Topic: Buying a Turntable; what would you recommend?

[jim1274]

belt drives can have speed control, either mechanically or electronically, and almost all that I've seen do

My rec?
Skip the Turntable and buy a better DAC, feed it from a hard drive-based media server, and look forward. It is almost 2010, and Edison invented the record in  1877!
 

Well.... you did ask...

I agree COMPLETELY!  In fact, after posting my reply and  then looking at my Systemdek table just sitting in its box for most of its life, I ran a for sale ad on AudioAsylum (recc'd as good place to sell by another TS member).

That being said, it seems vinyl has made a comeback of sorts, and some people are still really into it.  Not me and you......

My music buying days were in the prime of vinyl, starting around '70/'71.  When CD's hit the market was when I learned the ropes of live recording, and that completely absorbed all of my musical experience for the next 20 years or so.
In all of that time, I bought about 20 cd's, in total. It was just not a format that I liked; that is, until CD-R hit the market.
Now I have hundreds of shows on CD-R, and I still have about 30 commercial CD's, with the additional 10 or so given to me by bands that I was recording.
I have about 12+ linear feet of properly stored LP's, and about six hundred 78's. I'm not changing formats anytime soon in this life.

So, when the CD's have rotted away, and the DATS have flaked off, and the HDD servers have crashed, the vinyl and shellac will still hold the music for hundreds of more years into the future.

You are making me want to take my Systemdek out of the box and spin some wax!  I wonder if that MFSL wax still sounds as good as I remember.....

I certainly don't want to get in the middle of a CD vs. vinyl discussion.  My comment was simply based on convenience.  Having a whole music collection at your fingertips has a lot going for it.

[jim1274]

Hoping to piggyback on this thread.  I was asked for advice on a new turntable for my brother-in-law's Christmas present.  Having never really been into vinyl myself I'm not sure what to recommend. 

He doesn't have too critical of an ear, but he does love music and listens to vinyl regularly.  His current player is an Optimus LAB-1100. 

She was recommended a Rega P1 but I'm not sure if it's needed since he currently has an old Kenwood receiver and some old Pioneer speakers.  However, getting a new player may push him to upgrade the rest of the system, but not for a while.  Would it be silly to listen to a P1 through his current system, especially if he doesn't have "Golden Ears?"  Are there other models that I could tell her to look into?

I'm giving odds that there will be more than a new turntable on the wish list if you pair a budget quality table with that old gear.  I had a couple Kenwood recievers and integraged amps back in the day, and they were not exactly high-fi, plus don't recall Pioneer being known for their speakers, so a $350 turntable may be lost in that system.  Just my 2 cents worth.

[Thom Joad]

Thanks for the replies. 

I'm thinking if we get him a nice turntable now, maybe next summer when I'm ready to upgrade my system, I'll give him some of my gear to borrow for a while.  Once he hears how good his vinyl can sound with quality gear behind it, I think he'll be wanting to upgrade.

[jim1274]

Thanks for the replies. 

I'm thinking if we get him a nice turntable now, maybe next summer when I'm ready to upgrade my system, I'll give him some of my gear to borrow for a while.  Once he hears how good his vinyl can sound with quality gear behind it, I think he'll be wanting to upgrade.

Oh yeah, ones he "smells the cheese" with the good gear, you will have him HOOKED! 

[Tim]

belt drives can have speed control, either mechanically or electronically, and almost all that I've seen do

My rec?
Skip the Turntable and buy a better DAC, feed it from a hard drive-based media server, and look forward. It is almost 2010, and Edison invented the record in  1877!
 

Well.... you did ask...

well I have a nice digital front end and essentially an entry level analog front end. the digital new retail is about 5x as expensive and guess what... I prefer the analog.

Some well engineered SACDs come close to producing the liquidity of analog but I still prefer my vinyl.

At Rocky Mountain Audio fest this year I heard all kinds of systems and the hard drive based systems just left me feeling cold. Even the really high dollar systems. I heard a B&W 802d, ayre monoblock, ayre pre, ayre dac, mac mini system some months back and felt the same way.

Give me tubes and give me vinyl... some horns would be nice too

quote author=mfrench link=topic=128185.msg1714977#msg1714977 date=1260655151]

So, when the CD's have rotted away, and the DATS have flaked off, and the HDD servers have crashed, the vinyl and shellac will still hold the music for hundreds of more years into the future.
[/quote]

What he said.

To each their own but to me it's not even a contest. I get by far the most enjoyment out of my system when I'm spinning vinyl.