Thinking of buying a nice turntable and starting to listen to music at home on LP’s. Is there a good, modern turntable with nice speakers?

Do you have a budget? Project and Rega have it pretty much covered in the entry to mid level. Amp and speakers would depend on your sound requirements, room size, available space etc.

For starters I’d be going cheap, Lenco I85 are about £150, eventually I’d want to buy some nice speakers too, but for the moment it’s just a start up project.

I’ve no idea about the Lenco unfortunately. Normally you’d need a turntable, amp(with a phono stage) and speakers. Purchasing the turntable alone will not let you play records. Though things like the Lenco with USB might play you play through your PC but its not an area I know about. For £150 I’d say have a look about Gumtree and ebay, I reckon you’d need to look at around £300 plus before you got an entry level system but it would sound a whole lot better than the USB type players. Its a bit of a commitment bearing in mind playing vinyl is a bit of a faff and the novelty can wear off. But the amp and speakers should be good for playing other types of media so not a total loss.

you only qualify to do this if you have a beard, man bun, vegan , 3/4 skinny white chinos , hang out in coffee shops and vape.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/turntable-decisions-cant-decide
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/recommend-me-a-turntable
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/recommend-me-a-best-budget-turntable-with-pre-amp-please
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/best-budget-turntable
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/lidl-turntable-any-good
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/looking-for-a-turntable-but-have-no-idea

If you are serious about upgrading in future I’d avoid anything that can’t take a proper cartridge.

This sort of Project one is a bit over budget, but a proper bit of HiFi…
https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/turntables/project-essential-2-blk.html

And this would be a good buy as it’s basically a Rega Planar 1…
https://www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk/p-10722-nad-c-556-turntable.aspx

Recommend me a tuntable

Something made out of reinforced concrete, I would imagine.

I have that Project one and would recommend it. As much as you need to spend unless you’re getting into geekery – I just wanted to listen old my old vinyl with decent sound and it does this nicely.

Something made out of reinforced concrete, I would imagine.

I sure like my RP3

First post for me and I cant resist a turntable thread. Rega or Project are a great place to start but be careful, Hi-Fi is as much a slippery financial slope as Bikes.

I went with a Project when I got back into vinyl quite a few years back and it was good, however when my son wanted a turntable I got him a Rega and overall I think it’s a better first deck. Both are very decent however, although as others said it’s a slippery slope!

it’s a slippery slope

Yep, vinyl never came back to us as it never left. 😀

A number of turntables have left though,

Thorens 166, crap, why the hype, I’ll never know.

Rega Planar 3, had it for 20 years. Great deck, with a goldring 1042, it was awesome.

Rega Planar 25 was superb, previous owner spent a massive pile of cash on a £700 atm rewire.

Now got a rega RP6, audio origami arm rewire, Ortofon 2m black cartridge. A seriously good turntable, arm and cartridge. It blows me away. It’s the end of a long slippery slope.

Whatever you do, listen to some, try some different cartridges or be prepared to waste money. A decent hifi shop will help you out.

I’d seriously consider an RP3 as good solid starting place. Rega Elys is nice cartridge too. Never liked the Rega exact cartridge though so listen before splashing over £200 on one.

Big fan of Ortofon 2m’s, bronze and black especially,

Hi-Fi is as much a slippery financial slope as Bikes.

You’re not wrong there!

We recently bought an audio-technica AT-LP120-USB married up to a pair of Bose speakers.

Couldn’t be happier with it, £240-ish and lovely without going mental:
https://www.richersounds.com/audio-technical-usb-direct-drive-turntable.html

https://m.johnlewis.com/audio-technica-at-lp120-usb-turntable-with-three-speeds-audacity-software/p/2613368

I went for a Project Essential 2. Really pleased with it. Got it connected up to my 20 year old Marantz PM66KI amp and Mission 773e floorstanders.

The new Rega Planar One gets rave reviews. I’m very tempted – seems all the magic disc spinner I need.

You can’t download vinyl. I’m oot.

I just bought a Pro-ject debut 2 turntable for £40 off a friend, really nice condition and cartridge had just been replaced. Just need to find a cheap amp with a phono stage. Well chuffed!

Vinyl started to die as a medium when Linn stopped producing the Sondek…

Mr Woppit- Linn have not stopped production of the LP12 Sondek. Its still available new these days. I bought mine secondhand but then had it serviced at Cymbiosis in Leicester and it absolutely sings now. They are expensive to buy new and you can spend a fortune upgrading, I stopped when I got a radikal power supply. As to the death of vinyl well its all I buy and there are companies like Analogue Productions who are pressing fantastic vinyl, not cheap but the sound quality and presentation is fantastic.

I recently bought an audio-technica AT-LP120-USB

Having spent most of my misspent youth playing with Technics 1210’s, it’s nicely familiar and sounds pretty good (I’ve also had Project turntables and the AT stands up sound wise).

Im glad to see that lots of people are going the vinyl route. I have invested a lot in my Hi Fi the sound quality is superb but for me vinyl is about ritual. Standing in front of a rack of records deciding what to play. Taking out of the sleeve, queing the arm then that moment when the first chords kick in and the world and all its problems fades away.

Thorens 166, crap, why the hype, I’ll never know.

I’ve got a TD160Mk2 in my London place, although renovated and updated with a modern arm and a nice high output moving coil. Sounds pretty good!

death of vinyl

Someone tell HMV; they seem to be filling their display racks back up with vinyl

I’ve got a TD160Mk2 in my London place, although renovated and updated with a modern arm and a nice high output moving coil. Sounds pretty good!

Totally different beast. Speaking as someone who used to have a TD166 and now has a TD126…

Totally different beast. Speaking as someone who used to have a TD166 and now has a TD126…

Ah, ok. I’d heard that TD166’s were supposed to be pretty good but haven’t heard one myself. My TD160 is nice though – not quite as nice as my LP12 but still very enjoyable.

topher40 – Member
Mr Woppit- Linn have not stopped production of the LP12 Sondek. Its still available new these days. I

Now that’s…. weird. I must have dreamed it. 😯

I bought my LP12 2nd hand for £250 a good few years back when vinyl was going out of fashion. The guy I got it from had owned it from new (early 70’s I think as the serial number is about 1000) and still had all the receipts and boxes etc. Probably need to add a zero to that to get a new one anything like it now.

epicsteve- £4000 for the LP12 in Majik build. They then get considerably more. The guy who works on mine has a signature model, hes an acknowledged expert and sets them up beautifully, which runs to about £15k last time I was drooling. Your LP12 would still fetch around £1000 depending on arm/cartridge etc.

I’d still love one, beautiful things.

Never ‘got’ the Linn/Naim thing, tbh.
A combination of pushy, brainwashed salesmen and a couple of really poor demo sessions of overcomplicated combinations put me off initially.

Not keen on the quasi religious aspect of flat-earthery either.
😀

Have since heard some lovely, simpler combinations of LP12 and Naits & older pre/power stuff that sounds fantastic.
Some of the cheaper Linn speakers are horrific though.

Only heard two sets of Isobariks.
First in a huge demo hall where they just sounded awful and one set in a smaller demo room, very different, but superb.
The amount of very expensive grey boxes required to make them work was both impressive and scary.
🙂

Never ‘got’ the Linn/Naim thing, tbh.

My main system is Linn/Naim and I’ve loved that for many years. The system in my other house only has one bit more eclectic although does have a Naim amp.

I’ve got mixed views on Linn speakers – I’ve heard Isobariks and even Sara’s in some systems that I’ve liked and in others I’ve hated. I’ve love an early set of Linn Kan’s though, they’d be ideal in my system here.

My Naim system also has lots of boxes:
– CD
– power supply for CD
– pre-amp
– power supply for pre-amp
– active crossover
– power supply for active crossover
– power amp 1
– power amp 2

I’d hate to have to wire it all up again!

I hope you’ve got all the cables dressed properly… 😉

I always thought Linn speakers were a bit meh. I do recall a demo of quad amped Naim SBLs which were respectable but no better than my much cheaper ATCs and not a patch on ATC 3 way actives.

Still got an LP12/Ittok TT though (not that it gets used).

OOOOHHH some nice kit there guys. Im using a Quad 405/2 power and a 34 pre. I love the sound of older equipment which suits the analogue sound better. Naim Intro 2 speakers. Gets me where I want to be, will be changing cartridge in a year or so but, lottery win excepted, thatll be it for me on the stereo as I now seem to have picked up the BPW bug my savings are headed for something 2 wheeled and bouncy.

Best system Ive ever heard was at Cymbiosis which produced an incredible sound but cost about 100k !!!!!