Tiny Vinyl is the industry leader when it comes to, well, you guessed it right, tiny vinyl records. These records can be played on most 33⅓rpm turntables and are pure joy simply for their cute quotient. The company introduced its 4-inch records (one-third the size of a standard vinyl record) last year, which can be played on a standard manual turntable. These records store two songs – one on each side – and the audio community has taken these pocket records pretty seriously. Most of these vinyls are officially licensed by big artists who choose their best two songs to go on the vinyl. The miniature records are highly collectible but can only play on a seemingly bigger platter, so where is the fun in that?
After selling their millionth Tiny Vinyl in just a year, the fans and Target wanted the brand to come up with a versatile and small record player. For this reason, the company has now introduced a dedicated TINY Vinyl Player to play music from those tiny records. No bigger than a shoebox, the turntable is built from the ground up, given its small size. Everything, right from the tone arm and platter to the control panel, was designed from scratch. The only two components from standard component manufacturers are the cartridge and needle.
Designer: Tiny Vinyl
What we see here is a turntable that’s ultra-portable, specifically designed to play 4-inch vinyls, and definitely a conversation starter. According to co-founders Jesse Mann and Neil Kohler, the shrunk-down turntable opens up the possibility of owning a record player for the music-loving community who otherwise cannot afford to buy the traditional decks. According to Jesse Mann, “These new products give music fans and collectors everything they need to build out their own little Tiny Vinyl universe, a setup as fun and personal as the music they love.”
The only downside, though, is that they can only play the tiny vinyl records, and if we’re all in for the complete album collections, they are a bit of a handful. Another major consideration is the slight compromise in audio quality coming from the small speakers. That said, the duo from Nashville has access to the pro music industry peers, and they’ve used this to build the Tiny Vinyl Turntable for maximum user satisfaction. Once they got past the initial drawings, the next big challenge was to design the built-in speakers and Bluetooth sync. But the biggest of them all was to calibrate the revolutions per minute to 33⅓rpm to play the music at perfect speed.
The portable turntable can stream music to Bluetooth speakers or headphones if the built-in speakers don’t tingle your senses. You could go for the wired option as well for better audio dynamics. Tiny Vinyl has gone a step further by integrating a storage slot beside the platter to hold up to five records of choice. For those planning to expand the collection of Mini Vinyls, there’s also the option of getting the vinyl storage cabinet called Crate, which sits right underneath the turntable. There’s a third accessory in the mix as well, dubbed Frame, which can be used to display four Tiny Vinyl albums on the wall. The Tiny Vinyl Turntable available at Target costs $50, while the Crate and Frame are priced at $20 and $15, respectively. The UK launch is slated for Autumn, so better watch out!
