This should be right up STW’s alley. Craft beer / artisan coffee ready

On holiday I was drawn to the vinyl in various second hand shops. My collection is long gone – but I’m drawn to getting a turntable and having that ‘slowed down’ experience again

I have an old NAD amp (3130?) and a pair of Kef Codas in the loft but nothing to spin a record

Budget about £200 to £300 – so obvious choice is the Rega Planar

Anything else? Should I go secondhand?

What’s the collectives view?

I’d dip my toe in the vinyl experience by getting a second-hand turntable circa 1980’s.

If you pay £30-40 for a Sony/Sanyo etc it’s not going to depreciate should you decide to sell it on.

The new (to me) regas, etc seem to have very expensive stylus/ cartridges.

I’d try to spend the remainder on a new amp. You might be surprised at the difference.

Good luck!

Budget about £200 to £300 – so obvious choice is the Rega Planar

End of thread….

Rega fan here but Project do some nice turntables.

have a look on pinkfish media for some good used kit

>getting second-hand turntable circa 1980’s

Seems a reasonable idea, I quite enjoyed my Sanyo SR222 before my Planar

Nothing wrong with that amp. Might need some contact cleaner for the pots – mine got a bit crackly after being in the loft. Good phono stage.

I’ve got a Rega Planar and would recommend getting one.

I’ve been through the same scenario as my old Project one broke – I looked at all options but ended up with a new Planar 1. I’m not disappointed.

Anything that has a 33/45 switch, rather than a belt change everytime you need to change the speed. The novelty of that soon wears off and you’ll either play everything at 33 or go back to mp3s!

I’ve just recently revitalised my old Dual CS505-3 with a new needle and a better phono pre-amp thingy. It sounds pretty good to my old ears. Some vinyl records sound much better than others, though. I might be wrong but the better ones are the oldest. Decca and Elektra seem particularly good.

Interesting that this question keeps coming round and round.

I’ve had a Planar 3 for about 30 years.
🙂

New lid as the hinges go over time, rewire (pet rabbit), six cartridges (?) couple of belts.

Been great, never had an urge to upgrade, although Project and Michell do some nice stuff.

Nice table or a wall shelf seems to give better milage than stylus or cartridge upgrades.

I’ve had my Trio KD1033 turntable, (from around 1978), along with its matching tuner, amp and tape deck, for around 20yrs now and it’s still sounding lovely through a pair of similar aged Wharfedale speakers.

Have a trawl around those second hand shops. There’s some amazing stuff out there!

Some vinyl records sound much better than others, though. I might be wrong but the better ones are the oldest. Decca and Elektra seem particularly good.

It’s certainly true in some circumstances, any new vinyl is going to be 180gm, and properly mastered, or should be, but I have read of one instance recently involving an American folky/roots duo who discovered that some mastering plants were using a CD as the studio master, instead of a stereo studio master properly EQ’d for vinyl.
If you’re looking for old vinyl, much of the stuff pressed in the early 80’s was utter crap, that’s what caused me to ditch vinyl and go over to CD.
It was part of the whole ‘oil crisis’ at the time, discs were being made thinner and thinner, and recycled materials often used: I had an album which jumped terribly on my Logik DM101/Zeta/AT MC no matter what I did, then I noticed the little white specks in the surface were little bits of paper embedded in the plastic, bits of label from where disks had been ground up without removing the label from the centre first!
That, and the fact most albums were flexidisks, you could squeeze each side together until they touched, records were warped, poorly mastered…
If you go for old vinyl, check it’s good heavy plastic that won’t bend, and a tip I learned from Ken Kessler, who wrote a column for HiFi News & Record Reviews, look at the sleeve or inner sleeve and see who did the mastering; if it said Bob Ludwig, Masterdisk, you’re part-way there. Then check the blank bit of vinyl where the runout groove goes, next to the label; if that has a little stamp pressed in saying Masterdisk on both sides, you’re golden, because both sides were pressed from metal stampers actually cut by Bob Ludwig.
Sometimes there’s a different name there, like Stirling or Stirling Sound, which indicates a stamper had been damaged or worn, so a new one sourced locally, cut from a second-generation stereo master, a tape of a tape, so the sound is already being degraded. As time goes on, both sides get replaced, and on it goes.
Just check the mastering people on the sleeve matches what’s on the runout of the album.
Two of the finest sounding albums I own on vinyl are Paul Simon’s Hearts and Bones, and Dire Straits’ Love Over Gold, both first pressing runs from Bob Ludwig-cut masters, and outstanding recordings to boot.
Cutting vinyl masters is an art, one that seems to be little understood or acknowledged, and I got a bit obsessed with checking every album I bought to make sure it was as good as it could possibly be, but I was using a £2500 turntable so felt it deserved the best I could get.
Payed off, until vinyl turned to shit, the five copies of Peter Gabriel’s fourth album I took back because of the appalling surface noise being the breaking point.

I went through this a while ago, bought a turntable, new cartridge some new old vinyl and new new vinyl ( £20 a pop sir) then decided CD was actually better and still delivered that “I’m listening to an album” experience you dont get from spotify.

Turntable and the vinyl is in the loft waiting for the next time I get the itch.

Interesting stuff count zero. Just flicked through a few 80s discs and they generally say nothing in the run-out, stamped with a number at most. Quality generally shocking. I’ve got tons of Porky Prime Cuts though, I remember reading his various pearls of wisdom back in the 90s.

I’d have thought sh would be the way to go

Mechanically very simple devices, need decent bearings and components to sound good, more likely found in old models.

Fwiw I got a TD160 for £50 in 1990 odd, got a RB300 for it, rewired that, made a better subchassis, wires in a Valhalla.

Sounded good, fun to do

Thanks all.

I’m thinking to just go with a new Rega, though I’ll trawl eBay to see if any bargains appear

My main issue will be persuading the wife to put two more speakers in the lounge (there are 5 B&W M1s and sub in there already). Might have to go the stealth route and use the M1s for a while

I’ve got an old AR EB101, which I bought s/h 30 years ago, with a Rotel amp and some huge floor standing KEFs. Together with the vinyl cases it fills a whole wall.

Almost never use it though, no matter how much I like the idea of it it’s easier to just switch Sonos on. Can’t bring myself to pack it all up though.

Where’s Cougar with his description of how vinyl actually sounds??

Anything that has a 33/45 switch, rather than a belt change everytime you need to change the speed. The novelty of that soon wears off and you’ll either play everything at 33 or go back to mp3s!

My experience also! Completely agree with this 🙂

I’m thinking to just go with a new Rega, though I’ll trawl eBay to see if any bargains appear

I did that for months – saved searches, the lot. But people want stupid money for old tat with issues.

And as for speed change switch, not belt – I think most people are either ‘singles’ or ‘albums’ people so constant speed change isn’t an issue. Me – I own sod-all singles, hardly bought them even as a kid in the 70s/80s.

Some of the new albums that run at 45rpm are a pain though! 😀

Singles night, innit?
🙂
Annoying with 12″ singles though.

I wouldn’t get one secondhand, unless it was serviced and sold by a decent shop.
They last forever if looked after, but can be easily and expensively damaged.

I think I payed about £300 for my Planar 3 back in the late 80’s, including cartridge, so £375 for a brand new Planar 2, ready to go, seems like a bargain to me.

A story for audiophiles that just popped up on my facebook:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-gift-for-music-lovers-who-have-it-all-a-personal-utility-pole-1471189463

“Now it feels like Queen is in this room, just for me”.. Er yeah, I’ll go without thanks 😆

How do people think my EB101 might stack up against a new Project Debut, for example?

I recently got into the vinyl thing and purchased a new Planar 3 with the Ortofon 2m Blue cart, running through a Cyrus 8 via a Graham Slee Gram Amp2 SE into Tannoy XT6F’s it sounds fantastic.

Popped round to my parents and liberated my Dad’s collection and currently spunking all my hard earned on vintage reggae. loving it .

My son is into vinyl so I bought him a Rega Planar as that’s generally the system that folks advise. It does indeed sound pretty good. I was considering getting him a revamped older deck (I use a very early LP12 and an upgraded Thorens TD160) however the Planar is more “fit and forget” than they are.

No need to over-think it. The Rega is great.
As they are pretty much the same price everywhere, buy from someone you really really want to give your money to.
If you’re anywhere in the NW, then these guys are the ones for me:
https://www.theaudioworks.co.uk/

Really friendly, very music-oriented (organise gigs, trips, do presentations at the Halle, etc).

They manufacture their own range of components too (plugs/racks/etc).

I bought my budget-ish system from them 17 years ago and they still consider me a customer even though I haven’t bought anything since!

I have a project very rarely use it but in its green colour looks great, still have my biscuit tin Systemdek but needs looked at as there is a wire loose somewhere
Taking the glass off and moving the belt was all part of the fun

do a search on my profile, threads started. go back a couple of years and i asked some similar questions. but be warned its a slippery slope when you get started… says the chap who is having to rebuild a room to fit his latest bit of vintage hifi kit. and it all started so innocently for me with a question on stw.

actually one comment i will make, rega planar prices, original 3 especially, are going crazy. i paid 150 if that for mine, i could get twice that now easily.

As it goes, I have a mint 80s Planar 3 up for grabs if interested. Drop me a PM.

Loved both my Planar 2 and 3, and RP6, but since becomming an urban hipster I haven’t looked back since acquiring my Technics SL-1210.

May no longer be fashionable but I still subscribe to the best source you can afford philosophy, so as per much of the above, go as high up the Rega family tree as you can.
Really interested to see a Trio KD1033 still in use. My 1st turntable back around 1979, matched with a Trio KA3700 amp and a pair of Castle Richmond 2’s. All from HiFi corner at the top of Leith Walk, Edinburgh. Substantial chunk of grant cheque gone, beans n toast for a term.
Planar 3 early eighties from Russ Andrews then the inevitable Sondek.
Completely agree with the Count, and did likewise, moving to CD in frustration at the declining vinyl quality. Held out until mid-nineties before going digital. Still loving the recently rebuilt LP12 and a good 180g pressing truely is a beautiful thing, albeit at a price.