Need Advice for turntable and speakers etc

[Runnerguy45]

Greetings, So I am sick of playing CD's on my computer because of poor sound quality. I have decided I want to play and buy albums like I did back in the day. I am coming here for advice on what to buy. Here is what I think I want, a turntable, speakers and I guess a receiver. I do not listen to the radio as I listen to Sirius. But here in the house I'd love to put albums on and play loud. A couple of questions, are the turntables ready out of the box ? do turntables hold several albums to play one after another like they did way back when ?

I have fond memories of playing the Allman Brothers and other albums that really impacted my life. I would not want to spend anymore the $1,000 total. Any advice would greatly be appreciated.

 

[highfigh]

Greetings, So I am sick of playing CD's on my computer because of poor sound quality. I have decided I want to play and buy albums like I did back in the day. I am coming here for advice on what to buy. Here is what I think I want, a turntable, speakers and I guess a receiver. I do not listen to the radio as I listen to Sirius. But here in the house I'd love to put albums on and play loud. A couple of questions, are the turntables ready out of the box ? do turntables hold several albums to play one after another like they did way back when ?

I have fond memories of playing the Allman Brothers and other albums that really impacted my life. I would not want to spend anymore the $1,000 total. Any advice would greatly be appreciated.

I don't know of anyone who makes a stacking turntable, like a Dual, BSR, etc but they're all over ebay, etc. I usually call them 'vinyl grinders' because of the sound made when an LP drops onto another.

Is that $1000 the total for everything, or TT and speakers? Do you already have some kind of amplifier? If not, and since you don't need the radio, I would recommend an integrated amplifier. I have a Sony ES and before that, I used Sony models from their AudioLab series, which were made in the '70s- the ES model is from the late-'80s and it still works great. It also has a pretty good phono section, including a Moving Coil stage.

WRT speakers- how large or small do you want?

 

[Pogre]

What are you using to listen to cd's now? Cd's are arguably about the best quality sound you can get. you might be better served just upgrading your speakers and receiver.

If your heart is set on albums, there are some folks here that can get you started, but I personally love the digital age and rip all my cd's to WAV files. I play it on a retired laptop via HDMI to my receiver and it sounds great.

 

[Runnerguy45]

I don't know of anyone who makes a stacking turntable, like a Dual, BSR, etc but they're all over ebay, etc. I usually call them 'vinyl grinders' because of the sound made when an LP drops onto another.

Is that $1000 the total for everything, or TT and speakers? Do you already have some kind of amplifier? If not, and since you don't need the radio, I would recommend an integrated amplifier. I have a Sony ES and before that, I used Sony models from their AudioLab series, which were made in the '70s- the ES model is from the late-'80s and it still works great. It also has a pretty good phono section, including a Moving Coil stage.

WRT speakers- how large or small do you want?

Ok forget about the stacking turntables. The $1,000 is for everything. I have no amplifier. Speaker I'd like ones that are medium I guess. I want to play loud sometimes. Thanks for the reply, I hope my answers suffice as I have been away from this for a long time.

 

[Runnerguy45]

What are you using to listen to cd's now? Cd's are arguably about the best quality sound you can get. you might be better served just upgrading your speakers and receiver.

If your heart is set on albums, there are some folks here that can get you started, but I personally love the digital age and rip all my cd's to WAV files. I play it on a retired laptop via HDMI to my receiver and it sounds great.

I listen on my old Mac and in my car. I will look into WAV files. Never heard of them. Thanks.

 

[lovinthehd]

WAV is a non-compressed lossless codec (there's also AIFF); if you're in the Apple universe if you need to save space you can use a lossless compressed codec like ALAC (similar to FLAC for the pc user). All can store your CDs for bit for bit playback.

 

[Pogre]

Yes. WAV files take up a lot of space. My laptop is pretty much just dedicated to music so I have lots of room. Like HD said, FLAC (Windows) and ALAC (Apple) are just as good in quality, but take up less space.

 

[lovinthehd]

Without any gear once you spend $1000 are albums a separate budget? Planning on the used record route? New? New copies at $25 a pop add up real quick.

Maybe for a bare bones system this manual tt with a decent cartridge and some powered speakers you could run right from the tt's built in phono pre-amp.

 

[Runnerguy45]

I think I may stick with CD's since I have so many. If I buy a receiver I guess I need a CD player ? Yamaha AS 801 a good amp ? If I buy an amp, speakers then I still need a cd player right ? I feel so ancient with this stuff.

 

[lovinthehd]

I think I may stick with CD's since I have so many. If I buy a receiver I guess I need a CD player ? Yamaha AS 801 a good amp ? If I buy an amp, speakers then I still need a cd player right ? I feel so ancient with this stuff.

I think that's a better plan.

You could still use your computer as a drive (but I'd only do that if your computer has other than just analog output to avoid the computer's sound card and the problems that can result). You can buy a cd player or a dvd player or a blu-ray player, they'll all play cd's but you have to watch output connections depending what you decide on an amp/speakers. Conceivably you could still run just a cd player and powered speakers and avoid the $900 just for a simple integrated amp (overpriced IMO, I'd rather use an avr).

 

[-Jim-]

I agree with the others here that going to vinyl (especially a Stacking Turntable) is not where I'd steer you. However, I'm a fan of Ripping CDs to FLAC Files as storage (Hard Drive Space) is cheap. You can network your PC to most of today's modern Receivers, and play FLAC tunes via that setup. Or you can put them on an USB Thumb Drive and do that into a the receiver or a connected BluRay Player, or even play them on some car systems.

If you don't want to bother converting the files, go for a BluRay or DVD Player to play your source material. The Question then becomes do you want to go to powered speakers as suggested be lovinthehd above, or head into a Stereo, or Home Theater set up. IMHO you'd be better off going with a Home Theater Receiver for Stereo or Home Theater. Most folks here recommend Denon, Marantz, or Yamaha; and I'd toss in Sony as well as I've had good success there.

Please advise and we can then suggest some hardware for you to look at / audition.

 

[sterling shoote]

OP,

Here's what you might want to look into: an Audio Technica AT 120 USB Turntable/speaker package. This package has active speakers so an amp is not needed.

 

[lovinthehd]

OP,

Here's what you might want to look into: an Audio Technica AT 120 USB Turntable/speaker package. This package has active speakers so an amp is not needed.

There an echo in here?

 

[Mikado463]

stick with digital, given your budget and that which you wish to accomplish with it analog makes little sense....

 

[sterling shoote]

stick with digital, given your budget and that which you wish to accomplish with it analog makes little sense....

Indeed, analog makes little sense, unless the idea is to digitize records not out there on CD.
Recently, with all the interest in LP's today, I have taken a new look at it to see if it has improved from when I purchased my turntable about 40 years ago. So far, I've only become reacquainted with the pops and crackles which inspired me to ditch it all for CD when they were introduced in 1982. Now to digital: no dust pops, no static clicks, no stylus brush, no spin clean, no anti static brush, no record sleeves, no stylus wear, no media wear, just perfect sound, forever perfect.

 

[Mikado463]

Indeed, analog makes little sense, unless the idea is to digitize records not out there on CD.
Recently, with all the interest in LP's today, I have taken a new look at it to see if it has improved from when I purchased my turntable about 40 years ago. So far, I've only become reacquainted with the pops and crackles which inspired me to ditch it all for CD when they were introduced in 1982. Now to digital: no dust pops, no static clicks, no stylus brush, no spin clean, no anti static brush, no record sleeves, no stylus wear, no media wear, just perfect sound, forever perfect.

sterling, I did not mean to imply the analog makes no sense rather given the Op's situation it doesn't. Myself, I've been spinning 'black pizza' for over fifty years and when done right it is excellent, but the price of admission to that level is way beyond a grand.

 

[lovinthehd]

sterling, I did not mean to imply the analog makes no sense rather given the Op's situation it doesn't. Myself, I've been spinning 'black pizza' for over fifty years and when done right it is excellent, but the price of admission to that level is way beyond a grand.

So what gear would give you the price of admission?

 

[Mikado463]

So what gear would give you the price of admission?

are you talking brands of equipment or $$ or both ?

 

[lovinthehd]

are you talking brands of equipment or $$ or both ?

A little more than just a brand, what tt/cartridge for example with what ancillary gear...

 

[Mikado463]

A little more than just a brand, what tt/cartridge for example with what ancillary gear...

lets start out with a couple of assumptions, a list of what you need and we can all draw conclusions from there......

1- turntable / tonearm
2- cartridge
3- phono pre or integrated / receiver with built in
4- cabling (if not provided with tt)
5- record / stylus care and cleaning materials

so here's my thoughts on where to 'start'

1- tt/tonearm $500-1100.....example Music Hall MMF- 5.3 (comes with a Ortofon 2M installed)
2- cartridge $250-500 ...... example Denon DL-103R (a superb entry level cartridge IMO)
3- phono pre $250-1000 ..... given my example of cartridge one needs address output of cart with gain of pre. For 1k, I like the Rogue unit
4- cabling $50-100 ..... don't want to start a cabling debate so I figured a modest number would work
5- cleaning $150- 1000 ..... on the low side 'spin clean' kit with some fluids and stylus care

my examples fall in the middle from above and I would say at around 2-3k one could assemble a decent representation of what vinyl is capable of. Yet with a budget of 5 times that and beyond it brings it to a whole different level but its all relative to the rest of the system....components (speakers in particular), room acoustics, etc