looking into purchasing a turntable

[destrekor]

I am interested in picking up a turntable, as the topic states, for the listening of both modern and classic rock (if I can find those albums at a cheap price).

However, being that I am new to the format, and have never had access to listen to any LPs (the turntable my parents had was defunct by the time I could walk and sat idle in the entertainment center), is there a place I can sample how an LP sounds? Any places with a digital file of an imported track from a turntable?

the first two albums I would pick up on LP of modern music would be Coheed and Cambria's No World For Tomorrow, and The Mars Volta's De-Loused in the Comatorium, or maybe Amputechture.

both of these bands I imagine could sound amazing on vinyl, and am interested if it is something I should pursue.
I'd be hooking up the turntable to my H/K AVR247, and would stick to 2.1 on the front towers and sub.
As far as the turntable itself, I'd want one with a good motor (direct drive would be nice but expensive, right?), but definitely needs a replaceable cartridge as I'd probably purchase one to replace the stock cartridge before I even had the turntable in my hands.

How much is it looking like I'd have to pay? Any places that offer considerable deals?
Certain brands I should stick to, and others to avoid?
Anyone selling their old turntable?

 

[Tiamat]

budget? vinyl can get very expensive. Reel even more so.

 

[Soundmanred]

I have a 1997 Revolver with a Linn Basik tonearm. Not sure which cart I have on it now, but I only use good ones.
I imported it in 1999, selling for $300 with the LB tonarm.
I have some good albums too, from GNR to Pink Floyd to Lionel Ritchie.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
budget? vinyl can get very expensive. Reel even more so.

more or less just entertaining the idea right now, but not too much. i'd say $200 is pushing it, so I am probably most likely looking at second hand, and not high quality at that. Yea, I've seen really good turntables go for quite a bit of money at retail, so I dunno if I will actually go through with this idea. Because I don't wanna get crap and be turned off of vinyl.

 

[spidey07]

You should probably ditch the 2.1 concept. You'd be taking a analog source, digitizing it for bass management and spitting it out. Essentially rendering any money you spend on vinyl/playback useless as you're making it digital.

Past that, you should be able to find a good table/cartridge on audiogon or search around used for some gems. You'll also need a decent phono pre-amp, unless your receiver has one (doubtful). Even a used denon or rega table complete could be found for not a lot of dough.

I've been out of the game for a long time, just playing and enjoying records.

At where you're wanting to dip your toes into it, pick up a decent table/arm/cart and see what you can do money wise on the phono pre-amp. 2-300 bucks will allow you to enjoy it, but ditch the 2.1 concept unless you can feed your sub analog, have it do the crossover to your stereo speakers.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: spidey07
You should probably ditch the 2.1 concept. You'd be taking a analog source, digitizing it for bass management and spitting it out. Essentially rendering any money you spend on vinyl/playback useless as you're making it digital.

Past that, you should be able to find a good table/cartridge on audiogon or search around used for some gems. You'll also need a decent phono pre-amp, unless your receiver has one (doubtful). Even a used denon or rega table complete could be found for not a lot of dough.

I've been out of the game for a long time, just playing and enjoying records.

At where you're wanting to dip your toes into it, pick up a decent table/arm/cart and see what you can do money wise on the phono pre-amp. 2-300 bucks will allow you to enjoy it, but ditch the 2.1 concept unless you can feed your sub analog, have it do the crossover to your stereo speakers.

Its possible to run the subwoofer underneath the speakers if the speakers are capable of bass output. While this method takes great care and time to setup properly in addition to good measurement equipment, it can lead to a decent 2.1 setup. But generally speaking, in the lacking of appropriate measurement equipment, its better just to leave out the subwoofer as you alluded to.


OP, if you want to do this "right" it may cost a bit more.

Something that would cost quite a bit more, but would definitely be a good system to start vinyl on would be similar to the following:

A decent turn table, the Rega P1 goes for $350. A good analog preamplifier like the Rotel RC-1070 has a decent built in Phono Preamp and costs $500. A good analog amplifier like the Rotel RB-1050 costs $400

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: spidey07
You should probably ditch the 2.1 concept. You'd be taking a analog source, digitizing it for bass management and spitting it out. Essentially rendering any money you spend on vinyl/playback useless as you're making it digital.

Past that, you should be able to find a good table/cartridge on audiogon or search around used for some gems. You'll also need a decent phono pre-amp, unless your receiver has one (doubtful). Even a used denon or rega table complete could be found for not a lot of dough.

I've been out of the game for a long time, just playing and enjoying records.

At where you're wanting to dip your toes into it, pick up a decent table/arm/cart and see what you can do money wise on the phono pre-amp. 2-300 bucks will allow you to enjoy it, but ditch the 2.1 concept unless you can feed your sub analog, have it do the crossover to your stereo speakers.

harmon kardon AVR247
that's my receiver. not sure if it has phono preamp as I've never dealt with that kind of input before.

and my sub is a Paradigm PDR10. Would you be implying speaker level inputs?? The sub is capable of that, not so sure if the receiver is capable of spitting that out to the sub though.

I'm not gonna lie. Analogue is like a new world to me.

 

[herm0016]

2.1 is fine. you are not digitizing the signal if you use the main outs on your receiver and using the cross over built into the sub. I have a B&O 1900 i got off of e-bay for $100 w/ shipping. I was lucky the cart was good because a new cart is about $225, its a proprietary mount. I got a TCC-750 from phonopreamps.com because it is really great quality for the price, it is as good as many that are 2 or 3 times the price. my interconnects are just short rca cables from monoprice and i am very happy with them. I am really happy with my setup. Ebay is a good place to look, you can find some good deals but be wary of what actually comes with the TT, some show parts that are not included in the actual auction. also check out audiogon.com though this tends to be higher end stuff. i have about 150 bucks into my set up. if you have any questions let me know.
pics:
http://ajherman.deviantart.com/art/the-TT-67437038

edit: i use the pre outs for the front stereo channels to feed my sub. it works well because it is a line level source and i can use the cross over on the sub amp.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: spidey07
You should probably ditch the 2.1 concept. You'd be taking a analog source, digitizing it for bass management and spitting it out. Essentially rendering any money you spend on vinyl/playback useless as you're making it digital.

Past that, you should be able to find a good table/cartridge on audiogon or search around used for some gems. You'll also need a decent phono pre-amp, unless your receiver has one (doubtful). Even a used denon or rega table complete could be found for not a lot of dough.

I've been out of the game for a long time, just playing and enjoying records.

At where you're wanting to dip your toes into it, pick up a decent table/arm/cart and see what you can do money wise on the phono pre-amp. 2-300 bucks will allow you to enjoy it, but ditch the 2.1 concept unless you can feed your sub analog, have it do the crossover to your stereo speakers.

Its possible to run the subwoofer underneath the speakers if the speakers are capable of bass output. While this method takes great care and time to setup properly in addition to good measurement equipment, it can lead to a decent 2.1 setup. But generally speaking, in the lacking of appropriate measurement equipment, its better just to leave out the subwoofer as you alluded to.


OP, if you want to do this "right" it may cost a bit more.

Something that would cost quite a bit more, but would definitely be a good system to start vinyl on would be similar to the following:

A decent turn table, the Rega P1 goes for $350. A good analog preamplifier like the Rotel RC-1070 has a decent built in Phono Preamp and costs $500. A good analog amplifier like the Rotel RB-1050 costs $400

if that is what it takes, then I must say I will have to ditch this before I even start. As much of a fan as I am of audio, my current income does not permit that, specially when I need to save and pay back things.
maybe I'll revisit this dream when I have been active duty for awhile and can splurge a little bit.

 

[herm0016]

you do not need anything that fancy to get into the hobby. I could tell you that the best way to start is to go out and by a $25,000 TT on air bearings that comes with a 2 day in home tech to set it up correctly, but that would be crazy. you can put together a good set up for 200 bucks if you look around a bit. there is no reason to get a P1 if you don't have speakers to reproduce it perfectly, same with the pre-amp. you can get a dedicated one that cost $50 that will sound great. It will not hold a candle to pre's that cost much more, but then again, it is not made to do so. you can use any existing receiver with a stand alone pre-amp too.

 

[destrekor]

check this out

this new Sony turntable coming soon has USB out and a pre-amp.
Does that mean I would be able to directly connect it to my receiver?

Of course, gotta wait for reviews, and first have to wait for it to be released....

 

[Oyeve]

Check This or This.

The Denon has a preamp so all you have to do is connect it to any line in on your PC or receiver, the other has usb and some SW.

I use a Denon Denon DP-45F (original lower profile version, not the taller version) that I bought back in the mid 80s with an Ortofon cartridge (bought plenty of replacement needles) and have it hooked up to my receiver and all is connected to my PC via an optical cable. Vinly rules. Still prefer it to cds.

 

[mshan]

I got my dad an Audio Technica AT-PL50 for Christmas a couple years and ago and it sounds surprisingly good.

It's got an integrated phono preamp, so you can plug it into your computer sound card and use a free program such as Audacity to "rip" lps to digital format if you want (and even using the cheap integrated analog to digital converters of a mobo's integrated sound card, rips are still listenable).

 

[darthsidious]

Another Option might be "DJ" turntables. I don't know about how they compare in terms of audiophile quality, but the technics 1200MK2's are the gold standard in DJ turntables. Low wow and flutter, and built like tanks. New they might be out of your budget, but you can find them used fairly often. Most of the other DJ turntables are even cheaper, and some of them are fairly good. Given that you won't be DJing, you might even pickup the bottom grade belt drive turntables (belt drives are bad for DJing, but I don't think it makes a difference if you're just listening). Some of them (like my Stanton STR8 series turntables) even have built in phono-line level conversion.

Good luck.The little I know about the audiophile turntable world is that it can end up getting pretty spendy, and they keep talking about the "warm" analog sound *shrug*. But you might be better off simply because the vinyl source might not have been shittily remastered/compressed like most modern-day CD's are.

Good luck....

 

[olds]

While I don't reccomend that you get one, I have had this Sansui for 23 years.
A tray slides out and you lay the album on it. It retracts and you can play side A, then B or you can play the songs in any order you want without flippin it over. It has two tonearms.

 

[heyheybooboo]

That Audio Technica looks like the ticket - don't know anything about the filters in that version of Cakewalk, though ...

Is the 'line in' jack with onboard sound 2 channel ???

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: destrekor
check this out

this new Sony turntable coming soon has USB out and a pre-amp.
Does that mean I would be able to directly connect it to my receiver?

Of course, gotta wait for reviews, and first have to wait for it to be released....

You would connect directly to your PC via USB ...

 

[EvilYoda]

The Technics 1200 is well-known for being THE DJ deck, but it holds up pretty well as a home table too. Tons of them out there, solid construction, replacement parts aplenty. I would suggest doing some research and checking your local craigslist for "turntable" (you'll get some microwave returns too). I just picked up a Harman/Kardon T40 that needed a belt and it sounds great. Above-average arm, decent platter, all for $50 including the new belt. CL's more of a crap shoot though, so if you don't want to chance anything, I'd suggest a used 1200. Others have mentioned the entry level Rega table, Pro-jekt has a good entry level model as well.