NEOSTAR Music Centre Record Player, CD Recorder, Cassette Deck - Remote Control, Bluetooth USB Port

A nice unit but find cannot get very good radio signal to tune in plus noisy whirring when playing cd's also very hard and noisy when insertingtape to play or extract you need to hold deck whilst realeasing tape it is that hard but unit otherwise okay

The unit looks very impressive but unfortunately it does not work well the buttons on the front are very unresponsive especially the button operating the CD drawer I am very disappointed because this unit looked so good I had to return it for a refund

Very pleased with this transaction, met all my expectations for quality of the product, and very reasonably priced too. Seller's service all round was of a first class standard.

Does all it says, compact and easy to operate. So far no problems

This Nerostar unit is interesting. There are a lot of possibilities and permutations of what you can do with it. I think this means it is too expensive to test properly. This was the case with the one I had which I had to return because it kept switching itself off after 15 mins, I gather this is a electricity saving feature which is supposed to work when it is not in use, but I found it was switching itself off during use – while playing a CD or Vinyl – playing or recording it just shuts down dead and if you were recording a CD, that CD is now “full” with about 15 mins on it max. You can still finalise it, but you have a 79 min CD with 15 mins on it.In the example I had, the turntable wobbled up and down excessively, as if it had been subjected to excessive heat at some point, and this lets down the wood look of the unit which is trying to look like quality when you have this dodgy turntable (and tape deck) looking out of place.I found I was unable to record to USB in my unit; I tried every single file format NTFS, FAT & FAT 32. I tried three different pen drives. The best I could obtain was an empty audio file full of Hiss. It was able to record to CD, but then when I tried to copy that to USB, which is a feature it has, it was also just hiss.I cannot understand why this unit does not have a DAB Radio; it just seems to be rather a cheap thing to do. And guess what you cannot record from the Radio! Something a 1980’s Vinyl & Tape System would have no trouble doing.Finalising a CD is not obvious, and without doing it the CD’s won’t play in anything else. You get 74 mins recording time, regardless of the size of the CD. So if it says 80 mins on the CD, you get 74 mins. You cannot name the files on the CD they are just numbered.It has a clear plastic top which seems very fragile.I have not got as far as testing the Tape Deck, which appears to stands out as being rather crap looking, worse than what you would get in a car back in the 80’s, it has a single control on it. I have read it is difficult to insert and remove tapes but have not had chance to try it myself.The Manual believe it or not, does not specify what the stylus is. Unbelievably, the company I bought it from is also unsure what the stylus is. The part number is not specified anywhere in the manual. I have not found any help file or even the manual in PDF form on line. The stylus is supposedly suitable for all three speeds something I think is rather dubious, I am not sure, but it would appear to be of the ceramic type. The manual says it is good for 400 hours. Pity it doesn’t specify what it actually is.The Turntable arm and Mech, appears to try and convey a sense of quality. It has a lever to place the stylus onto the record, it is not fully automatic. It goes down very slowly on to the record when you put the lever into the down position. You can adjust the speed by a pitch control, which I found to be unnecessary. You can also adjust the point at which the arm comes off the record which may be useful for unusual 78’s with a small middle like the ones from the early 1900’s but I have not tried to adjust that. The speed seems to be correct. It usually comes off at the end, sometimes just before the end in the case of 78’s especially the ones which push the run time limits of a 78 e.g. over three mins.You can adjust the weight setting of the tone arm, the manual says 1 is all you need but I found it needs to be at least 2 to play singles and LP’s, you need to go to 5 for 78’s, and if you want to play “12 Disco remix stuff I found sometimes (more often than not) even 5 was not good enough, nothing is good enough and it skipped its way through the record like my old crappy record player with non-adjustable weight. I tried more than one. The ones which have multiple mixes per side seems to be the ones it skipped on. Less so on ones which just one track per side.The Turntable has lines on it which I don’t know what they are called, which I have seen on turntables in the past, which allow you to correct the speed, I am not sure if they are just for effect here. Hard to tell when the turntable wobbles up and down excessively.During Vinyl recordings, on CD, you can hear a slight weird noise in the background, it is not massively distracting but it is there, maybe it is recording through the stylus, vibration of the noise of the CD Drive Motor or the Turntable Motor, since the unit does not have a internal HDD or storage, it is recording straight from Vinyl to CD.I have tried the radio, the sound is not that great, hissy, with ropey tuning, and the station name is not displayed and I repeat this is analogue not DAB.You can connect a Bluetooth device such as a phone, you can play a track on your phone and it will output on the system, but you cannot output from the system to a beefier sound system. The sound output is not that loud, 5W speakers are one of the few things specified in the manual; I suspect it is more like 2I mainly want to record to USB, it can only do MP3, but this did not work at all. I did not get as far as testing AUX input, another important one for me before I returned the unit for the faults specified so far.If you look on a popular second hand selling website, you can find many examples of this unit for a fraction of the new price, I suspect these are the ones which have faults – I suspect they simply don’t bother to test the unit at all and hope for the best.The unit comes with a remote control. This is essential for some functions. You can adjust the recording level. Again, not obvious during use.There are preset equalization settings. I don’t know if you can manually adjust these as I no longer have the unit or manual at the moment.When recording, it appears you can get it to automatically create gaps between Tracks, or do it manually, I think you can only do it manually at recording time. I didn’t get chance to find out.The unit looks nice, in a wood looking effect, let down by analogue radio, ropey turntable and crappy tape unit.You can spend a lot of time checking out all the functions just to see if they actually work, I spent some 5 hours trying to work out what the pen drive and file format the unit liked, I am still not sure but maybe FAT or FAT32. It should not be necessary to faff about like this, the manual should just specify – use NTFS for example, but it doesn’t say anything at all. I don’t think the unit can format a Pen Drive. I didn’t get so far as to try a Hard Drive.As far as input/outputs on the back, you just have phono connections which I assume is an audio output. On the front you have 3.5 mm Headphones and AUX sockets and USB.The manual tells you that the CD unit can be noisy and that this is not a fault, I found it to be nosier with CDR than CDRW, in my case CDRW is better because when the unit suddenly shuts down at least you can continue recording unlike on the CDR which is now “full”.I had to return my faulty unit. I am waiting for a replacement.I now have a replacement unit. This one does not switch off after 15 mins. This one can save to USB. However, the turntable still wobbles about more than you would expect. Also, at the end of a record sometimes it seems to bounce back onto the record before finally coming off.I have tried the “Tape Deck”. It has no controls whatsoever. You insert a tape at an awkward angle and then it plays. A button comes out to eject it when it gets to the end. It does not auto-reverse the tape like USB Tape Encoders you can get for about £10. You have to manually turn the tape. I have tried one tape so far. The sound balance was a bit off but that was probably the tape. I have already used USB Tape Encoders to do my tapes, and this is less hassle, no software is required here. You get little info on the display. No duration of recording, recording level, nothing. Just flashing icons which you tell you its recording. If I was looking at this system mainly for using tapes, I would look elsewhere. I don’t think it can record to tape. The sound is hissy, as you would expect. No Dolby options here. Cleaning the tape heads, I usually clean between tapes I would not use the clean with cotton bud method here. It would have to be a cassette head cleaner if you can find one. You have to manually stop the encoding at the end of the tape. It just carries on.Automatic Track Separation – This appears to be hopeless regardless of what setting you put it on -20, -30 or -40 dB it splices up tracks into many when it should be one. Separating them manually is a pain in the ass and only seems possible at time of recording – there is not enough time between tracks and Vinyl carried on playing while the track is being created on CD. So, you need to keep putting the stylus back while you do this, create the track and carry on. You get a digital display while recording to CD track number; duration but NOTHING but flashing icons while “encoding” to MP3.I think this unit is also faulty. With recording level at 0, recording to CD from Vinyl. During a loud passage the sound is distorted and there is nothing you can do about it since the recording level is already at 0. Did they test this thing at all or just hoped for the best? Or are they hoping no one will have time to find until it’s too late that it don’t work in several ways?I have now tested the “AUX” function. Like the cassette, the stereo mix appears to be off centre – i.e. the input does not appear to be the same as the output.If you fall asleep while recording a CD, you have lost your CD. E.g. If you saved a track or too, they will be on the CD. But the current track will carry on recording until the disc is fall and you might think that you would just have a full CD but actually the last track you record is lost. And In this case I found even when the CD finalised would not play on a CD Player.I am finding the USB Recording to be somewhat unreliable. You need a selection of Pen Drives to find out what one it likes. Even when you find one it seems to like, there can still be issues.You can record to MP3 on USB and CD simultaneously. You get a clock recording length of track while recording on CD. On MP3 you get two flashing icons and no information at all whatsoever. This means if the USB recording goes wrong you will not find out until much later that the recordings are corrupted and or don’t exist. Maybe the Pen Drive needs to be a certain speed or something.You have two Record buttons, so it can be confusing. Seems all you have is a matrix of black buttons and you need to know what to use. It was not my intention to record to CD, but it seems to be more reliable e.g. you can record to USB and CD simultaneously. I often find you can get three sides of Vinyl on a CD. The forth side will be incomplete on CD but the USB Pen Drive will hopefully catch it if it didn’t corrupt on that occasion. It seems to be very very very easy to corrupt the Pen Drive.There is a claim that this device does not need a PC and yet it offers no format functionality. It will delete tracks for you. You cannot name them. You really need a PC to sort out the output that it produces.It has one of the best turn tables I have seen on these all in one units, the tracking weight is 4 -6 grams, the Tape Deck is a joke, and really so is the analogue Radio. You really want an analogue Radio in 2018 don’t you? It’s really a half-decent Record Player with CD/USB Recording functionality and really that is its main use.It’s a pity you cannot record below 0 db, this means sometimes it is impossible to record without distortion, you are at the mercy of the volume level the Vinyl was mastered I suppose, and I suppose using a lighter tracking weight may help with this.I did attempt to play 78’s with a 2 inch centre and have actually found it to be impossible despite the fact you can alter the place where the stylus comes off automatically, it won’t adjust that far. So you can play the first 2 mins of a 78 that is probably 2 mins 30 seconds or so.It is easy to use as a record player, just put it in PHONO and off you go. But it’s other functions are a maze of confusion. E.g. you record PHONO in PHONO mode to CD or USB. If you wish to check your recording you need to go to CD or USB.The USB playback seems to have been designed to maximise the possibility of corrupting the pen drive. As soon as you go into USB mode, if there are any tracks on the Pen Drive, it just starts playing them, and it will carry on playing them, there is a button on the remote control at least to stop this, to minimise the chance of corrupting pen drive upon removal. Manual just says turn system off or change to certain modes. It seems a bit ropey. You get a clock telling you how much of the track has been played but it won’t tell you the name or the length of the track. Fast forwarding through track is so slow you may as well just play it.The plastic lid seems very fragile in comparison to my old player. I had loads of stuff on top of that one, but I would not dare do that with this one. It seems as fragile as an egg shell.When recording to CD there is motor noise in the background but the recording quality seems to be better than in USB. In USB there seems to be some sort of “tunnel” effect. This means neither is able to produce a perfect recording. It’s an “it’ll do” effort.When recording to CD, air comes out of the front of the unit. It is noisy but not excessively so.The manual tells you MP3’s are recorded at 128, this is the only info given. You are not told if it is the same recording quality for CD. You are given no way to alter the recording time of a CD if it is an 80 min CD. You just have to waste 6 mins every time as it calls it full at 74 mins.The unit does switch itself off after 15 mins of inactivity. It sounds like a relay switch doing this with a click.The speed does seem to need to be corrected every now and then as vibration or whatever seems to cause it to go slightly off with time. The speed lines on the turntable show you how to fix this, you adjust the speed until it is steady and not scrolling forward. (Illusion of the lines being steady). I am only guessing this from previous use of such turntables since again the manual tells you NOTHING.I don’t believe you can record to tape. It’s Vinyl / Tape / USB / AUX / Bluetooth? to CD or USB. You cannot record the internal radio but you could connect an external DAB for example via the AUX.There are about 5 equalisation pre-sets and that is all the control you have over the sound apart from volume. You cannot change Bass, Treble, Balance – Nothing. This means the sound is flat sounding with no bass. The pre-sets help a bit but don’t do massive amount.If you want to be doing something else while simultaneously recording Vinyl to CD or USB then you have to resign yourself to just recording a side of a LP as a single track otherwise you have to pay all of your attention to the turntable to pause, and manually split the track – as the automatic track splitting is hopeless – or just record a side of a LP as a track.This is basically a half decent record player with it’ll do if you’re not too picky about sound quality recording functionality to CD or USB.UpdateSix months of ownership later I have given up recording to USB as it is a waste of time.The turntables wobbliness has developed to the point that the turntable sometimes is hitting the base unit resulting in a thudding noise audiable on recordings. This does not happen all the time and it is hard to see what is the reason for the on off nature of this.I have also found that other remote controls can cause the unit to switch on and off.I now avoid using the "Pause" function between tracks recording to CD and this seems to massively increase chance of wasting CD. The only warning you get is that the track number skips one and then it continues happily except [when you finish you find you don't have very much on your CD the only way to minimise this is to use STOP and not PAUSE. This does not totally avoid the risk of wasting your time and the CD. Sometimes the CD can recover by on and off the system a few times. Software seems buggy and unforgiving.It seems to be necessary to correct the speed all the time. You need a light shining onto the turntable in order to see if the speed is correct.Update after 2 years 9 Months of ownership update:The stylus is called Neostar STY05 good luck finding it. I have seen them for sale for between £8 and £30. I have recorded most of my entire record collection on CD’s and have ripped those CD’s to MP3. I did intend just to record to MP3 but the USB recording is too crap and unreliable to be bothered with. I have all of my records in glorious clear BASS FREE sound. You know that sound you get from a cheap ghettoblaster? This is what you get here. I mostly use it these days to make recordings to CD through the AUX. I find this very useful. The Radio NEVER remembers what station you put it on. You have to trundle through the dial EVERY time. I don’t bother to set the clock because you need to put the plug in and out so often it’s pointless. You would probably be better off buying a QUALITY vintage turntable – When technologies are on the way out they tend to be made cheap and nasty – like the unrepairable last generation Toshiba VCR’s for example. So you trade losing all the nice modern tech gimmicks and get something that was made when vinyl was king and not a niche gimmick. A basic requirement of a turntable is turn at a constant speed – this is something that is totally beyond this system. You set the speed with a torch or something similar shineing on the turntable. Start recording. And then watch powerlessly as it the speed wonders off. More and More. If you try and correct it. IT WILL SOUND HORRIBLE. So you just got to watch the speed go more and more off. It is not that noticeable on playback unless you correct the speed and then it will be.

The point of purchasing this device was to transfer a very large record collection to CD with ease and avoiding using a computer.I've ran a test using a Chopin record following the instructions to the letter. Things to note:1) I could not get the auto track to function properly on any of the setting options. I didn't recognise the drop in sound between track and therefore made a single track of the whole first side. On the second side, I pressed the manual track between each track so at least it tracked it. This requires sitting by the machine and pressing a button every time a track comes to the end.2) the quality of the actual record player is terrible - the sound quality it generates is the worst i've heard.3) playing the CD on my machine afterward I noted a lot of extraneous noise that wasn't on the record when it was playing. For example, a very loud thump at the beginning. From the second track onwards there is a very loud hum throughout. The hum (sounds like motor noise) is louder than the music.A very frustrating couple of hours wasted. Needless to say I will be sending the machine back.

Brilliant product, easy to set up. BUT BUT Why Oh why is there no battery reserve for when there is a power failure or you want to move it