Audio-Technica AT-SB727 Sound Burger Bluetooth Turntable

A great little record player, so glad they were back in stock!!

First and most importantly: the Sound Burger is a very small, portable, battery operated table. That’s the big selling point here.

We’re talking portable like a laptop versus a desktop, not a smart phone vs desktop. The media this plays back is a fragile piece of plastic that’s the size of a serving plate and is heavily bound by the laws of physics, so there are clear and obvious limitations to keep in mind. This will let you take your records into other rooms of your house and maybe out to the garage if you’re adventurous, but if you’re hiking through the woods I’d consider other options.

All that said, this is not a toy. It’s a solid table that doesn’t embarrass itself in the right setup.

Sound-wise, this is about on par with the AT-LP60 series. It uses the same cartridge, which is not replaceable, and stylus, which is replaceable. This means that the Sound Burger isn’t on the same level as an expensive, dedicated rig, but it’s also worlds better than an entry level Crosley player. Listening to music on this is genuinely pleasant. Not the absolute best that vinyl can do but on the right side of the diminishing return curve.

The table here doesn’t have any fancy features in terms of playback. It’s fully manual, no cuing, sprung to about 3g tracking force, and has no antiskate. This lack of antiskate is a minor (but understandble) sticking point: it does sometimes mean that records that don’t skip on my other table will skip on this one, but it’s not too common and not a huge issue. You do get a nice heavy aluminum platter which keeps the wow and flutter respectable here, and a rubber clamp to keep the record steady. The table is somewhat susceptible to vibrations, so make sure it’s on a firm surface.

The battery lasts about 12 hours and charges with USB-C. The charging is slow, but you can charge while using the table which slightly mitigates the issue.

Output is line out and bluetooth. Line out is via a 3.5mm jack, and comes out already pre-amplified so you won’t need a phono pre-amp with this table. The bluetooth is adequate and I haven’t had too many issues getting it to pair with various speakers. Not any more than any other bluetooth device. One thing I think this device is missing is dedicated volume controls for bluetooth headphones, not having them limits this to only those devices which have their own volume controls. There are workarounds but this really should’ve been included and is a mark down for me.

Contrary to other opinions, I don’t mind that this doesn’t have a dedicated headphone out port and would even call its removal an improvement over the original. Given what this is, a fragile playback device which can easily be knocked or dragged off a table by an errant headphone cord (potentially destroying it and a valuable record), it makes sense to keep moving headphone wires far, far away from your Sound Burger. Line out is fine since amplifiers don’t move around the room too much, but wired headphones tend to move around and could easily lead to a bad situation.

For recommendations, I like it as a second table. If you have a dedicated listening setup but also sometimes want to listen to your records elsewhere in your house, this is a great option. You won’t use it for critical listening, but not everything has to be about that.

For a first table, this isn’t a bad option. Maybe a better one than an ATLP60 actually, since that table is just as unupgradeable as this one: if you graduate to a more expensive table your LP60 will collect dust in a closet or get sold, but this one could still potentially be useful to you. You’ll be missing the automatic features on the LP60, but if you don’t mind trading that for the true portability of the sound burger you won’t be missing much. Who needs automatic return when you can just set your turntable up on the coffee table right next to you and do it yourself?

That’s really all I have to say. It’s a basic, decent sounding table that isn’t perfect, but fills its niche well. If that appeals to you, then I say go ahead and buy one.

Summer is here, which means the kids are also here all day long. I bought this unit to use in my home office as it is compact. I was pleasantly surprised at just how well this little unit works! Sound is crystal clear, record speed is dead accurate. Well worth the price!

It produced high quality sounds via Bluetooth, I had a cheap cable and it didn’t work well so I might have to upgrade but Bluetooth works magically! Is easy to use and small! I think totally worth it if you want to go compact versus huge setup! I think it sounds slightly different than expensive options but amazing enough to get a vinyl feel!

What a great record player for a small house.
Sounds so great and connected to my Bluetooth sound bar flawlessly.
It blows me away that it maintains the great record sound and quality to the Bluetooth speaker.
We didn’t have a single place to put a full side turn table and as you can see it fits perfect on a shelf or small surface.
If you have limited space but love vinyl this is the one buy it!