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Total Beginners Turntable advice

S

Simon s

pfm Member
Hi All,

This is a different dilemma to what we all normally face, but, i like a challenge !

So what Turntable can you recommend for a newbee who is smitten with the idea of buying records again, that is totally plug and play and with built in phono stage, for £ 100 max ?
(This rules out 99% of TT's i know - i did say it was a challenge)

I would normally dismiss anything below a Planar 2 but in this instance i gotta disregard that.
Secondhand is possible but its as much about how it looks and must be clean and look box fresh if S/H.

I do remember someone using one of the early 'USB digitise' type TT's and i was shocked how bad it was. It actually damaged the records and with no option to adjust alignment here i have been suspicious ever since.

So Is there anything out there which people have used and could recommend.

The emphasis is on ease of use and looks over SQ.

So i'll leave this here and see what you all come up with.

Thanks

Si
 
Didn’t Project used to do a Debut with a phono box built in for buttons? Must be plenty around second hand by now, I’d have thought.
 
pocketkitchen said:
Didn’t Project used to do a Debut with a phono box built in for buttons? Must be plenty around second hand by now, I’d have thought.
Click to expand...

Lots for sale but with an arm they are quite a bit north of £100, more so if there is a cart' as well.
 
Vinny said:
Lots for sale but with an arm they are quite a bit north of £100, more so if there is a cart' as well.
Click to expand...

I know and i am trying to explain to my friend why they need to spend more. Its a bit painful but hopefully they will get it
in the end. Having said that FB marketplace has a few which may work. I can just stick an AT 3600L on it and hope fully they will be away.
 
Simon s said:
Hi All,

This is a different dilemma to what we all normally face, but, i like a challenge !

So what Turntable can you recommend for a newbee who is smitten with the idea of buying records again, that is totally plug and play and with built in phono stage, for £ 100 max ?
(This rules out 99% of TT's i know - i did say it was a challenge)

I would normally dismiss anything below a Planar 2 but in this instance i gotta disregard that.
Secondhand is possible but its as much about how it looks and must be clean and look box fresh if S/H.

I do remember someone using one of the early 'USB digitise' type TT's and i was shocked how bad it was. It actually damaged the records and with no option to adjust alignment here i have been suspicious ever since.

So Is there anything out there which people have used and could recommend.

The emphasis is on ease of use and looks over SQ.

So i'll leave this here and see what you all come up with.

Thanks

Si
Click to expand...

A couple at Richer Sounds.

Good reduction, £99 with a cart that isn’t ceramic

https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/turntables/marantz-turntable.html


Another £20 and Audio Technica offer this.>

https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/turntables/audio-technica-lp60xusb-black.html

:)
 
You're best bet is to buy a decent standard turntable and a cheapo phono stage off eBay.

You'll get a stage for about £15 which leaves you £85 for a turntable. Everything to do with turntables is going up in value so getting something worth having for so little is harder than it used to be, but it can be done.
 
Are they planning on buying new records? If so then @£12+ for each back disc, surely they can see the benefit in spending a bit more than 8 records worth?

Having said that, I'm pretty sure you can get a used ProJect for £100 on ebay.
 
Mr Pig said:
You're best bet is to buy a decent standard turntable and a cheapo phono stage off eBay.
Click to expand...

Yes i agree. I just wanted to see what was out there. I did see the Richer sounds ones but I am now wokrking on slowly convincing them away from getting one of the new shite USB TT's and said i will look for something myself s/h and within the budget and set it up for them.

Thats a good compromise i think.

Thanks all
 
JimmyB said:
Are they planning on buying new records? If so then @£12+ for each back disc, surely they can see the benefit in spending a bit more than 8 records worth?
Click to expand...

Totally agree and i have explained that. Its seems blindingly obvious to all here but bearing in mind that a significant number of people only listen to music on their phone with a small usb speaker and like the 'idea' of a record player as a novelty its a tough nut to crack. Am working on it though.
 
Thanks all for the feedback. I am gonna try to steer them towards having a rethink and i will source and set the deck up for them.
 
Big Tabs said:
A couple at Richer Sounds.

Good reduction, £99 with a cart that isn’t ceramic

https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/turntables/marantz-turntable.html


Another £20 and Audio Technica offer this.>

https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/turntables/audio-technica-lp60xusb-black.html

:)
Click to expand...
These are essentially the same deck internally, it’s made by Hanpin and has also been badged by Aiwa, Sony, Pioneer and various others over the years, the styling and some features vary (such as the addition of Bluetooth)... and they’re all okay too, totally fine as a starter deck. I’ve done the audiophile snobbery thing and I’ve grown out of it, I bought one of these to get my daughter going, plugged it into my own system to test it not expecting much, but you know what? It was good! Okay it’s beaten by an entry level Rega, but it didn’t do much wrong, I enjoyed the music it produced, so if someone wants a new deck and has £100 to spend, they could do worse than this. I’d buy one, and when I have a significant enough record collection to justify a better deck, I’d upgrade... but I’d definitely put the record collection first, after all, what is the point of stretching yourself out to buy a deck that you have nothing to play on?
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
These are essentially the same deck internally, it’s made by Hanpin and has also been badged by Aiwa, Sony, Pioneer and various others over the years, the styling and some features vary (such as the addition of Bluetooth)... and they’re all okay too, totally fine as a starter deck. I’ve done the audiophile snobbery thing and I’ve grown out of it, I bought one of these to get my daughter going, plugged it into my own system to test it not expecting much, but you know what? It was good! Okay it’s beaten by an entry level Rega, but it didn’t do much wrong, I enjoyed the music it produced, so if someone wants a new deck and has £100 to spend, they could do worse than this. I’d buy one, and when I have a significant enough record collection to justify a better deck, I’d upgrade... but I’d definitely put the record collection first, after all, what is the point of stretching yourself out to buy a deck that you have nothing to play on?
Click to expand...

Thats useful info so thanks for that. I am not basing my prejuduce on hifi snobbery, more than i heard one of those Crosley decks and thought it was shockingly bad and after playing a record back on my normal deck i realised there was distortion and mistracking on a record which wasn't there before !

But in this instance, if those decks work which Richer sell and i can switch out to a basic AT cart then we may be in with a chance.
 
Simon s said:
Thats useful info so thanks for that. I am not basing my prejuduce on hifi snobbery, more than i heard one of those Crosley decks and thought it was shockingly bad and after playing a record back on my normal deck i realised there was distortion and mistracking on a record which wasn't there before !

But in this instance, if those decks work which Richer sell and i can switch out to a basic AT cart then we may be in with a chance.
Click to expand...
They’re not like the Crossley decks you’re thinking of, those use a ceramic cartridge with a terrible sapphire stylus, the deck above uses essentially the same cartridge that you get on a Rega Planar 1 and 2, it works well as a package, you can’t change the cartridge on these but there are some upgrade styli available if you felt inclined to change. The Marantz looks fine for the money but if you look around for an AT LP60 or one of the Aiwa versions, you might find it a good bit cheaper, and they’re the same thing, the case styling might differ but look at the placement of controls, they’re the same.

If you can bide your time and look for something used, you can probably do better, but you’ll need patience. I sold a Rega RP1 minus cartridge for £85 earlier in the year because I wanted to rearrange and re-purpose the space it was in, and wanted it out of the way... it’s those kinds of deals you need to look for, but they don’t come up every day, and when they do, they’re snapped up quickly, I had three people wanting that Rega within 30 minutes of posting it... adding £50-100 to the budget would open up a LOT more options, I bought an RP3 for my daughter for £200 (albeit with a scuffed lid and no cartridge), back in February.
 
I looked at the AT LP60 as there are a few of those around a bit cheaper. I did think about an RP1 for them but they would need to factor in a phono stage and i think that blows the budget. I think i will be able to put them off and be more realistic with the budget. I was pointing out that £ 100 is only 4 new records.
 
Plenty of s/h options on eBay, but beware for £100 your not going to get a great insight into what vinyl reply can achieve. Better to spend a little more on a Rega P1 s/h IMO you won’t be disappointed.​
 
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