Dipping my toe into vinyl, a complete novice and so need a turntable and speakers. Bluetooth is preferable for now as it give flexibility. Any recommendations on set up would be gratefully received!
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Dipping my toe into vinyl, a complete novice and so need a turntable and speakers. Bluetooth is preferable for now as it give flexibility. Any recommendations on set up would be gratefully received!
Hi
Rega Planer3/RB200 arm? - high end but not Linn Sondek pricing. Likely newer alternatives to RP3 too as I havent kept in The Game.
Appropriate/matching catridge will be required.
L-K
PS based on my 'kit' few years back now.......
Comes down to budget, how much space you have etc, if you have any kit you can reuse. I don't think that BT needs to be much of a consideration, you can get any number of adaptors to add it.
A decent second hand amp with a phono stage, then a turntable , a rega or a pro ject maybe, some speakers and go from there.
Alternatively, go to Richer sounds and have a chat. Any of these for £300 will be perfect, you might be able to come up with something slightly more interesting shopping around but these set up would be perfectlu okay
https://www.richersounds.com/promoti...tem-deals.html
I have that Tangent amp in a secondary system and it's totalling fine, and has BT as requested
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Not sure how good it is but my Michell Gyrodec sure looks the business...
https://i.imgur.com/xXVxf1Jh.jpg
I’ve got both: LP12 with Valhalla PSU etc - cost a load of money in the mid eighties. I bought a Rega Planar3 for my office in 1993. Currently the Sondek is in its box and the Rega is my go to turntable (only have one room with HiFi in it nowadays)Quote:
Originally Posted by Low-Key
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Entry level with good reviews https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/sony-ps-lx310bt
https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/b...plate-spinners
You really can’t go wrong with a Rega Planar. Mine dates back to 1988 and still sounding great
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Not blutooth, but Rega Planar plus green grade might be worth considering
https://www.rega.co.uk/news/item/sav...grade-products
If you can, budget 30% on the TT, 30% on the amp and 40% on the speakers.
As a starting point, gave a look at a decent s/hand Japanese Direct Drive.
They're pretty robust, well designed, easy to use and set up and as long as you're not monitoring signals with an oscilloscope etc you just won't tell the difference. (Seriously)
A Rega Planar RP2 or 3 is excellent.
You haven’t mentioned budget?
Please don’t do it via Bluetooth…!
You can get good value second hand
A rega rp2 or 3 as mentioned above or a NAD 533 is exactly the same (rebadged basically) with the RB200 arm… a simple AT cartridge…. A reasonable pre-amp, an amp and some speakers…. Just ensure they all work together
I have an old technics Sl1210 which I love!
It’s one of my greatest of great pleasures to sit down and listen to my records…. You listen to music in an entirely different way with more focus on completer albums
My wife always raises an eyebrow when a thin 12” parcel gets delivered by the postie as it’s quite a common occurrence!
Rega Planar. Plenty of options at various prices with cartridge included. UK made + lifetime warranty. You’ll need a Phonostage too.
I would spend as much as possible on the TT and just budget/SH stuff for amp and speakers to start with.
Cheap turntables can be so bad that they cut their own groove into a record thus damaging it making it
sound poor when you upgrade your turntable.
Rega TTs as already mentioned are the lowest i would go but also check out Project TTs that also cater
to the good value low end.
Mine dates back to 1985, still used constantly and sounding great [emoji106]Quote:
Originally Posted by ALindsay
I’d say any of the RPs, depending on budget, would be a good choice.
I've got a Cambridge Audio 540p I'd happily post in exchange for a fundraiser donation.
At least i will if I can find out where Mrs Gyp has tidied the power supply
Given you can spend from under £100 to over £100,000 on some TechDAS gold plated monstrosity, some notion of budget would be sensible.
At the starter end of the scale, ReLoop make some excellent budget direct-drive TTs - very much in the Technics SL-1210 mould, but much cheaper than those now overpriced decks.
Direct drive give a sense of bass weight and propulsion that budget belt-drive decks can't begin to match, and you can chase resolution with better cartridges once you're up to speed with setting-up and using viny replay. Some snobbishly dismiss them as "DJ decks", which is nonsense - at the budget they're as good - or often better - than the non-DJ stuff.
The Reloop RP2000 USB Mk2 is supplied with a decent cartridge, and the phono-stage (equalising pre-amp) is built-in, and that has a digital output, which means you can add a cheap blu-tooth transmitter (e.g. BluDento) and thus have a complete vinyl front-end for around £300 or so if you shop-around.
As an owner of a Rega Planar 3 for 2 decades or more (complete with Origin Live arm and cable upgrades) and an avid consumer of UK hi fi magazines back in the day, I would echo the sentiment to hunt down a decent quality Japanese direct drive.
I suspect they are rare in the UK (apart from the Technics SL1200, which is excellent but knackered DJ ones abound) but definitely worth a look.
I know it's a UK forum so you will (and have!) get everyone suggesting a Rega but if you actually want to hear the records as close as possible to how they were meant to sound, they really need to played at the right speed.
The lathes that cut them were direct driven. My Rega was lovely and until I'd heard better (like honestly, most Uk hifi reviewers, amateur and professional) I never cared but it was always a bit out, depending on many variables. My direct drive Denon is always exact.
Play them back at the right speed on a decent deck and you'll be happy.
Worth investigating Pro-ject as an option - I've had one since I think the late 90s and been very happy with it.
I know people don't like the idea of bluetooth, but Pro-ject do a couple of models I think that offer that feature, so could be worth starting with just the TT and use via bluetooth, then if you want to get more serious with vinyl you can always add an amp and hi-fi speakers at a later date.
A pair of Technics SL-1200?
I looked at getting a SL1200 original a few years back but they were all the rage so quite pricey for anything half decent. In the end I managed to pick up one of the last Japan made SL1210GR and I’ve been very happy with it. No platter wobble which was a bonus.
A modicum of flexibility from Bluetooth won't offset the complete frustration (to me, at any rate) of having to swap/flip records every 20 mins. If you have a fantastic vinyl collection but have been using CDs and/or streaming lately, it may be worth investing in good kit with wired connections to get the best from the vinyl. But you may find the hassles outweigh any benefits.Quote:
Originally Posted by dougair
I had a decent vinyl collection from the '70s and bought a deck, amp and speakers in the early 2000s - I soon reverted to my CDs which have now been replaced by a streaming service. My vinyl collection sold at auction for a decent sum.
Although I cannot be bothered with vinyl (see other post) that is a thing of beauty and I can imagine loving to watch it play even more than any sound from it. A friend of mine had a Transcriptors turntable in the late '60s and it was such a departure from the norm - also a thing of beauty and maybe a source of inspiration for the Gyrodec? https://filmandfurniture.com/product...ckwork-orange/Quote:
Originally Posted by trident-7
Quote:
Originally Posted by JonRA
John Michell (who designed and made the Gyrodec above) used to make parts for Transcriptors before taking over manufacturing of them so they're definitely a source on inspiration!
I've had a Gyro SE for many years and it's a lovely turntable.
Very interesting and I am not surprised there was a link. Thank you :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Meesterbond
Thanks for the replies so far. I plan a trip to Richer Sounds as a starter and will look at the suggestions here. On the vinyl vs cd/streaming. Obviously I have streaming and that will be my go to out and about but the thing with it is you never end up just sitting down and listening to an album. Whether it’s a playlist or skipping tracks the enjoyment of listening to an album as intended seems lost. I won’t be getting everything on vinyl, just those I love to listen to over and over where I can just sit and let it play.
That's my approach to vinyl and music in general. Use spotify for playlists etc but if there is an album I love and I want to own , Ill buy on vinyl
I would look at Technics. Can get a good one used at good prices. I owned about 4 different ones
I also liked my manual ones
Also need an integrated amplifier to power the speakers
Old stuff can be bought for nothing. Even from top companies back in the day
Carver made some nice stuff and reasonably priced. Just make sure maintained and in good condition
Not all old stuff is necessarily cheap.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f0321a16c9.jpg
Love the old B&O stuff!Quote:
Originally Posted by j0hnbarker
The Gyrodec is still well thought of, and likely to inspire to play vinyl in an otherwise digital front-end.Quote:
Originally Posted by trident-7
AND - looks fantastic sitting out on it's own, stationary or in use.
Indeed:Quote:
Originally Posted by j0hnbarker
https://i.imgur.com/d8ekqI1l.jpg
I recently bought a Rega Planar 1 as a temp deck, upgraded the platter to glass ( they do turn up used on eBay but make sure you pick up the 10 mm version) and popped an AT vm95ne I had onto it and it sang better than I was expecting!
I’ve replaced it with a really well looked after Linn Basik with Akito and Adikt cart I found locally so now I need to send my Linn Axis ( basik plus arm, cart now on Rega) for repair and decide which to keep, they both edge the Rega but I paid £150 for the Rega and £35 for the platter, the cart runs about £90 but for £275 it really is a decent sounding deck! It’s currently promised to a pal if he decides to take it but otherwise might end up on sales corner….