About Pyle Home Audio
Pyle is widely known for the Pyle Driver, their original speaker which quickly became a household name after the foundation of Pyle in the 1960’s.
They started out as a manufacturer for high-quality advanced woofers and over the years developed themselves into the most important supplier for replacement speakers and car audio.
Around the year 2000, Pyle had undergo a huge transformation, expanding into nascent markets such as Home audio, Marine audio, Professional audio and musical instruments.
Pyle has three focus areas, in which they offer high-end audio solutions – Pyle Car, Home and Pro. Pyle Home offers products to enrich your media experience in your own place.
A great example is their Vintage Turntable, the Pyle Home PVNP4CD Phonograph Horn Turntable. This is a modern looking version of an old phonograph, but the sound quality sounds old-fashioned. We are reviewing this record player today.
Design of the Pyle Home PVNP4CD Phonograph
The number one reason for owners of this model. This media player will look at home in any setting where you’re trying to accomplish some history.. the Victorian age, Early 20th century for example.
The brass horn is the part that is most characteristic, it does instantly bring a vintage look to your whole room. The horn is nicely accompanied by the wood crafted cabinet and copper display with solidly mounted rotary switches.
Therefore this Pyle Home is not to be placed in a dusty corner of the chamber, it is fit for the job of catching some eyes. You can’t help but watch the records spin on this vintage style, authentically wood-crafted turntable as it plays your music.
Music and Sound Produced by the Pyle Turntable
But as important as the design, is the sound the player produces. You do not only want to look at your LP’s spinning, of course you also want to enjoy listening to them. The Cabinet contains two in-housed speakers with tweed covered openings on the side. A rear speaker inside the cabinet sends sound trough the horn, although a bit more quiet than the speakers on the side. So you’re not solely reliant upon the horn for sound.
And the sound itself? This is a good example of what you see is what you get, or is this case, hear. An authentic, warm back-in-the-old-days sound that fortunately still fills any room. So, a great fit for you retro music.
Quality and Durability
The Brass Horn
The brass horn really dominates the looks of this turntable, making it a phonograph. The room and atmosphere will for sure be positively affected when placing this vintage record player.
But, the manufacturer could have been more thoroughly in producing this system. The horn is metal and may well be brass, as beautiful as it is, it is quiet thin. One should handle it with care, or it might well dent.
The Wooden Cabinet
The cabinet is made of medium density fiberboard that feels weighty and solid. However, putting screws in pre-drilled holes will only work once and it is easy to over-torgue and strip out the holes.
Knobs and switches
The knobs and switches look and feel firm, and rotate smoothly. They are solidly mounted and feel good to turn on and off. The turntable however, should have had more attention. The turntable, tone arm, switches and arm lift look and feel a bit cheap.
Usability of the Pyle Phonograph
The turntable is capable of spinning 45, 33 and 78 RPM records. Next to that there is deck for cassette tapes, a CD-player and off course AM/FM radio. You can even listen to your music on your home stereo using the stereo RCA outputs, or plug in a set of cans using the 3.5mm headphone jack.
A nice option on this record player is rip your Vinyl music to an USB device and to your PC. This can be a bit complex if you are not into it.But this is one of the popular features of the model. Amazon users report to very satisfied by this function!
As you need to assembly to horn to the cabinet, a screwdriver is included in the box and that is just fine. Unfortunately the screws are cheap. Aside from over-torgue in the wood, in some cases the head fell off. It is better to go out a get some proper screws yourself.
Although there is not a huge amount of instruction needed to install the machine, the instruction sheet is hard to read. A very tiny print and no proper English, this should be done better.
Price and final verdict
Prices for the Pyle-Home PVNP4CD Vintage Phonograph Horn Turntable are in the $$$$ price range. Check the actual price on Amazon.com here. For this price you don’t expect a pro-grade turntable, but it is more expensive compared to the other models we’ve reviewed on this site.
For the design and sound it is definitely worth it, and that is the most important above all. If you don’t mind to appeal on your handyman skills if it is needed and you are an occasional user, this record player will likely to be just fine.
