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what to look for when buying a turntable


mopardave

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went for a visit to Kevin's Monday to meet and check out his system.  Very nice set up and system sounds fantastic.  He played some of my disc material and then his vinyl .  The vinyl sounded much better.   I'm now thinking about getting back into vinyl.    When shopping for a turntable what specs should I be looking at?  Looking for used as I certainly can't afford a $7500 table, what are the brands to look at that are audiophile quality?   Technics, oracle, Rega.   What brands should I look at?   Audio Technica LP-120 any good?  Just looking and getting familiar with turntables for now. My price range used would under $1000.   Thanks

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1 hour ago, Shakeydeal said:

When going down this road, remember that you need a good quality phono stage and cartridge. If your budget is 1K for the table, add at least another grand to that.

 

Shakey

Yeah, that's a different budget.  Looks like many different budgets in this vinyl thing.

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Bliss on a budget?  It ain't happening!  lolol    Someone down this way in Dayton had a Linn table on fb Marketplace.  No affiliation and clueless.  Started @ 1800 and is now down to 1500.  Who knows what he'll take but it's a great "lifetime" turntable that WILL hold it's value.  Then drop it off in Ann Arbor for the factory trained tech on the way home!  You'll find they don't eat much.  It's just that first bite that hurts the wallet!  Aside from that they're a great table!  Might get lucky up your way though.  Good luck!  :)

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I'm rehabbing an Acoustic Research XA TT now and bought an ART phono stage for $50.  The stage has a ton of good reviews and I felt it was a decent place to start.  I didn't want to drop a ton of money out of the gate.  Figured I'd start here and move up if I'm liking what I'm hearing.  Just haven't got to the hearing part yet.

 

Phono stage:

https://www.amazon.com/ART-DJPREII-Audio-Turntable-Preamplifier/dp/B000AJR482/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=ART+Phono+stage&qid=1556202208&s=gateway&sr=8-3

 

Our own PMSummer uses an XA and he's a heavy vinyl guy.  You can find one usually in the $250 - $350 range in decent condition.  Pretty basic looking but highly revered and there are lots of customization's you can do to them.

 

As an example:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Acoustic-Research-AR-XA-Turntable-with-Dust-cover-Original-Box-With-Stanton-500/223490525936?hash=item340912caf0:g:QQYAAOSwyKlcrkTR

 

Here's one that's been modded.  Sold for $650.

 

s-l1600.jpg.8340112c1c645beabeae278337e2fb6f.jpg

 

 

Just a thought.

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If I had to choose between a 5K table + 500.00 phono stage and a 5K phono stage and a 500.00 table, I'd take the latter over the former every time.

 

That said, there are some budget cartridges that are very good. The Denon DL-103R and Dynavector 10X5 come to mind. Also the Dynavector P75 phono stage is excellent and not very expensive (895.00 for a new Mark IV version, less than half that for a used earlier version).

 

Then you have to buy a record cleaner, cleaning solution, brushes, scale, cartridge alignment tool and whole mess of 50.00 vinyl reissues............😀

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3 hours ago, mopardave said:

He played some of my disc material and then his vinyl .  The vinyl sounded much better.

 

Apples to apples on the equipment?  If I've ever seen listed what his equipment is I've not paid attention.  It could be possible for a vinyl-lover to have tens of thousands invested in vinyl play and tens in CD play...

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3 minutes ago, glens said:

 

Apples to apples on the equipment?  If I've ever seen listed what his equipment is I've not paid attention.  It could be possible for a vinyl-lover to have tens of thousands invested in vinyl play and tens in CD play...

I have a Shanling T-100 CD player (MSRP $1995.00) with vintage 396A tubes.The other system has a Pioneer Elite multi-player. I do have as much in my analog as well.

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35 minutes ago, kevinmi said:

I have a Shanling T-100 CD player (MSRP $1995.00) with vintage 396A tubes.The other system has a Pioneer Elite multi-player. I do have as much in my analog as well.

Yeah and the vinyl definitely sounded better.

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2 hours ago, Shakeydeal said:

If I had to choose between a 5K table + 500.00 phono stage and a 5K phono stage and a 500.00 table, I'd take the latter over the former every time.

 

That said, there are some budget cartridges that are very good. The Denon DL-103R and Dynavector 10X5 come to mind. Also the Dynavector P75 phono stage is excellent and not very expensive (895.00 for a new Mark IV version, less than half that for a used earlier version).

 

Then you have to buy a record cleaner, cleaning solution, brushes, scale, cartridge alignment tool and whole mess of 50.00 vinyl reissues............😀

I agree and planned for the better cartridge as well.  What table would you get on a tight budget? The Technics looks good enough and gets some ink.  Also are the Audio Technica tables any good?

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3 hours ago, Dave1290 said:

Bliss on a budget?  It ain't happening!  lolol    Someone down this way in Dayton had a Linn table on fb Marketplace.  No affiliation and clueless.  Started @ 1800 and is now down to 1500.  Who knows what he'll take but it's a great "lifetime" turntable that WILL hold it's value.  Then drop it off in Ann Arbor for the factory trained tech on the way home!  You'll find they don't eat much.  It's just that first bite that hurts the wallet!  Aside from that they're a great table!  Might get lucky up your way though.  Good luck!  :)

I can't agree with that, but your budget may be different than mine.  Technics 1210m5 on Ebay for 799.  Looks good to me.  I have plenty of time to shop.

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Pioneer PLX-1000

Can be found for around $600. Nice sounding TT, solidly built. Gives you several hundred to spend on a cart and still stay under $1,000. 

I have mine pared with a Clearaudio Arum Beta cart that I picked up on Audiogon. Sounds good to me.

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1 hour ago, tromprof said:

Pioneer PLX-1000

Can be found for around $600. Nice sounding TT, solidly built. Gives you several hundred to spend on a cart and still stay under $1,000. 

I have mine pared with a Clearaudio Arum Beta cart that I picked up on Audiogon. Sounds good to me.

I will take a look at that model too. 

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1 hour ago, tromprof said:

Pioneer PLX-1000

Can be found for around $600. Nice sounding TT, solidly built. Gives you several hundred to spend on a cart and still stay under $1,000. 

I have mine pared with a Clearaudio Arum Beta cart that I picked up on Audiogon. Sounds good to me.

Pioneer plx1000 , good call. I like it and can be bought brand new for $600. 

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