Record Players from Crosley, Teac, Ion and other great record player brands. Contemporary and antique-style record players and turntables. Play and record from your vinyl records with our antique reproduction style players and contemporary turntables with modern audio electronics. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica - Record players (or phonographs) are "Instruments for reproducing sounds. The invention of record players is generally credited to Thomas Alva Edison (1877). Many people think the terms 'Record Players' and 'Turntables' are the same. In fact, a turntable is just one component that makes a complete record player work. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes record players as follows: "All modern phonograph systems (record players) have certain components in common: a turntable that rotates the record; a stylus that tracks a groove in the record; a pickup that converts the mechanical movements of the stylus into electrical impulses; an amplifier that intensifies these electrical impulses; and a loudspeaker that converts the amplified signals back into sound."