Vinyl suggestions

[Globalti]

I've never understood the need to spend extravagant money on a turntable. Surely it's the cartridge that needs to be the best possible quality? Yes of course a cheap turntable may not rotate perfectly smoothly but most did, for an affordable price.

 

[raleighnut]

I've never understood the need to spend extravagant money on a turntable. Surely it's the cartridge that needs to be the best possible quality? Yes of course a cheap turntable may not rotate perfectly smoothly but most did, for an affordable price.

I would say the Tonearm is the most important element of a Turntable so as long as you have the feasibility to change that to a better one then yes an inexpensive Turntable can perform well (think Rega, Pink Triangle, Project etc.) but a suspended sub chassis type will sound better (think Thorens, AR, Linn) and a weighty platter will improve things further. Then you're into the territory of 'where do I put it' different types of Turntable have different needs, whilst a dedicated table works well with suspended types a 'solid' type that runs with isolation in the feet won't like that much preferring to sit on a wall mounted shelf. Then there's the flooring in the room to consider, is it concrete or planks and where do you place the Turntable in the room.

NB- For instance I use a Thorens that I bought 2nd hand 30+ years ago that now has a Rega RB250 arm, a thicker/heavier platter mat, modified suspension springs and with a Stilton Audio modded Nagaoka MP 11 Boron Cartridge. That sits on a JBL 'source' table with spiked feet with the top shelf changed to an Ariston Isolation Board. It has taken years for me to arrive at this set-up but I fully expect my Turntable to outlast me.

 

[swee'pea99]

I've never understood the need to spend extravagant money on a turntable. Surely it's the cartridge that needs to be the best possible quality? Yes of course a cheap turntable may not rotate perfectly smoothly but most did, for an affordable price.

I'm with you. Cartridge/stylus is to vinyl as lens is to photography.

 

[Moon bunny]

I would say the Tonearm is the most important element of a Turntable so as long as you have the feasibility to change that to a better one then yes an inexpensive Turntable can perform well (think Rega, Pink Triangle, Project etc.) but a suspended sub chassis type will sound better (think Thorens, AR, Linn) and a weighty platter will improve things further. Then you're into the territory of 'where do I put it' different types of Turntable have different needs, whilst a dedicated table works well with suspended types a 'solid' type that runs with isolation in the feet won't like that much preferring to sit on a wall mounted shelf. Then there's the flooring in the room to consider, is it concrete or planks and where do you place the Turntable in the room.

NB- For instance I use a Thorens that I bought 2nd hand 30+ years ago that now has a Rega RB250 arm, a thicker/heavier platter mat, modified suspension springs and with a Stilton Audio modded Nagaoka MP 11 Boron Cartridge. That sits on a JBL 'source' table with spiked feet with the top shelf changed to an Ariston Isolation Board. It has taken years for me to arrive at this set-up but I fully expect my Turntable to outlast me.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXDK3x5lAYI&safe=active

 

[raleighnut]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXDK3x5lAYI&safe=active

Yep unfortunately that is the general perception of Turntables and HiFi by the majority of people, completely wrong but there you go. Most people own a 'Music Centre' at best although these have been packaged as a 'hifi' in a glass fronted chipboard box on castors, or to make a cycling comparison the BSO of music reproduction and in the same way that people say to us "I don't know why you spent all that money on a bike, I got one with dual suspension for less than £200" they end up with something that will do the job but not give any real enjoyment (and they probably won't last for long and will be uneconomical to repair/upgrade when they break)

 

[cookiemonster]

I've never understood the need to spend extravagant money on a turntable. Surely it's the cartridge that needs to be the best possible quality? Yes of course a cheap turntable may not rotate perfectly smoothly but most did, for an affordable price.

I agree but I would love to own a Linn turntable. They’re hand made and cost from about 1k. Until then, I’ll settle for my Denon

 

[NorthernSky]

still have my vinyl collection, but i haven't had a record player in years. considering selling it but might regret it...
what i have been selling is my cassettes that i recently found, definitely will not be buying another cassette deck
still buy CDs as my preferred format

what about some DBT

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDuuGtWTL9k

 

[Grant Fondo]

I sold my Naim CD player years ago, but it did sound great, just couldn't be bothered with faff as I had an ipod plugged in (that sounds proper oldschool already?)
I guess vinyl is even more of a faff but a real treat when you put one of the 'greats' on. I had Thriller up nice and loud at the weekend, quite an old copy but sounded magic.

 

[Profpointy]

I agree but I would love to own a Linn turntable. They’re hand made and cost from about 1k. Until then, I’ll settle for my Denon

i bought a Linn 30 odd years ago, having listened to a Rega 2 and 3 of the day and a couple of others. The Linn was twice the price of the others and was maybe a month's wages at the time so was a big investment for me. It really was a lot better and worth the money - and interestingly it knocked spots off a CD player I listened to for comparison. CDs had only been out a year or two, and claimed to be a huge improvement - not so - at least not back then. People who'd bought CD players had unfairly compared their £200 CD players (and £200 was a fair wodge back then) with their old music centre auto changer turntable, not with a comparably priced turntable never mind a Linn. Now that said, CD machines and electronics generally are a lot better, so digital is arguably the way to go, and is now much much cheaper especially the discs themselves.

A good approach these days is to load up all your CDs onto a computer (in lossless format not MP3) and then get a pukka DAC or soundcard (not too expensive if you eschew hi-fi BS brands) and you'll have something potentially very very good. My own soundcard was a 2nd hand recording studio card, so equivalent to what the records would have been recorded on in the first place, and even then was only a bit better than the cheap on board sound. DACs (digital to analogue) of very high quality are actually very cheap these days, so it is basically silly to buy a £2k Naim Audio one.

My Linn is now languishing in a box, as I've got so few real records in comparison to CDs, it's basically irrelevant if you are actually listening to music - unless you've got a large number of old records of course. That said, I still want to recommission my Linn as it did sound good.

My hi-fi bargain was a pair of these off fleabay for £500 - apparently £3k new and supposedly "the best speakers Kef had ever made" according to some pundits, but at any rate they are very very good indeed. They are whoppers mind. Image randomly off internet rather than my pair

 

[Chromatic]

i bought a Linn 30 odd years ago, having listened to a Rega 2 and 3 of the day and a couple of others. The Linn was twice the price of the others and was maybe a month's wages at the time so was a big investment for me. It really was a lot better and worth the money - and interestingly it knocked spots off a CD player I listened to for comparison. CDs had only been out a year or two, and claimed to be a huge improvement - not so - at least not back then. People who'd bought CD players had unfairly compared their £200 CD players (and £200 was a fair wodge back then) with their old music centre auto changer turntable, not with a comparably priced turntable never mind a Linn. Now that said, CD machines and electronics generally are a lot better, so digital is arguably the way to go, and is now much much cheaper especially the discs themselves.

A good approach these days is to load up all your CDs onto a computer (in lossless format not MP3) and then get a pukka DAC or soundcard (not too expensive if you eschew hi-fi BS brands) and you'll have something potentially very very good. My own soundcard was a 2nd hand recording studio card, so equivalent to what the records would have been recorded on in the first place, and even then was only a bit better than the cheap on board sound. DACs (digital to analogue) of very high quality are actually very cheap these days, so it is basically silly to buy a £2k Naim Audio one.

My Linn is now languishing in a box, as I've got so few real records in comparison to CDs, it's basically irrelevant if you are actually listening to music - unless you've got a large number of old records of course. That said, I still want to recommission my Linn as it did sound good.

My hi-fi bargain was a pair of these off fleabay for £500 - apparently £3k new and supposedly "the best speakers Kef had ever made" according to some pundits, but at any rate they are very very good indeed. They are whoppers mind. Image randomly off internet rather than my pair

Be prepared for some special Linn prices if you do this, they charge £50 for a new drive belt these days the robbing gits.

 

[raleighnut]

Be prepared for some special Linn prices if you do this, they charge £50 for a new drive belt these days the robbing gits.

Jeez I thought £20 for a new one for my Thorens was a bit steep but then the LP12 is an improved version of the Thorens TD 160 design so I assume they have 'improved' the prices too.

 

[Profpointy]

Be prepared for some special Linn prices if you do this, they charge £50 for a new drive belt these days the robbing gits.

'kinell that is a tad cheeky I must admit