Turntable

mattybfat

mattybfat

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My son is looking at getting into vinyl and i am many years removed. Obviously 22year old is looking in a low budget territory so for all you vinyl heads, any recommendations where to start?

This is a start from scratch and if any of you have extra equipment please share.

Thank you so much in advance...
 
Having helped @pooriggy and @Santapez dip their toe into the world of vinyl,
I may be able to help.

I will point out that after they recovered from the cost of the equipment, then comes the ”holy f, records are expensive”

Consider that as part of the equation.
I’ll text you on this.
 
Just went through this with my son. Start searching FB marketplace and Craigslist. I found a nice Realistic direct drive TT, speakers and receiver for about $150. Had to clean all the pots on the receiver but everything works fine now. Super cool looking too, weighs a ton though.
 
My son went and bought some vinyl and then asked if he could have my Thorens TT that I bought with my Bar Mitzvah money back in the 70's. Lol. Now he has some albums on display and no way to listen to them.
 
mattybfat said:
My son is looking at getting into vinyl and i am many years removed. Obviously 22year old is looking in a low budget territory so for all you vinyl heads, any recommendations where to start?

This is a start from scratch and if any of you have extra equipment please share.

Thank you so much in advance...
Click to expand...
What do you consider low-budget?

I wanted to get a new turntable as I don't really want to start messing with someone's worn out or broken unit.

After researching it and realizing I wasn't a complete audio-file, I was set to buy a Fluance RT82 as it seemed like the most inexpensive way to get a good quality but upgrade able unit. RT80/81 have some downsides like non-adjustable feet, motor that isn't speed compensating, etc. It does need a phono pre-amp however which adds $$ and is another rabbit hole of product research.

Ended up going with a refurbished Audio-Technica AT-LPW40WN which I think is still available for under $300. Same motor setup as the Fluance 82 and up, but has adjustable feet, what seems like the decent and common AT stylus and such. It has a built-in pre-amp that can be bypassed so that was an expense I didn't have to go for, but can later on it if I choose.

I ended up with Edifier powered speakers to replace my cobbled together Sony system mostly for space. I'm sure audio snobs will jeer at that but they sound good for the cost and that's something I can upgrade with the right craigslist find.

2023-04-30 14.54.07.jpg
 
Bike N Gear said:
My son went and bought some vinyl and then asked if he could have my Thorens TT that I bought with my Bar Mitzvah money back in the 70's. Lol. Now he has some albums on display and no way to listen to them.
Click to expand...
Now that I did web searches for turntables/vinyl my google feed is blasted with related stuff. Saw a headline this week that 50% of vinyl purchasers don't own a way to play them.
 
Bike N Gear said:
My son went and bought some vinyl and then asked if he could have my Thorens TT that I bought with my Bar Mitzvah money back in the 70's. Lol. Now he has some albums on display and no way to listen to them.
Click to expand...
I had already given my Technics direct drive turntable to my daughter a few years ago.
 
I can’t believe there’s not a reasonably priced record player available. I get that the target audience is older and has more disposable income now. But for $300 as a mid/low level entry point seems just stupid to me.

I’ll stick to 8-tracks.
 
Norm said:
I can’t believe there’s not a reasonably priced record player available. I get that the target audience is older and has more disposable income now. But for $300 as a mid/low level entry point seems just stupid to me.

I’ll stick to 8-tracks.
Click to expand...
I think it comes down to what you get and what you're looking for.

$150 is like a 1k mountain bike. Great for beginners but you want to spend $2.5k to really hit the quality per dollar price and get past a certain level of performance.

You can spend $150 on the generic Audio Technica turntable that everyone seems to recommend and seems mostly decent and has a pre-amp.
 
Norm said:
I’ll stick to 8-tracks.
Click to expand...
I saw a Realistic 8-track player come up on one of my feeds for cheap.
Almost bought it for kicks, but I checked the price of 8-track tapes first.....
 
GSTim said:
Just went through this with my son. Start searching FB marketplace and Craigslist. I found a nice Realistic direct drive TT, speakers and receiver for about $150. Had to clean all the pots on the receiver but everything works fine now. Super cool looking too, weighs a ton though.
Click to expand...
I think this is the way to go to get started on the cheap.
You are taking a chance buying vintage, but if you can test it before forking over the cash, it’s the best ROI.
Plus, super cool looking as noted.

Otherwise, new/refurbed entry level is about $300 for the turntable alone.
And then you have to get powered speakers like @Santapez because you blew your budget. (JEER JEER!)
 
Norm said:
I can’t believe there’s not a reasonably priced record player available. I get that the target audience is older and has more disposable income now. But for $300 as a mid/low level entry point seems just stupid to me.
Click to expand...
Audio Technica has a true decent starter table for under $150, but it’s not upgradeable so if you do get bit by the bug, you’re gonna end up having to get something else.
@Santapez’ MTB analogy is pretty spot on.
 
The other thing I've found is that some albums sound better then others. I guess it depends how they were recorded. A well recorded album really pops with great sound separation.

The point is, you could spend $$$$ on audio equipment but garbage in, garbage out. Some vinyl recordings are disappointing.

With that, playing records is nostalgic for me since I grew up with vinyl.
 
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