Ryyvo T50 Turntable in Black or White

The Ryyvo T50 is a turntable on a 36 mm gloss plinth with a full-size hinged dust cover, a 1.6 kg iron platter, an aluminium tonearm and an Audio-Technica AT-3600L cartridge. It comes in black or in white. At 45 by 36 centimetres and 7 kg it is the most compact deck in this range, and the only one you can have in black.

It is made in Guangdong, China, by BoTo, on a private mould, under the manufacturer's own reference TR-L60. We have not renamed the internals and we have not invented the numbers. Where the manufacturer contradicts itself — and on this deck it does, once, about power — it is written plainly further down this page rather than smoothed over.

Specifications published by the manufacturer

The cartridge has a name

An Audio-Technica AT-3600L. Moving magnet, diamond stylus, from a company that has been making cartridges since 1962, fitted to a very large number of turntables sold in Britain. Its replacement stylus is a stock item you can buy from any decent dealer.

That matters more than it sounds. A cartridge the factory declines to identify is one you cannot replace, cannot research and cannot upgrade; when the stylus wears out, and it will, you are stuck with whatever the factory decides to send you. Here you are not dependent on us, or on a factory in Guangdong, to keep this deck playing in five years.

How this differs from the C40, honestly

We sell two decks from this factory and they are close enough that you deserve a straight answer about which to buy.

On paper they are nearly the same machine: the same Audio-Technica cartridge, the same 1.6 kg platter, the same aluminium tonearm, the same speeds, the same record sizes, the same features list, the same 12 volt supply and the same 36 mm plinth. Read side by side, the two technical sheets are almost word for word identical.

What actually differs:

• The T50 comes in black or white. The C40 is white only.
• The T50 is the gloss one. The C40 is matte.
• The T50 is lighter and its size is published — 45 × 36 × 11.5 cm, 8.0 kg boxed, against 9.0 kg boxed for the C40, whose dimensions the factory has never given us.
• In the manufacturer's photographs the T50's bearing housing and counterweight are bright metal where the C40's are black. Both sheets describe the arm as aluminium and say nothing more, so we are calling that a visible difference and not a technical one.

That is the whole of it. If you want black, or gloss, take the T50. If you want matte white, take the C40. There is no hidden third reason and we are not going to invent one.

The manufacturer contradicts itself about power

The specification table gives the power as 24 watts and the power supply as 12 volts at 1 amp. Twelve volts at one amp is twelve watts. Those two numbers cannot both be right.

It makes no practical difference to how this deck sounds — there is no amplifier in it and no speakers on it, so the supply only has to run a motor, a preamp and a Bluetooth radio, and twelve watts does that comfortably. But it is printed on their own sheet twice, differently, and we would rather point at it than quietly copy the bigger number across because it looks better.

The Bluetooth transmits. It does not receive.

Almost every listing for a deck like this says “Bluetooth” and stops there, which is useless, because the two directions are completely different products.

This one is a transmitter, with its own pairing switch on the front panel next to the power indicator. It sends the sound of your record to Bluetooth speakers or headphones, with nothing plugged in. That is the useful direction for a turntable.

What it does not do is the reverse: you cannot stream from your phone into this deck and out through something else. If that is what you wanted, this is not the machine.

There are no speakers, and there is an RCA output

Nothing in this box makes a sound on its own. You need speakers — either Bluetooth ones using the transmitter above, or wired ones through the RCA output. If you already own an amplifier, powered speakers or a soundbar with a line input, you are ready. If you own nothing at all, look at the S20 or the A30 instead: they arrive with their speakers in the box.

33 and 45 only, on 10 and 12 inch records

No 78 rpm. If you have inherited shellac, this is not the deck for it.

The manufacturer lists 10 inch and 12 inch as the supported record sizes. It does not list 7 inch and it does not mention a 45 rpm adaptor — the small puck that fills the wide centre hole on a single. The deck plays at 45 rpm, so 12 inch singles are covered, but whether a 7 inch adaptor is supplied is something we have asked and do not yet have in writing.

What is visible in the photographs

Read off the manufacturer's own images and video, not written by them. Treat it as observation rather than specification.

• A low flat plinth with a gloss lacquered finish, shown in black and in white, on four small feet
• A full-size hinged clear dust cover, hinged at the back, standing well clear of the arm when open
• An Audio-Technica cartridge on the headshell, its logo legible on the body in close-up
• A bright metal bearing housing and counterweight at the back of the arm
• A small control panel at the front left with a POWER indicator, a BT indicator, a switch, and a second switch the manufacturer captions as the Bluetooth pairing switch
• No speaker grille anywhere on the unit, in either colour, in any photograph

Not stated by the manufacturer

These are the things we have asked for and do not yet have in writing. Nothing here is a defect; it is simply not confirmed, and we would rather you knew that than read a number we made up.

• The tracking force the arm is shipped set to, and the manufacturer's recommended range
• Whether the counterweight is adjustable, and whether the arm has anti-skate
• What automatic pause does exactly — whether the arm lifts at the end of the side, or only the platter stops
• Whether the RCA output is line level or phono level, and therefore whether a phono stage is built in
• Drive type — belt or direct
• Which surface treatment corresponds to which colour
• Whether a 7 inch 45 rpm adaptor is supplied
• The resolution of the 24 watt versus 12 watt contradiction above
• The Bluetooth version and codec
• Frequency response
• UK plug type and the adaptor supplied
• Exact box contents and cable lengths
• Manufacturer's warranty period

Delivery weight

8.0 kg gross, 7.0 kg on its own. Carton 51.5 × 43 × 23 cm.