I’m looking for a quality record player for playback only. Suggestions?
I'm 27 and for the last 10 years or so I've been interested in purchasing a record player, I used to mess around with my Dad's growing up but that eventually broke over the years. I have alot of his and my mom's records from the 60's and 70's that I'd love to be able to listen to again, along with some of my own that I'm collecting.
I don't want to spend too much money, maybe 300.00 at the most. I don't have much experience in this audio field so I'm not even sure where to start, I know I had a turntable, a receiver and some speakers back then, not sure if that's still the same setup. Any help would be welcome. Thanks!
You could probably put together a decent system for $300.00 if you stick with stereo and don’t want surround sound for movies.
Sherwood makes a decent stereo receiver for cheap… and it even has a "phono" input so you wouldn’t require a turntable with a built-in phono preamp. This would allow you the option of using a vintage table with no built-in phono preamp like many tables come with today, allowing them to be plugged into any line-level input (CD, tape, DVD, aux, etc…)
http://www.amazon.com/Sherwood-RX4109-2-Channel-Stereo-Receiver/dp/B000MBUSD6/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264004488&sr=8-10
The Sony SS Series speakers don’t sound bad at all on a tight budget, either the large bookshelves or floorstanders… Their main weaknesses are a little less bass than more expensive speakers of the same size and maybe not having the most robust build. If you don’t push your receiver into clipping distortion, trying to go louder than it can play… these speakers will last though. Both the bookshelves and the towers were rated higher than some pricier competion by Consumer Reports a couple years back. I won’t lie to you and tell you the build quality is the same. But, these are extremely well designed, inexpensive speakers that have surprisingly smooth frequency response for the money.
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SS-B3000-Bookshelf-Speakers-Woofer/dp/B000OG6I6A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264004923&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SSF-5000-Floor-Standing-Speaker/dp/B000OG4E1G/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264004923&sr=1-4
The larger dual-woofer models are definitely worth the extra money, but they’d put you over your budget…
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SS-F6000-Floor-Standing-Speakers-Woofer/dp/B000OG4E20/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1264005183&sr=8-2-catcorr
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SSF-7000-Floor-Standing-Speaker-Woofer/dp/B000OG4E2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1264005183&sr=8-1-catcorr
Now, the problem is you still need a turntable and you only have about $100.00 left. That only leaves you with about 2 options. You’d have to get one of the $100.00 automatic turntables like the Sony or Audio Technica. The speed stability on these tables may not be the best and they come with a cheap cartridge that has a conical stylus. You’d tend to hear some tracking distortion with a conical stylus and high frequencies wouldn’t come through so well. The other option would be to try and buy a used turntable for around $50.00 and a decent cartridge with an elliptical stylus for it for around another $50.00. One way to pull that off would be to look for a decent table that takes a P-mount cartridge. Most "audiophiles" don’t like them because it severely limits your cartridge choices and they generally sell pretty cheap due to that. But, you could put a FAR better cartridge on it than what comes with a new $100.00 table for around $50.00. Might be able to just get a new stylus if a decent cartridge comes on the table for even less. Speed stability would be better and the old table would probably last just as long if not longer than a new one. These new $100.00 tables are not built so well… eBay could be a place to look, but you’re really taking a gamble. The problem is that a person really has to know what they’re doing to ship a turntable and have it arrive safely. Many people complain of eBay turntables damaged in transit. It can be a hassle to try and get your money back. Insured shipping won’t even help if the shipper decides the turntable was improperly packed. A used eBay table might just be worth the gamble and possible hassle on your budget though…
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-PS-LX300USB-Stereo-Turntable-System/dp/B0015HOFZI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264006308&sr=8-3
Examples of stuff I’d consider on eBay…
http://cgi.ebay.com/TECHNICS-Direct-Drive-Turntable-Model-SL-Q350-Nice_W0QQitemZ290391227470QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439caa7c4e (the Technics P-Mount tables are very high quality, the direct-drive particularly)
http://cgi.ebay.com/JVC-L-A55-Direct-Drive-Turntable-Great-Cond-NR_W0QQitemZ160395387485QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item25584f625d
http://cgi.ebay.com/JVC-AL-F3-Fully-Automatic-Direct-Drive-Turntable_W0QQitemZ260537336760QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ca93c43b8
Good luck!!! Hope you put together something you like!
Really… If you don’t care all that much about the best sound quality… you could buy an inexpensive "home theater in a box" system for $100.00 - $200.00 and the $100.00 Sony turntable with built-in phono preamp. Then, you’d have surround sound to hook your DVD player, etc… up to for movies as well. Sound quality would not be as good for music as the better quality 2-channel system with larger speakers described above.
For example…
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Home-Theater-System-DAVHDZ273/dp/B001FXEG9W/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=aht&qid=1264008879&sr=1-9