Please.
Celler is nearing completion, and I want to kit it out with an armchair & a record player.
So, what’s good as a stand alone turntable?

Budget? Matching kit?

Generally you can’t go far wrong with anything by Rega at sensible money.

You do know turntables usually come as separates, so you need amp and speakers too, but if you fancy all in one with a space age retro look, how about bagging a Bang & Olufsen Beocentre from ebay?

Budget? Not sure I’d bother with a stand alone though.

I’d go with Rega. Rp3 if you can, rega Elys cartridge, Brio amp, or maybe a nice amp by Creek, 4030 perhaps, some nicelooking bookshelf speakers at around £200.

Idle looking for second hand too, apart from the cartridge.

That lot will be Iro £650 and it will sound lovely,

Rega and an Ortofon 2M of some sort… Assuming that’s what you need, of course.

Also, it doesn’t matter what we say, buy what sounds good on your setup 🙂

Can’t go wrong with Project turntables.
I really wouldn’t bother with an all in one system.

Cool, cheers all..
Budget? Not really got one in mind, but around a grand?
Just seen this: http://www.harrowaudiohifi.co.uk/perfect-turntable-starter-system
Looks about spot on I think?

You need to go and listen to few different options at a decent hifi dealers before blowing hundreds of £’s on kit you’ve not heard. At least with S/h gear you’ll probably get most of your money back if you don’t get on.

Technics 1210s are coming out again this year. Might blow the budget though…

🙂

You need to go and listen to few different options at a decent hifi dealers before blowing hundreds of £’s on kit you’ve not heard. At least with S/h gear you’ll probably get most of your money back if you don’t get on.

This ^
Without going all flat-earth and mumbling stuff about fancy cables, etc, just a mis-match between amp and speakers can ruin what should, on paper, be an ideal system, some speakers tend towards the ‘detailed’, which can mean over-bright with the wrong amp, and vice-versa. I’ve sat and listened to a fairly basic system at a hifi show after listening to one costing many thousands of pounds, and the cheap, around a grand, IIRC, absolutely pwned the expensive one.
A Rega, into something like a NAD or a Rotel amp, with B&W, KEF, Mission or Mordant Short speakers ought to be a reasonable starting point, most of which could probably be bought second-hand for perhaps half the budget. A good turntable support, and decent speaker stands, like Foundation stands, if they’re still around, and some good old 39-strand speaker cable to finish off.
Enjoy.

QED 79 strand or Cable Talk 3 were both budget go-to’s.

ion turntable

I have one of these. Great turntable. Decent built in speakers. Solid build and I think it looks pretty cool. You can play your ipod through it. It also comes with software to convert your vinyl yo mp3 format.

Sorry Teetosugars. Never saw your post about your budget. Makes my suggestion look stupid.

Thorens TD150? They were very cheap last time I looked at old hifi stuff.
I have had mine since 1974 and it’s still sounding good.

That Harrow Audio option looks like a good one IMHO. You’d hope that they knew what they were talking about when they put that together too!

I’ve got a Pro-Ject (can’t remember the model) and its great for what it cost. Admittedly I just wanted something to play records on rather than get all anal about my cables being wrong and listening to the kit rather than the music…

I’ve noticed the recent tendency on STW Chat Forum to equate “flat earth” with the idea that fancy cables and the like can “improve” the sound quality of hifi.

The two things are, in fact, diametrically opposed.

Just thought I’d clear that up.

Carry on.

TT’s are very much about engineering, they aren’t electronics really so it’s all about build and tolerances. I’d budget for a wall shelf to keep it isolated or a decent rack if you have a concrete floor. Turntables are measuring tiny, tiny fluctuations in a groove so isolation matters.
See what you can find for around 600-800 that you like . Rega are OK. Find a good S/H amp and speakers for best value. I know some budget turntables sound bearable but honestly I think there’s little below £500 worth having over a digital source as the cheaper cartridges just limit the sound. Doing vinyl well is expensive, as is the source material these days.
Joolsburger – spending too much on records since 1984!

These people are excellent.

Wilkinsons.

They specialise in good quality secondhand HiFi.
They have a Systemdek IIx and a Linn Axis in at the mo, and sell Pro-ject new.

Those TDL speakers at £99 are an utter bargain for someone.

Give ’em a bell.

Rega rp3 connected to a Rotel RA-10 for me. The rotel has a fantastic phone stage that really does justice to the rega. Weak link at the moment are my speakers. Wharfedale diamond 9.1s. Headphones are lower prices grado sr80s which blow the wharfedales away sonically.

If you’ve got somewhere nearby that you can go and have listen, do it. Richer Sounds have lots of turntables and also a few package deals.

When I was in primary school back in the 1970s and early 80s, teachers would bring in turntables with amp and speaker(s) built in. The sound they produced was probably very low quality, but is there anything like them now?

The ones I remember were like vinyl-covered boxes that you took the top off of, and the speaker was a fabric-covered slot on the side. Like this:

Dunno about that system, but Harrow Audio are a good bunch….my Dad has been getting his cartridges from there for years.

I’ve used them for cables & stuff, but never bought any big kit from them – I almost bought some B&W DM602’s from them many moons ago, but went with TDL’s instead.

Can’t go wrong with a Rega I’d have thought, but it would be good to have a listen to see how balanced all the components are.

I’ve noticed the recent tendency on STW Chat Forum to equate “flat earth” with the idea that fancy cables and the like can “improve” the sound quality of hifi.

The two things are, in fact, diametrically opposed.

Just thought I’d clear that up.

Carry on.
Yes, that’s rather the point.
Or it was back in the 80’s when ‘flat-earthers’ was coined to refer to those advocating spending stupid amounts of money on cables, plugs, and all sorts of other snake-oil ‘remedies’ for what was deemed to be poor audio sound.
39-strand will give better results than thin bell-wire for speakers, beyond that the law of diminishing returns takes over, and it’s a fact that most people cannot hear any significant improvement in their system, what is more likely is a placebo effect; having spent the price of a decent holiday, or a very significant amount of good new music on some wires, the hapless owner has to justify the outlay by convincing themselves that they can hear an improvement.
When bands are selling their new albums on cassette, and listening to mixes through a small mono speaker, as one recently reformed band stated on 6music this week, then, honestly, what’s the point in spending more than a weekend’s beer money on wires.

I note Rusty mentioned a Linn Axis. Good shout – a very nice TT for the money.

I started off with a Revolver, which was good. Upgraded to an Linn Axis, which was better, before finally a LP12, which was and remains, better still .

Each step gets improvements – You “discover” an addtional octave of bass, or that the stereo “separation” improves so you can shut your eyes and visualise a “soundstage”, and that the more you spend, the more “realistic” the instruments tend to be, and how they seperate out and are easier to follow, despite the overall sound being quantifiably better.

It really is worth listening to a couple, and hearing what you’re buying before you spend. you might “discover” you enjoy your vinyl more than you anticipated…..

Shame as I’ve just offloaded my dad’s old Sony turntable to a friend. You could have had that (plus amp, plus speakers).

Still got my Technics SL-100 linear tracking TT – can be played on its side..

Ah, never mind Callum.. Appreciate the thought tho.

When I was in primary school back in the 1970s and early 80s, teachers would bring in turntables with amp and speaker(s) built in. The sound they produced was probably very low quality, but is there anything like them now?

The ones I remember were like vinyl-covered boxes that you took the top off of, and the speaker was a fabric-covered slot on the side. Like this:

Yes they do, Crossley, just like the one in the picture. To be honest, they’re poo

Anyone know the best place to sell a turntable?

—->

I can’t imagine posting one would be a good idea without all the original transport screws and packaging.

Think I’ve still got my Acoustic Research EB101 up in the loft somewhere.
I wonder what it’s worth?

This looks nice, but streaming to a bluetooth speaker? the beardy’s wont like that

Story from NAMM here

Wow. Yes!

The new Sony HX500 looks very nice, estimated to be around £400 which puts it into a very competitive market place but time will tell as to whether it can compete with others around that price.

As above both Rega and Project have great ‘entry level’ turntables.
To thrown weight behind the need to get a demo, we heard turntables from both these connected to both Rotel and Marantz amps and B&W floorstanders and felt the cheaper Marantz to be much more musical. The only type of music we preferred the Rotel for was drum & bass.

The extent of the difference really surprised me, it was bigger than the difference between the turntables.

Or . . . off on a bit of a tangent, I’ve just bought a lovely early 80s National Panasonic music centre (remember them?) from eBay for 75 quid, a new cartridge was 35 and a lovely pair of Wharfedale Denton 2s for 30 and my 70/80s records sound fab.
Nicely self contained for your cellar.

Rega RP6 through Rega Elicit-R amp here, sounding nuetral and uber clear. Started out with a mint Rega Planar 2 through an older Marrantz amp with decent built in phono stage which for a budget set up sounded bloody brilliant.

3 best tips for turntable mostly covered already:

A decent cartridge for turntable is money well spent.
Isolate on a wall bracket or decent stand.
Budget for decent phono stage.

Think of the above as fitting 650b tyres, they will bring your music alive. In a cellar you should have the basics of a nicely soundproofed room to begin with, by isolating the TT well, the noise floor (noticeable hiss and background noise) will all but disappear.
Incedently, most Rega amps come with quality phone stages built in (rare these days), including (I think) their budget Brio amp – which pound for pound seems one of the very best options.
My current set up genuinely outshines any CD player set up I’ve ever used – and I honestly never thought I’d admit to that.