Is the Crosley Cruiser Portable Record Player Worth Buying?

The Crosley Cruiser Portable Turntable is a fun retro record player in a colorful carrying case. In a world of hyper-mobile digital music on our smartphones and iPods, the Cruiser is the answer for vinyl music fans on the go. With the Crosley Cruiser, the rich, warm sound of vinyl can finally be portable. But is this record player really a legitimate audio device, or just a toy? Let’s find out.

PORTABILITY

A first glance, the Crosley Cruiser looks like a small suitcase from the 1960s. But when you open the case, it’s a fully functional vinyl record player. Its small compact design makes it portable and allows it to easily fit on a small table or file cabinet.

Want your friends to hear the new vinyl record that you bought but they don’t own a record player? Just grab the Crosley Cruiser and take the music to their house. The Crosley Cruiser only weighs 5 pounds. That’s less than a six-pack of beer.

STYLE

The Crosley Cruiser can bring a retro-cool feel to any location from dorm rooms to conference rooms. The image above with the Mr. Mister, Culture Club and Van Halen record covers is from my office in Salt Lake City, UT. We put a Crosley Cruiser in their waiting area for guests and staff to use and bought a bunch of retro records.

The Crosley Cruiser comes in a variety of bright vibrant colors: turquoise, lime, orange, pink, black, red, blue and tweed. On some of the photos that I saw online, the red model looked slightly pink, but rest assured, it’s not. It’s a nice bright red.

It addition to being stylish, the Crosley Cruiser is also constructed out of quality materials such as wood and synthetic leather. Not cheap flimsy plastic.

SOUND

The Crosley Cruiser has 2 built-in speakers located on either side of the briefcase handle. Volume is decent, but don’t expect volume or sound quality beyond what you would find from a portable record player.

I’ve seen reviews on Amazon.com from people comparing the Crosley Cruiser to $5,000 sound systems. That’s just stupid. It’s like buying a Porsche and complaining that it can’t drive in the snow. The Porsche wasn’t designed for snow and the Crosley Cruiser wasn’t designed to compete with thousand dollar sound systems. Don’t get me wrong. The Crosley Cruiser will easily fill a small room with sound without having to crank the volume to the max. And it sounds really good for a portable record player. But the Crosley Cruiser is not a substitute for a high-end sound system.

PRODUCT DETAILS

• 3-speed turntable: 33 1/3, 45, 78 RPM
• Plug-and-play capability with your portable MP3 player
• RCA audio output
• Headphone jack
• Dynamic full-range stereo speakers
• AC power adapter
• Dimensions: 14 x 10 1/2 x 4 5/8″
• 5 1/2 lbs.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Lightweight, easily transportable and complete with a built-in stereo speaker, the Crosley Cruiser Portable Turntable can easily liven up any office, living room or bedroom. The Crosley Cruiser is a fantastic, small, portable record player and costs less than $100.

The only issue I had with the Cruiser was needles. Record player needles are tricky to find these days. It would have been nice for the manufacturer to include a few extra needles in the box. But otherwise, it’s a winner.