I’ve decided that (although it’s brilliant) Spotify is a little soulless and probably destroying the music industry, so it’s time I got back to buying more physical music and vinyl seems like the way forward.

Unfortunately I have no way of playing it.

Starting from nothing, can anyone recommend a good set up to begin a new musical adventure?

how much money do you have?
it is expensive to have a good quality record deck

Buy a Rega of if you can find one a secondhand Linn Index with Akito Arm.

Budget?

It doesn’t have to be the finest quality and secondhand would be fine, I won’t be listening at ear bleeding levels or expecting perfect perforamance. Just something to start with that isn’t utter crap [shallow]and if possible looks pretty[/shallow].

Cheaper the better but if there’s a minimum amount to spend to get something half decent then so be it.

go look on http://www.pinkfishmedia.net good advice and classifieds

Rega P1 or Pro-ject Debut

Vinyl is still the ultimate, always has been but very expensive as top quality turntables are extremely well engineered and expensive to produce. Plus you need an arm and a cartridge.
However you can get a very decent turntable for little money, look at models from Rega (Planar 2 and 3 have been around a long time and lots of used ones on the market) AR also made a decent deck caled the EB101 but my favourite deck for the money was the Dunlop Systemdek made in Scotland, bought one of these way back in the mid 80’s. I had a 11X model. Of course you will need an amplifier and a pair of speakers, you can pick these up for peanuts on ebay especially speakers. Rotel and NAD make great cheap amplifiers and for speakers choose something from Kef, Mission, Tannoy, B & W.

Look for consumer stuff from the 70s, like Philips and Pioneer (PL12 is a beauty) or Technics. Typically very well made, belt-driven units which are easy to maintain (replace belt and service motor, for example). You’ll get something decent for under a hundred pounds, then you just need an amp with phono stage – many ‘modern’ amps don’t take into account the lack of preamp in (most) turntables.

Rega are good and the Systemdek I heard was a good deck back in the day. I had a Linn Axis for a while as well and probably quite cheap now. I currently have an 18 year old Linn LP12 with Ittok arm and it still sounds great. Enjoy

I’ve got a Systemdek that is brilliant, although I’ve spent a lot upgrading it and it’s attached to some very good kit.

It’s not just the turntable you need to worry about. Do you have any existing kit that you could connect a turntable to?

If you want a really nice turntable have a look at a Michell Gyrodec. I’ve got a mate with one with an SME arm and its just awesome!

Cheers all

Rega planars look good, fairly plentiful on eBay and pretty cheap.

I have some small speakers hidden away somewhere which will do for now so that just leaves an amp. Nad or rotal according to the very helpful lovegoinguphills. Any specific models to look out for?

NAD C370 any day of the week. Its an amazing amp.

A good condition Syastemdek will outperform a similarly priced Rega any day of the week. I’d also consider a Technics 1210/1200. Stick a decent cartridge on one and youve got a deck that is practicaly bombproof, requires little/no maintenance and looks cool as…. 🙂

SOunds bloody good aswell!

Seriously wishing I’d never sold my Rega Brio amp and Rega Planar 3 with Goldring 1042GX cartridge and RB300 arm.

Glad I didn’t sell my beloved vinyl though even though I’ve nowt to play it on.

Recently re-comissioned my old hifi now that the kids are no longer rug rats/tweeter pokerers. NAD amp and B&W speakers, however like a Blue Peter tortoise my old DUAL turntable didn’t survive it’s hibernation period, so a new deck was sought. Picked up the cheapest Pro Ject turntable (the essential, £150 quidish) Bit of a fiddle to set up and you have to be careful not to knock the drive belt off when changing vinyl’s over, but it sounds great.

Vinyl is still the ultimate,

at what?

Never brought vinyl, can’t see the point, it’s the music that’s important not how you play it

A Rega Planar 3/RB300 arm is a serious piece of kit for the money,as is the Planar 2 in all honesty. I had one a few years ago before moving onto another LP12 and now with my Orbe/SME V/Koetsu I use now. I much prefer vinyl over any digital source including my Linn CD12.

A good starter system would be a Rega deck, amp and speakers, cost about 1500 and sound pretty good. You’ll also need a shelf unless you have a concrete floor in which case a stand will suffice. With vinyl it is true to say that a good source makes all the difference especially the cartridge. Also if you don’t know how, get an expert to set it up.

£1500 😯

Ok so I’ve found a Rotel ra-921 amp, i’ve read some reviews and it appears to be a budget amp but ok the bonus being it’s cheap and close. Will this bad boy work with a Rega planar 2/3 without having to add any other gubbins (other than speakers)?

I wish I still had my huge shiny mid 70’s technics system. Life would have been so much easier.

Think the Rotel has a built in phono stage so you should just be able to plug the turntable in.

That Rotel is a fine amp and will work vey well with a Planar 2/3. Speakers are another thing altogether. If going down the retro/cheap route look for some Rogers LS1’s or Spendor Preludes but make sure you have some stands for both those.

at what?

Never brought vinyl, can’t see the point, it’s the music that’s important not how you play it

Outright sound quality for starters, which if you’re interested in listening to something with a bit more intelligence than the Spice Girls adds to the experience a little 😉

I find when I put an LP on, I sit and listen to it – the music is the primary form of entertainment, as opposed to the iPod on in the background…

Never brought vinyl, can’t see the point, it’s the music that’s important not how you play it

A lot of skill and effort (sometimes) goes into making a musical recording, and for a lot of music the recording/production is as much a part of the piece as the music. The depth and subtlety of music is easier to hear if the recording/playback is clear and well-balanced tonally. Analogue equipment tends to have a certain tone and quality/attributes that many people enjoy, being typically livelier and roomier than digital recordings, especially on percussive instruments and guitars. Whether analogue or digital is better/worse than the other is irrelevant; the fact is that some people prefer the general quality of analogue sound.

Still using my EB101 – got it for my 21st birthday (a while ago now…) and remember my Dad didn’t want to get it as “it would be obsolete in no time. Still got my original Rotel 820BX in the loft – somehow can’t bring myself to part with it. Sigh…
Anyway +1 for Rega, Project or similar and lots of cheap vinyl around – always worth a rummage in car boot sales etc.

“at what?

Never brought vinyl, can’t see the point, it’s the music that’s important not how you play it “

Do you honestly believe that you are hearing the same music when listening to a fairly low bit rate highly compressed MP3 as when listening to a good vinyl recording?

You probably do. Good for you. 🙂

It’s all nothing to worry your little head about. The grown ups will talk about really good quality audio reproduction while you tap your feet to your mobile phone ringtone! 😉

i’ve been using a project for about 7 years and it’s good. you need to manually move the belt from onto different cogs to adjust the speed, and it has no auto-thingy for the arm when the record ends, but it only cost £120 new. i’ve no idea about their current range though, i see they don’t do my model anymore…

Vinyl is the ultimate at sound quality……end of story.