB Turntable - PS-HX500

What I have found is that it's a great buy for the $$$. The trick to it sounding very good is to make sure you have your arm balanced correctly. Sony gives excellent instructions on how to do this. I would recommend at some point upgrading the stylus to a Shure M97XE or better, but the Audio Technica one that comes with it is solid for the overall price of the turntable. If anyone is getting "sub par" performance of the turntable, either they aren't adjusting the arm to the correct pressure or they need some better cans (headphones for you non audiophile folk) to listen to. Make sure you set the weight to 3 if overall sound listening (2.5 for Bass or electronic type music, 3.5-4 for critical listening with Jazz or Classical). Make sure the vinyl is cleaned properly as well. The turntable has a good warmth to it, Dylan's Blonde on Blonde really comes through as does Alan Parson's IRobot. However, for John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, I had to move my stylus pressure to 4...then OMG sweet sounds. I would think a better stylus would remedy that, but I'm just being nit picky at this point. Recording is very easy with the software download. Make sure you adjust your settings depending on the type of Genre you are recording. 16bit, 48k is fine for most things in PCM. However, for Jazz, Classical or really good albums, you may want to use either DSD or 24bit/96k. The Rolling Stones song Angie from Goats Head Soup really sounds GREAT in the higher format. (You can actually hear the strings reverb on the digital recording, you can't hear this on native CD format and only on Vinyl usually). Well done Sony! Well done indeed!