First turntable

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by j3brow

Don't waste your time with a mouse when you are already running with elephants.

Jason.......That's the best comment I have read in a long while. I'm still chuckling.

[wawa_chan]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. My family has a lot of records they don't use and would hand down to me. That's why I was just thinking of something basic to play them on. Actually, my preamplifier doesn't have a phono stage, so that will be a very high cost for the Accuphase plug-in module. Other brands will still be an additional cost. The Technics units looks pretty nice. I'll give this some more thought.... seems I might be getting into more than I'm thinking. BTW: I actually sold the K-03 and ordered another CD player, but that is a different issue for later. Thanks!

[magoo]

You can often find the Phono card for your Accuphase from a Japanese ebayer (Joynet) for rather less (both the USA & UK suffer from some faintly absurd pice hikes with Accuphase gear!) ......but a little Trichord Dino for example should be a cheaper alternative to get you started. I'm sure there must be American rivals to the UK's favourite starter phono stage too

If you do go the Technic route, a company called KAB in America are your friends, they carry pretty much any spares & accessories you might need, not least stock arms rewired with cardas cable. While there are many decent Jap DD tables on ebay, Pioneer, Denon etc all had some crackers in the day, but the Technics has a veritable army of spares, modifications and advice available.

If you check my digital replay set up, it's none too shabby.....but if I own an LP on both formats, it's the vinyl that gets chosen, every time!

[psi310398]

If you really are after a cheap TT to listen to a few LPs, IIRC one or two of the current Pro-Jects and Rega have an inbuilt phono stage but they are nothing special.

Also bear in mind, if this is simply an experiment and you are looking in thrift stores and the like for an old cheap TT, that all those $20 70s and 80s amps/receivers e.g. Pioneer/Sony/Marantz etc often have very good phono stages, most much better than current budget stages . If you are lucky, you might also find an old Meridian 100 series pre/power with MM or MC card on eBay for little money.

Many of these old amps need little more than a good swab down and deoxit on the switches. Again, look carefully at the caps for leakage.

P

[wawa_chan]

Magoo: I like the Technics tables. Would be a good option if I get a phono stage.

I Googled the Music Hall, Pro-ject and Rega turntables with the built in phono. Probably not great compared to something like Clearaudio, but might be fun to try and see if I like it. Either way not much invested to try.

Thanks everyone

[427]

Originally Posted by wawa_chan

Magoo: I like the Technics tables. Would be a good option if I get a phono stage.

I Googled the Music Hall, Pro-ject and Rega turntables with the built in phono. Probably not great compared to something like Clearaudio, but might be fun to try and see if I like it. Either way not much invested to try.

Thanks everyone

Just get something you can afford and don't get turned off by a few comments here. Learning about turntables and vinyl playback you don't do that starting with $5000 tables and $1500 cartridges.
Try to stick with a clean vintage model and an inexpensive phone pre. See if you like spending the time and care in playing vinyl.

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by 427

Just get something you can afford and don't get turned off by a few comments here. Learning about turntables and vinyl playback you don't do that starting with $5000 tables and $1500 cartridges.
Try to stick with a clean vintage model and an inexpensive phone pre. See if you like spending the time and care in playing vinyl.

You misunderstand. The idea was not to warn him off experimenting with vinyl. As you can see most of us who told him that at $600, the comparison to his digital rig (which he no longer owns) will fall short, own an analog system. So we were simply trying to manage his expectations. If the idea is that he recognizes that a $600 rig's SQ will be limited relative to what he is used to in the digital domain and that does not turn him off from vinyl and he just wants to learn and experiment than great.

But most people read these forums and read about how great vinyl is (which it is) and expect that a sub-$1,000 analog set-up will beat a $5K or $10K digital and then they try it and find out that that's not really true and they get discouraged and swear off their brush with analog playback.

We were merely trying to prevent that scenario from playing out. But given that the OP has inherited a whole bunch of vinyl (or is set to do so) and is going into this as a learning experience with appropriate expectations, then all the power to him and go for it and enjoy!

[es347]

A bit over your price point but you certainly would enjoy this little gem:

http://vinylnirvana.com/vintage-turn...grace-707-arm/

[427]

Originally Posted by cmalak

You misunderstand. The idea was not to warn him off experimenting with vinyl. As you can see most of us who told him that at $600, the comparison to his digital rig (which he no longer owns) will fall short, own an analog system. So we were simply trying to manage his expectations. If the idea is that he recognizes that a $600 rig's SQ will be limited relative to what he is used to in the digital domain and that does not turn him off from vinyl and he just wants to learn and experiment than great.

But most people read these forums and read about how great vinyl is (which it is) and expect that a sub-$1,000 analog set-up will beat a $5K or $10K digital and then they try it and find out that that's not really true and they get discouraged and swear off their brush with analog playback.

We were merely trying to prevent that scenario from playing out. But given that the OP has inherited a whole bunch of vinyl (or is set to do so) and is going into this as a learning experience with appropriate expectations, then all the power to him and go for it and enjoy!

Sonics and SQ are subjective and opinionated. Me I personally would rather listen to vinyl on what you perceive as Sub class vinyl playback system opposed to digital in any form.

That said the OP was just looking for a little guidance as to a TT that is not junk. $500-$600 will get him a nice flavor of playing records. I didn't see him thinking or expecting anything he just wants to try it out and go though the enjoyment of something new.

Discouraging people and thinking they can't possibly enjoy themselves unless a dollar figure is achieved is not right in my book sorry. I think we all can remember our first forte into anything and we build upon it. However if we get discouraged we may never even start and have that experience in the first place.

Anyway that's my opinion and I would rather see Brian dive in and get his feet wet. Find out how fragile that stylus is, how to adjust an arm to work properly. How to hold a record and clean them without adding damage. Looking at the cover art while getting up every 20 minutes to flip sides. No remote to just skip a song or jump to something different. There is an involvement in vinyl that just can't be duplicated in digital.

[John49]

Originally Posted by 427

...I think we all can remember our first forte into anything and we build upon it. However if we get discouraged we may never even start and have that experience in the first place...

You had to bring sex into it? Sorry!