gofar99 Messages: 1949 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, That is a tough question to answer. The reason is that there are basically two ways to get a decent turntable at present and how you would go about it depends on your basic knowledge of them. The two ways are (1) used and (2) new. New will cost you but is a generally safe bet. The ones worth taking home are from a bottom of about $180 to the sky's the limit. A new one is just coming onto the market by a company called U Turn (http://uturnaudio.com/)the model is the Orbit. A no frills basic unit, but by all accounts a decent turntable. They make an upgraded one at $100 more. Of the two I would personally think it to be worth the difference. There are mainstream ones from Pro-ject and Rega in the $300-350 range. I have a Pro-ject Debut III as a back up. An OK unit, I didn't like the steel platter and spent $100 more for an acrylic one. Steel ones make cartridges with strong magnets (that many have) suck down to the platter and mess up the tracking force. I could not use several cartridges I like on the P-J. There is a Rega at about the same price that is equal to the P-J. I just don't have personal experience with it.
The alternative is a used one either refurbished or not. There are many available. The problem is to avoid getting one that is damaged or so worn out as to be useless. I would suggest that you search local second hand shops - particularly ones that specialize in musical stuff (LPs CDs etc) and see if any are there. One I visit from time to time in Phoenix had three decent turntables the last time I was there. A way to get some feel for what is good and not is to prowl the vinylengine.com forums. Many nice folk there. Some sell things on it as well.
All this presumes you have a way to amplify the sound...a stereo system with a phono preamp stage. Most new ones do not. A phono preamp though can be had for as little as $50 and be fairly good. If you are good at diy check out the project I posted on diyaudioprojects.com It is an IC based one that sounds a lot better than it should. It can be built for $50-75.
I hope I haven't discouraged you, but vinyl is a different animal from what most people listen to and the cost and complexity to get decent sound is higher than for other formats. Do not however get any of the new crop of "retro" players. They not only don't sound very good, they can damage the LPs.
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