Should I Get A Turntable?

[Ninanina]

Come on Bev how have you managed to avoid Turntables? I'm sure you can remember the vinyl era or were you a cassette person? As far as TT's are concerned the more you spend the better the sound more so than CD players. You really need to give us a budget but against your CD player I think something better than a Planar 3 or the cheaper Projects.

Good older designs at reasonable cost would include Michel Focus, Heybrook TT2 and Systemdek IIX. The later 2 need more skills in setting up the suspension. How about Michell Techno Dec or Project Perspective for newer designs. These are about the same ballpark price as that ex dem Tellurium Q Ultra Cable. Of course will need to buy a separate arm for most of these as well as a cartridge. Also has your Otto got a built in MM stage? If not a phono preamp will be needed.

Also consider the cost of building a vinyl collection from scratch these days. Decent used vinyl is becoming harder to find in my experience though there are far more reissues coming out. The better produced reissues aren't that cheap though many can be found for £15 or less.

Paul.

Hi Paul
Well i guess in my youth i was a tape person, i spent a lot of time driving so a tape was all i listened to, my sister had one of those turntables which took a 'stack' of records and it sounded pretty good to me, at the time

I did have an old Technics stack system (actually my first hifi) which did also have a turntable but it sounded pretty awful therefore I didn't buy very many LP's, just a handful

The Project turntables look ok, but I have no idea about which arm, cartridge etc I should get. But like I said I have NO vinyl at the moment, it will be a complete new start, which sounds like it might be just a little bit expensive

Thanks for all the info guys & gals (well I'm guessing there are some other gals, I'm not sure)

[twotone]

I sold my CD player after getting the Technics SL1200mk2, rarely play cd or digital now and hardly ever bought a CD now I buy vinyl regularly.

Can honestly say I never thought that a vinyl setup could sound as good as or better a decent CD player, sometimes when I listen to a record I am actually amazed that a 12"vinyl record can sound as good.

Forget Rega P3s and suspended decks just go and buy a Technics and be done with it, stick a decent cart on the stock arm and get yourself a good phono stage and buy and Achromat.

Decent vinyl is easy enough to come by and there is millions of it out there but once bought you will rarely ever be able to sell it on, unless you buy first pressings and know exactly what your buying, as there really is too much of the stuff in the market place and most of it is worthless down to the grading system.

I now only buy near mint media or re-issues at about a tenner.

Tony

[chelsea]

Has the oto got the phono stage in?

[Thing Fish]

Bev, it can be an expensive but needn't be. But as stated it can be the road to ruin...lol

[chelsea]

Sell your TQ ultras and you could get a nice tt..

[walpurgis]

I've been thinking whether I should get a turntable or not

I'd say yes. But you have to be SO careful what you buy! It's easy to get it wrong and be disappointed. You don't need to spend a fortune, in fact I'd say as a minimum, second hand, you could get a Pioneer PL-12D and bung a Denon DL-160 in it and end up with a surprisingly musical little setup for under £200. If you fancy a Rega arm, make sure it's on a Rega turntable, that's where they generally work best. If you feel like spending a small fortune, I'd personally be looking in the direction of Nottingham Analogue. Love their TTs.

[Ninanina]

Has the oto got the phono stage in?

No unfortunately the Oto is line only

[walpurgis]

No unfortunately the Oto is line only

So you''ll want a phono stage. That is another area full of pitfalls. I must have tried dozens of phono stages and only a few stand out to me as exceptional at their price. Not heard anything from Pro Ject that really worked for me. If you want to try vinyl without spending a fortune the Cambidge 540P (MM) and 640P (MM/MC) are a bargain. The Icon Audio stages are nice and so is the EAR 834L if you want to stick with valves. There's always the little Bellari VP129 valve stage too, it's cheaper but remarkably capable (the later VP130 is not so well liked). Graham Slee seems to offer as good as it gets for the money. His products have little 'signature', you would not guess if you were listening to solid state or valves. I use one of his myself and find it superb.

[YNWaN]

I pretty much only listen to vinyl and am 100% supportive of it as a 'high end' source. However, you will receive as many opinions as to what to get as there are stars in the sky and vinyl playback at a high standard is not really for the uninformed (these days).

Reasonably priced and good quality packages are made by both Rega and Project (including arm and cartridge). Many will recommend vintage turntables to you and there is merit in this, but they are not really for those taking their first steps IMO.

[chelsea]

If you've not had a tt before i think i'd go for a DD to start with.
If you go belt drive probably best to get a non suspended unless you know someone who will set it up.