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Advice on buying record player


machinehead
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Hello wise audiophiles.

Because I play guitar, I've been asked by a friend to give advice on what record player she should buy her partner.  She thinks I'll know about this but I know nothing about record players.  So I'm seeking your advice.

He isn't into music especially, but has a big record collection from the 60s and 70s.

It should be a single unit with a budget of £500 maximum, but less if something "decent" is available for less money.  And she needs it for Saturday 4th July!

Thanks for any advice offered.

Frank.

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2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Will he need an amp and speakers as well?

No.  it's meant to be like a Dansette.  :)  One box does it all.  Bottom of the range stuff.  I think he's tone deaf to be honest, so not much should be expected.

Frank.

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4 hours ago, machinehead said:

No.  it's meant to be like a Dansette.  :)  One box does it all.  Bottom of the range stuff.  I think he's tone deaf to be honest, so not much should be expected.

Frank.

Ah, so he wont need Dobly then

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It's a shame she couldn't be persuaded to go for seperates. £500 could buy you a pretty decent setup of turntable, amp and speakers and the sound would be sooo much better than an all in one unit.

That project Juke would be ideal with the speakers at £428 for a quick solution.

https://homeavdirect.co.uk/pro-ject-juke-box-e-all-in-one-turntable-q-acoustics-3010-speakers

For great service and advice, you can't beat giving richer sounds a call, they'd sort her out a decent setup within budget

https://www.richersounds.com/

 

 

 

 

Edited by skidder652003
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I'd just be a bit wary of two things: one would be getting the vinyl bug and then soon wanting to upgrade from something that would have very little re-sale value; the other is the risk of wrecking a nice record collection with a cheap tonearm/stylus set up. Although that would be faithful to the old Dansette tradition 🐵

Have been looking at this quite recently for my brother, who sounds to be in a very similar situation. He seems to be edging towards the Audio Technica turntable which connects via bluetooth to wireless (powered)  speakers. Although I believe these just send the summed mono signal to both speakers rather than true stereo.

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She really isn't going to get any kind of decent all in set up for £500, unfortunately. As vinyl is pretty niche these days, there are few mass produced players out there and consequently nothing cheap that's any good. Used is one option. However, if the partner has a large record collection, he surely must have some sort of music system already. I'd suggest she gets a turntable and phono preamp, so he can run it into one of the line level inputs of his system (assuming he has one). The Project tts referred to above are decent and I have to add Rega to the list, too.

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19 hours ago, machinehead said:

Hello wise audiophiles.

Because I play guitar, I've been asked by a friend to give advice on what record player she should buy her partner.  She thinks I'll know about this but I know nothing about record players.  So I'm seeking your advice.

He isn't into music especially, but has a big record collection from the 60s and 70s.

It should be a single unit with a budget of £500 maximum, but less if something "decent" is available for less money.  And she needs it for Saturday 4th July!

Thanks for any advice offered.

Frank.

Hi Frank

Without wishing to promote my wares outside of the appropriate forum, I've just listed a Hitachi Music Centre for sale with hi-fi stereo speakers, and happily we're not too far apart. Happy to invite you and your friend for an inspection if you wish.

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Shame the OP seeks a one-box solution. There is some really good quality pre-owned kit on fleabay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ICONIC-CLASSIC-VINTAGE-THORENS-TD-150-Mk2-RECORD-PLAYER-TURNTABLE/174325441366?hash=item28969b2356:g:jjcAAOSwih5e8J9x

I have two of these, and with a good amp and speakers and a decent cartridge they pull out a lot of detail from records.

I think they are appreciating in value too - I only paid about £15 for mine from a car boot sale!

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Nothing really wrong with a one-box solution. It's what most of us probably started with. 

Mine was a Dansette which cost £8 from a junk shop and played one channel of the stereo considerably louder than the other. When I finally got something that played both channels at the same volume it completely changed the way I felt about some of my favourite records now that extra unnecessary instruments were mucking up the mix.

By the time I was in a position to buy a proper "HiFi" CDs were pretty much the norm, so I ditched what little vinyl I hadn't already sold to fund musical instrument purchases, and haven't looked back.

Besides with the person in the OP has a load of vinyl from the 60s and 70s it will either be worn of crap pressings to begin with (like mine was) so the choice of playback device is fairly irrelevant.

In the end it's the music that's important and ultimately the person in the OP would probably be better off with a Spotify or Apple Music subscription.

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58 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Besides with the person in the OP has a load of vinyl from the 60s and 70s it will either be worn of crap pressings to begin with (like mine was) so the choice of playback device is fairly irrelevant.

In the end it's the music that's important and ultimately the person in the OP would probably be better off with a Spotify or Apple Music subscription.

I dunno. If this was someone saying "I really fancy getting into vinyl" for the first time, I'd be advocating either going in large so that you actually get the benefit of the format or just going for streaming so that you get better value for money (and likely better quality playback too.)

For the OP, it sounds like there is already a record collection waiting to be played and which may well be in decent nick, in which case I reckon a mid-table solution is called for: enough to make all the faffing around of vinyl worthwhile without making it sound crap and/or knackering the records. £500 is more than enough to do this if you're willing to go second hand - my ultra stingy setup worked out something like £300: Project Debut 3 £150 s/h, Teac amp £60 s/h and recently replaced speakers from Mission £90 new.

If space consideratons or aesthetics call for an all-in-one then it might be worth bearing in mind that many of these (including, the Teac, I believe) come from exactly the same manufacturer with the only variation being minor cosmetics and the price if you go for one with a more recognizable badge. 

I think the benefit of revisiting an old collection is that you occasionally pull out the forgotten gem that you wouldn't have downloaded or streamed otherwise, plus you may also be lucky enough to have realtives' collections bestowed upon you as it becomes known that you're into records. My collection has now absobed that of my parents, my partner's parents and her uncle - inherited some amazing stuff and some fairly awful ones too. It's all good...

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One thing to watch for if getting a complete system is that the amplifier has a phono input/onboard phono preamp. Many don't these days. If it doesn't, a decent budget one (Pro Ject is a good budget choice) will be needed. 

Edited by Dan Dare
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