Cruiser Plus - Portable BT Turntable - Colorful Flowers - Crosley

Turntables · Suitcase Turntable with Bluetooth

Few machines have brought as many people back to vinyl as the Crosley Cruiser. Since 2010 this suitcase turntable has stood for an idea the hi-fi world long frowned upon and now happily accepts: records shouldn't have to wait for a full chain of deck, phono stage, amplifier and speakers before they make a sound. The Cruiser Plus in "Groovy Floral" takes that idea to its logical conclusion — a retro case wrapped in a graphic seventies floral print, ready to play the moment you open the lid and handsome enough to leave out when you close it.

The "Plus" suffix marks the most interesting step in the Cruiser family from a technical point of view. It stands for two-way Bluetooth 5.1, for vibration-isolated stereo speakers, for pitch control, RCA outputs, a headphone socket and auto-stop. This is not a toy with a needle attached: it is a properly considered entry-level deck that grows with its owner — through the built-in speakers today, out to the system in the living room via RCA tomorrow.

The Cruiser Plus is belt-driven — the acoustically kinder solution at this end of the market, because the rubber belt filters motor vibration before it can reach the platter. Tracking is handled by the Crosley NP6, a ceramic cartridge with a diamond stylus that covers all three speeds and, when the time comes, is replaced without tools and without alignment: pull the old stylus off, push the new one on, done. That freedom from maintenance is precisely why ceramic cartridges remain the norm in portable players.

The real advance over the standard Cruiser sits inside the case. Both full-range stereo speakers (3 watts each into 4 ohms) are mounted on vibration isolation. In a suitcase player that is not a marketing footnote but the decisive design detail — speaker and cartridge live only centimetres apart in the same box. Without isolation, bass travels straight back through the cabinet into the stylus, acoustic feedback builds, the image turns woolly and eventually the needle jumps the groove. The Cruiser Plus stays clean and composed well into generous room volume.

An honest word on positioning: a ceramic cartridge tracks at considerably higher downforce than a moving-magnet system in a conventional hi-fi deck. For everyday listening, charity-shop finds, reissues and the records you actually play, that is no cause for concern — but for valuable first pressings and collectors' items we always recommend a deck with an MM cartridge and an adjustable tonearm. The Cruiser Plus is built for the records you listen to, not the ones you archive. The cueing lever lowers the stylus under control rather than dropping it into the groove — a small detail that noticeably spares both record and needle.

Connectivity is the second reason to choose the Plus over the standard Cruiser. Bluetooth 5.1 works in both directions: in receive mode the turntable becomes a Bluetooth speaker for phone, tablet or laptop — genuinely useful, since the unit no longer sits silent when no record is on. In transmit mode the turntable sends its signal wirelessly to an external Bluetooth speaker or to Bluetooth headphones, and suddenly the little suitcase is playing through the big system next door.

Prefer cables? The rear panel carries RCA outputs for an amplifier, active speakers or a soundbar, plus a 3.5 mm aux input for any analogue source. A dedicated headphone socket takes care of late-night listening without troubling anyone else. Pitch control of ±10% lets you fine-tune playback speed — helpful with older pressings that don't run quite to standard, and a small playground for anyone who enjoys nudging tempo and pitch by hand.

Day to day, the Cruiser Plus does the remembering for you: auto-stop halts rotation at the end of the side, and after 20 minutes without a signal the unit switches itself off in line with the European ERP standard. Power comes from the supplied adapter (5 V / 1 A) — there is no battery on board, so the case is portable rather than cordless.

The "Groovy Floral" finish is the boldest in the Cruiser range: an all-over retro floral print in red, turquoise, pink and ochre that covers the outer shell and the inside of the lid alike — open it up and the turntable becomes a graphic object in its own right. The cabinet is roughly 60% wood with a vinyl covering, with plastic and metal making up the chassis and fittings. At 35.6 × 26 × 12.1 cm and just under 2.5 kg it fits any sideboard, bookshelf or weekend bag; closed, the lid and catch protect platter and tonearm.

The brand behind it has more history than the playful exterior suggests: Crosley traces back to Powel Crosley Jr., who from the 1920s built the largest radio manufacturer in the world in Cincinnati. Today the name stands for the revival of exactly that kind of everyday audio culture — and the Cruiser is the best-selling model of that revival. Within the range, the Cruiser Plus is the point at which the suitcase turntable grows up: those wanting more power and a higher-grade cartridge will find models with external speakers further up the line, while anyone after a record player that simply plays — no extras, no set-up, no loss of character — is in exactly the right place.