Vinyl Enthusiasts! I'm looking for a decent turntable

[DreamThrall]

I've currently got one of those crappy "vintage-inspired" combo record players you can get at target or wal-mart for like $60. It doesn't have RCA (or any other) outputs, and the tinny speakers really aren't cutting it for me.

I've always been sort of a closet audiophile - I prefer nicer sounding things when I can manage it, but have never really gotten in far enough to really know what I'm talking about.

So now, I'd like to take the plunge.

I'd like to start by getting a turntable. I've been looking at buying an older turntable (70's/80's era) and perhaps trying to refurb it, since I've read that you can generally spend around $100 between the turntable itself and a decent cartridge and get a really good sound.

The problem is, I have no idea which models to look for, and which models to avoid. My dad's got a Thorens from the early 80's but those all seem to be way out of my price range. So, does anyone have any recommendations?

I don't have an amp yet - I'm not sure what I want to do for that, since I'm going to have to compromise (wife!) and get an amp that will service both music and home theater.

 

[ajski752]

Im looking into something sort of like what your talking about.
I have an old pioneer turntable, and its great, RCA out too. but i want to get everything over to mp3, as im moving out of the house with all of the records... so im buying a modern one, with a USB out. and converting them that way. I also thought about doing them with my existing TT and my presonus recording device. anyways, as for vintage TT Pioneer was, and still is a very very good quality company. Thats what i would recommend after being in the live mixing and recording industry for about 4 years now.

as for a amp/home theatre. if you are going to set up a home theatre system, to service all of your tv and dvds and mp3, and whatever you have... i would say, easiest thing to do, just buy a home theatre package, one with 5.1 speaker set up, and a receiver that is capable of having more inputs than you have (because i will guarantee you, you'll get 6 months down the road, and get something you want to add to the receiver and there wont be room... yeah its happened before)
a good and always reliable company is for sure Bose. they are one of the leading companies in high quality audio. however, this may prove to be quite expensive. JBL is a very good maker of amps & speakers.

 

[Adabiviak]

I have a Dual turntable that plays 78's, 33s, and 45s and it's pretty good. I think the bulk of what makes a turntable good is the needle (which is interchangeable, and therefore you may get pretty good sound out of an otherwise mediocre unit). The model I have doesn't have much at all in the way of audio amplification, which I like - it sends as 'pure' signal as possible to the amp, where I have control. If you go this route, the amp should have a 'phono' selection, since few other audio sources nowadays come with the same low level of pre-amplification, and therefore won't handle the 'weak' phono signal as well.

 

[DreamThrall]

Thanks for the responses....

I'm sure Pioneer, as well as most other companies manufacturing turntables in the 70's and 80's had models that spanned the spectrum from low-end to high-end, which I why I'm looking for some specific recommendations for models to look for. Information on older models can be hard to find on the web, and I haven't really found anything that seems to be a definitive guide.

In regards to a home theater package - maybe I'm just being a snob, but I think the idea with the all-in-one packages is that they are targeted at the "average joe that wants surround sound" audience. I've actually got one of those right now, and mine, as well as most of the ones I've seen, generally cut corners when it comes to sound quality.

From what I understand, phono line levels aren't any "weaker" than normal line-levels you'd find on any other RCA input/output, but the signal coming out of a turntable requires some addition equalization which is performed automatically on "phono" inputs. They actually make phono preamps that you can plug into your computer if you're looking to be a little more discerning in your selection of a tt beyond those that have USB outputs

 

[FrostedxB]

I don't know much about turntables, but my dad restores a lot of them and sells them on ebay. Here is a forum he is part of - http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/index.php

theres a lot of info and stuff there, and they can definitely help you out.

 

[DreamThrall]

Awesome, thanks for the link! I'm currently waiting [an absurdly long time] for the registration e-mail.

 

[FrostedxB]

No prob, let me know if you ever get that e-mail though :/ Didn't know it'd take so long.

 

[DreamThrall]

I got it... my e-mail provider does greylisting, which forces the sending server to re-send the e-mail, which usually causes delays for me unless I remember to white-list the domain first - which didn't help in this case because it came from a different domain. Oh well. Question asked, no responses yet, but I'm not in a rush,.