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This is the thread for anyone interested turntables, cheap (but good) speakers, 2-channel stereos, or vintage equipment. Basically, if you want a decent music-listening/TV-watching setup for $200 or a setup with a turntable for $300, this thread is for you. I'm adding some other stuff about higher-end turntables too, since there seems to be interest. I assume that you can scrounge up cables from somewhere, so that's not listed.
--Turntables-- Why buy a turntable? It is PHIZzy as hell! Seriously though, listening to vinyl is a different experience than listening to a CD or MP3. I'm not exactly sure why, but vinyl draws the listener in moreso than other media. Also, it's fun to go buy LPs. A lot of turntable info is available here. Buying Vintage Turntables I didn't do this, it seemed like a crapshoot. There are some great turntables out there, but they're around $40 to ship. Flea markets, thrift shops, craigslist, and local-pickup EBay are your friends. If you want to go nuts, you can get a something like a PL-630 and rebuild it. Avoid non-functional turntables unless you know what you're doing, or you don't mind spending hours and hours trying to fix it. Also, make sure you get a dust cover. Buying New/Modern Turntables I used the following criteria: fully automatic, replaceable cartridge and/or stylus, smallish footprint, no USB output, and phono-level outputs. I didn't care about super-high audio fidelity, I'd listen to a CD if I wanted that. I also didn't have a preference between direct drive and belt drive. Note about DJ turntables: There's nothing wrong with a DJ turntable, except that you may be paying for features you won't use (fancy speed controls, playing records backwards, etc). Also it may look out of place in your living room, if you care about that. helpful turntable nuggets An SL1200 FAQ (read this even if you don't have a 1200, it has general advice). Cartridges and Needles Most stock carts and styli sound like rear end, especially on entry-level turntables. Some good ones are the Shure m97xe, Denon DL-110 (this one is rated  ), and Ortofon 2M Red (which is miles ahead of the OM-5 and OM-10). I'm using a ATN-3600DLX, which is leaps and bounds better than the stock stylus.Where to get LPs I usually get them at a local music store, the used book store, and Amazon. In the past few weeks, my local music store really went nuts, and basically tripled their new LP inventory. I'm able to pick up new pressings of classics for $13, and new music for $20ish. Double-albums go for about $27. Here are some other places you can buy from: http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?format=Vinyl http://www.musicstack.com/ http://www.gemm.com/ http://www.turntablelab.com/vinyl/ http://www.insound.com/ http://store.acousticsounds.com/category.cfm?section=vinyl&id=5 http://www.musicdirect.com/category/11 http://www.auralexploits.com/ --Receivers-- Buying Vintage Receivers Vintage (70's) receivers are frikkin sweet. They have great looks (blue glow  ), they're repairable, sound awesome, have phono inputs, and great radio reception. Also they're about  and there are large communities online that collect/repair them, such as audiokarma. Pioneer and Marantz seem to have the best "community support". Don't be dismayed by a 70's receiver without lots of wattage, watts were measured differently back then. From the Marantz FAQ:quote:35 watts/channel as specified by Marantz in the 1970's meant "The unit can deliver 35 watts into 8 ohms for one hour, from all channels at the same time, with no significant change in distortion, or other specifications, at any time during, or after, the test hour." I think the most telling thing here is that the FAQ's author bought a new 500 RMS watt receiver, but the receiver's power supply was rated for 320 watts  . I have a 17 watt system, and I never have to turn the volume control more than a third of the way up from zero. The price/performance sweet spot for 70's receivers is around 70-80 watts, but around 20 watts is just fine for a normal-size room.Here are some tips for checking out a vintage receiver at a thrift store: Willeh posted:If you want to check if a receiver is OK, you could carry some headphones with you when you go to the fleamarket. If they let you turn it on, you can plug those in and mess around with the knobs (input select, volume). I've replaced all the capacitors in my 525, it wasn't bad at all. I spent about $40 on new caps, and $10 for a soldering iron. I think it made the bass response better, but that could just be in my head. In any event, I did it because I like the receiver and because it was fun, not to save money. The problem with buying vintage equipment is that you have to do a little searching. I spent about two weeks finding my receiver. They're heavy, and thus expensive to ship ($20-$30). Flea markets, thrift shops and craigslist are your best friends here. Ebay is good too, but make sure you can either pick up locally, or you're comfortable paying for shipping. Buying New/Modern Recievers For the price range, I have no idea here  . Advice would be welcome. One thing to note is that if you're using an old turntable with a new receiver (without phono inputs), you'll need a pre-amp of some sort (BEST: NAD PP3, GOOD: TC750PP, OK: Pyle PP-999, or just DIY).--Speakers-- The Insignias are decent enough for new speakers, but there are usually great deals on craigslist. If you're adventurous, you can refoam a pair of older speakers. If you have any info you'd like to see in this post, just post underneath and I'll incorporate it. andretti fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Nov 29, 2008 20:15
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Is it a bad idea to put your turntable on top of your receiver? I'm planning on stacking them (on the top of a thigh high bookcase) but wasn't sure if the heat generated by the receiver would be bad news for the turntable/records. Also, when buying a 2 speaker system, is the low range of the audio covered well? I'm worried about buying a decent set of bookshelf speakers then finding out that my lovely logitech 5.1 system with a real sub sounds better than a legit audio system. I was looking at these infinity primus p152 speakers but am open to suggestions for a pair in the $200 range.
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Nov 30, 2008 00:56
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Opioid posted:Is it a bad idea to put your turntable on top of your receiver? I'm planning on stacking them (on the top of a thigh high bookcase) but wasn't sure if the heat generated by the receiver would be bad news for the turntable/records. Your Logitech is not a real sub and proper bookshelf speakers can match it fine, I can make my windows rattle with speakers which have a a less than 10cm element.
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Nov 30, 2008 01:18
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Bensa posted:I try to avoid having my turntable ontop of the receiver just because it heats up quite a lot and you really want a stable platform that will not react to the sound being played back. If you had your turntable on a piece of sheet metal for example it would vibrate with the music and then induce that vibration on the needle. This creates a loop and can cause howling noises. Agreed. I saw this, which might be another option. You could mount a shelf somewhere for pretty cheap, and put the turntable on that. I'd forego the granite platform and Sorbothane hemispheres  , something from Home Depot will be more than sufficient. If you're worried about vibration, get a nice looking $2 paving stone to put underneath the TT (just don't exceed the shelf's load).EDIT: This guy swears by using bouncy superballs for isolation, maybe you could glue some to the bottom of a paving stone or piece of plexiglass if you're having vibration problems with the shelf. andretti fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Nov 30, 2008 |
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Nov 30, 2008 02:11
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Wow, perfect timing. I just picked up an old Technics/Panasonic Quad receiver. Straight out of 1974, the SA-6000X. Specs It's got everything I want out of a classic receiver: blue lights, big knobs, silver front, and wood paneling. And, as is typical, it's really heavy. I recently got an old El Camino with an 8 track player and found out that they made quad 8 tracks back in the day, so I'm going to get an old home 8 track player that outputs quad next. I've got a late 70's Pioneer stereo receiver, the SX-780, currently powering my 360, TV, and DVD player with some full-range floor speakers. Sounds killer, but I want some analog surround as well. Of course, this can't do Dolby digital and all that, so it's not like I'm going to get surround out of the newer technology. I'll get a modern receiver for that someday in the future. So anyway, anyone have suggestions for some speakers that'd match this receiver? I'd happily buy some older stuff and have it re-coned if need be, just would like the four to match. This doesn't put out a ton of wattage, 35 each channel in stereo and 14 each in quad, but as has been said these are numbers from a different time in hi-fi.
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Dec 5, 2008 06:24
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Sir Tonk posted:
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Dec 7, 2008 00:13
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here's my current stereo. a Marantz 2245 receiver  paired to Axiom M22 V2 speakers  i bought the receiver for a little over $300. it was recently restored and it sounds great. i love the metal front and the FM tuner sounds fantastic when i care to use it. recommended to anyone looking for a classy 2-channel system with knobs and dials instead of a light show every time you turn it on. looking to complement it with a pro-ject debut iii turntable to round out the set.
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Dec 7, 2008 10:08
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if your in the market for a new pre-amp, get the TC-750. It actually sounds so much better than the cheapo pre-amp i got from jayar radio. If you dont believe me check out the amazon reviews.
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Dec 7, 2008 11:31
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ok ive been inspired by this thread and want to get a vintage amp. Im looking at a pioneer SX-408 or a Technics SU-Z25 which one should i get ?
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Dec 7, 2008 12:19
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dj_pain posted:ok ive been inspired by this thread and want to get a vintage amp. Im looking at a pioneer SX-408 or a Technics SU-Z25 which one should i get ? I can't find specs on the 408, but it might be a little underpowered. What speakers are you planning on using it with?
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Dec 7, 2008 17:29
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andretti posted:Awesome buy, that thing looks minty. Where did you find it? Chaucer posted:here's my current stereo. dj_pain posted:ok ive been inspired by this thread and want to get a vintage amp. Im looking at a pioneer SX-408 or a Technics SU-Z25 which one should i get ? Sites like this are a great resource as far as a listing of models and their specs.
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Dec 7, 2008 18:17
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Unfortunately all of my equipment is in storage while we remodel the house, so none of the pictures have the units turned on. First off I have my fathers equipment:  Sansui 2000 amp  Akai X1800-SD Reel to Reel with 8-Track player  Sansui 5 way speakers. One sub, two mids, two tweeters. He got this when he was in Vietnam, and had it shipped home. It still works great, and is usually set up in the living room hooked up to our TV. Here is my equipment:  I picked up the Sansui 1000X at a garage sale for $5. It came with a tape deck (Broken), and two speakers (one was blown). I had to use some cleaner on the input selector, but now it works great. The Sansui AU7900 was actually free from a neighbor. They were throwing it out because it was "too heavy".  The SE-7 is was $10 at a garage sale. It works, but I need to clean up some of the sliders. I just usually keep mine hooked up to my computer for music playback. Swap_File fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Dec 7, 2008 |
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Dec 7, 2008 19:25
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I've been wanting to get a turntable, anyone have any opinions on the Sony PSLX250H? Amazon reviews seem decent aside from the occasional audiophile rant and it's not too pricey. Other than that, what other units should I be looking at?
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Dec 7, 2008 19:27
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Toebone posted:I've been wanting to get a turntable, anyone have any opinions on the Sony PSLX250H? Amazon reviews seem decent aside from the occasional audiophile rant and it's not too pricey. Other than that, what other units should I be looking at? The PS-LX250H is pretty similar to the AT-PL50. They both are fully automatic, have a switch for the preamp, use the same cartridge, etc. I really like my AT-PL50, so I don't think you'll go wrong.
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Dec 7, 2008 20:35
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Swap_File posted:
Do you ever use this? How does reel tape and 8-track sound?
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Dec 7, 2008 22:35
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well i got jensen dx-80 (there 180 watts and 6 ohms) as speakers. I did a bit more looking around on ebay and i found a seller who repairs amps. So now im tempted on the SA-6300 which will underpower the speakers according to this site. Im not really worried about the look of the amp, i just want to be able to listen to vinyls without having my wife buging me to watch tv.
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Dec 8, 2008 00:03
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dj_pain posted:well i got jensen dx-80 (there 180 watts and 6 ohms) as speakers. I did a bit more looking around on ebay and i found a seller who repairs amps. So now im tempted on the SA-6300 which will underpower the speakers according to this site. Im not really worried about the look of the amp, i just want to be able to listen to vinyls without having my wife buging me to watch tv. Those speakers are great  . Honestly, if you want to use them to their full potential, you'll need a pretty beefy amp. The SA-6300 is 25W at 8 ohm, I'm not sure if that's going to cut it, even for low-volume listening. I'm not an expert by any means though.How loud are you interested in getting?
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Dec 8, 2008 01:41
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andretti posted:How loud are you interested in getting? not that loud as i got a yamaha RX-V461 in the living room.
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Dec 8, 2008 02:00
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Our Sony LX250H has a bad cartridge so we'll be replacing that as I short-term fix. My old Onkyo turntable was a ton better than this Sony but it had a short that kept the platter from starting reliably when the arm was moved over it. I gave it away at a yard sale for $15. So... Like I said the new $30 cart is a short term fix. I'm eyeballing a Rega P1 for a replacement since it's gotten great reviews and it's a bit more reasonably priced compared to the better P2 ($350 vs. $550). Any experience with this player or suggestions why I shouldn't get the P1?
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Dec 8, 2008 05:01
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If you are looking for speakers to match with ~70's era amps, find some old infinity's. They made and still make some really nice poo poo at some price points. If you can find some with a dome midrange driver, snag those suckers if they work. They are pretty much awesome. Anybody know a good place to have tube amps recapped? I'm not really interested in doing it myself. What can one expect to pay for this service? (Also, I'm not worried about crazy expensive caps, just decent poly or whatever.) Bonus pic of my golden yard sale find. ($100 w/ dustcover and 13 reels featuring various artists + 2 virgin.)
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Dec 8, 2008 08:54
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Odoyle posted:Any experience with this player or suggestions why I shouldn't get the P1? This article explains why you should get a Pro-ject Debut III over the P1. The Debut is what I've heard recommended again and again and the Ferrari red version will be my first "nice" TT. Pibborando San fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Dec 8, 2008 |
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Dec 8, 2008 09:18
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dj_pain posted:not that loud as i got a yamaha RX-V461 in the living room. 25 watt should be more than enough if those jensen speakers have a decent sensitivity. The watt number on speakers is pretty useless, dB/W/m is the interesting measure (number of decibels produced by one watt when measured at one meter distance). Proper tower models will be > 90 dB, bookshelves will be between 80 and 90 dB (doubling your output wattage will add 3dB, so you can go from there to see how loud 25 watt - or 16, to have a nice power of 2 and some headroom left - will get your speakers).
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Dec 8, 2008 12:47
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Pibborando San posted:This article explains why you should get a Pro-ject Debut III over the P1. The Debut is what I've heard recommended again and again and the Ferrari red version will be my first "nice" TT. Hrm, never heard of that one. Will give it some consideration. I like the Debut's metal platter over the Rega's MDF platter but I wonder about the tone arm. That article is a little light on quantitative data, but then again most audiophile reviews are. Wouldn't the Rega's lighter tonearm be better than the Debut's "more substantial" one? I can only infer that that means the Debut tonearm is heavier.
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Dec 8, 2008 20:36
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 I found a Sony STR-7065A at Goodwill a year or so ago for $13. It sounds pretty awesome. I've used it as-is for a while, but I'm thinking about giving it a good cleaning and fixing it up however else I can after I graduate in a couple weeks. More receivers need to have a shiny metal frontplate with lots of knobs and levers.
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Dec 9, 2008 02:33
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The Human Cow posted:
That thing is awesome, looks great and I'm sure it sounds great too  Are you thinking about recapping it? When I recapped my SX-525, it wasn't that bad of a job at all.
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Dec 9, 2008 04:32
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muckswirler posted:Anybody know a good place to have tube amps recapped? I'm not really interested in doing it myself. What can one expect to pay for this service? (Also, I'm not worried about crazy expensive caps, just decent poly or whatever.) it's really not that bad to recap an amp. My understanding is a tube amp has fewer caps than a solid-state amp. Basically, you just make a list of all your caps, go on digikey.com, buy, and replace 'em. Anything over 1uf can be electrolytic, poly is for <1uf. A tube amp has some high-voltage mofos, but I'd be surprised if it cost you more than $40 in parts ($50 if you have to buy a soldering iron). I can't really give an estimate for having a pro re-cap it, but I've heard that a pro can do 10 caps in an hour. All shops are different, but I've seen places online that charge up to $100/h. Like I said though, there's really nothing magic about doing a recap. Can you post pics of the inside of your amp? That would help assess how much effort a recap would be.
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Dec 9, 2008 04:55
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andretti posted:Do you ever use this? How does reel tape and 8-track sound? If you love the rich full sound of a pack of snakes living in your stereo, there's nothing like the awesome sound from old school reel-to-reel and 8-track tapes. I miss the reel-to-reel unit I got to use when doing radio stuff in college. Cutting tape and making weird little mixes and such was a lot of fun. I've still got a bag of my dad's old reel-to-reel tapes but they're pretty well dust at this point. I don't know if I could bake them or if they would even have anything worth saving. He had some live shows and tapes of albums and such. It was running way too slow to work on the unit we had at the station though or I'd have dubbed them then. There's certainly some nostalgia about threading a tape so you can move it forward and listen to Simon and Garfunkel that your dad recorded all by himself. 
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Dec 9, 2008 08:17
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CuddleChunks posted:I miss the reel-to-reel unit I got to use when doing radio stuff in college. Cutting tape and making weird little mixes and such was a lot of fun.
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Dec 9, 2008 08:49
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andretti posted:words In this pic, you can identify about 12 caps. Underneath there are probably another dozen or so. I've got a list of all the capacitors required for a full recap, but they tend to get expensive or hard to source if you're only buying a few/one of each. (And you want pretty nice ones.) The main thing that's keeping me from doing this myself is the other smaller, less complicated tube amp that I tried. It threw a tube shortly after surgery.
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Dec 9, 2008 09:06
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andretti posted:That thing is awesome, looks great and I'm sure it sounds great too Yeah, I think a recapping is definitely on the horizon. I'm graduating in Computer Engineering, and I got a nice soldering iron for my birthday a couple months back, so I feel like that's a pretty good combination for a little project when I move back home. Any suggested reading material?
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Dec 10, 2008 05:41
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^^ The only thing worth reading up on should be the different properties for the different types of capacitor. The actual soldering is simple. A few rules of thumb: always replace caps by same or higher voltage. Keep capacitance the same unless you have a good reason to change it (more capacitance for rail caps, for instance). Remember where the negative side goes when removing polarized caps, the marking on the board may have faded or have never been there. Taking a few good photo's where you can see the orientation of all caps will be a good precaution. That's about it.muckswirler posted:The main thing that's keeping me from doing this myself is the other smaller, less complicated tube amp that I tried. It threw a tube shortly after surgery. I source my caps from either my local audiophile/high-end hifi shop (for Black Gate and their ilk) or my local electronics shop (for simple generic caps or spiffy Panasonic FM/FC caps etc), that's the easiest and fastest way I've found. pim01 fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Dec 10, 2008 |
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Dec 10, 2008 09:29
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pim01 posted:^^ The only thing worth reading up on should be the different properties for the different types of capacitor. The actual soldering is simple. A few rules of thumb: always replace caps by same or higher voltage. Keep capacitance the same unless you have a good reason to change it (more capacitance for rail caps, for instance). Remember where the negative side goes when removing polarized caps, the marking on the board may have faded or have never been there. Taking a few good photo's where you can see the orientation of all caps will be a good precaution. That's about it. Agreed. It helps too if you just do a few caps in a sitting and then listen to the amp for awhile. That way if you screw up, you know where you went wrong and can fix it. Also, I've noticed that I only do stuff like pull out caps with a pair of pliers after I've been working for too long and getting frustrated  I noticed that there are two caps sticking out of the mounting board, I'm guessing they have big fat terminals on them. You can't buy caps with big terminals like that anymore, you can solder on a wire terminal to the cap's post, and get a nice area like that.Here's the biggest tip though: never remove/replace more than 1 cap at a time, otherwise you will get mixed up. I sourced all my caps from digikey. Their web interface isn't so hot, but they have pretty much every cap you can imagine. I used Panasonic electrolytic caps for everything over 1uf, and poly film for smaller values. I only had to not use original spec for a single cap, and it was only to use a 35V in place of a 25V. It's really up to you though, if you feel like you're going to bust your amp, then don't try a recap and send it out instead.
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Dec 10, 2008 15:05
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andretti posted:Do you ever use this? How does reel tape and 8-track sound? Like CuddleChunks said, lots and lots of hissing. 8-tracks are bad, but the reel to reel can be acceptable if you record at a fast enough speed and tweak the hiss filter on the amp. Once I converted my fathers old reels to CDs I kinda stopped using it. I only occasionally hook it up to record my own 8-tracks for use in our old truck.
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Dec 11, 2008 01:16
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I have a really old motor driven Sanyo TP1012. Here are a couple pics of my setup: I have this guy attached through a pretty cheap preamp (http://www.phonopreamps.com/ "good" model) and to my pretty cheap, modern yamaha receiver, to a pair of B&W floorstanding speakers. Pictures of that stuff would be boring, but heres the turntable:
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Dec 13, 2008 23:23
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bacon! posted:I have a really old motor driven Sanyo TP1012. awesome wood panelling. What cartridge is on there?
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Dec 14, 2008 01:46
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Oh man I'm so pumped! I just bought this, the venerable Technics SL-1200MK2, for less than $300 shipped (after Live.com cashback). I thought I was set on getting an entry-level "audiophile" deck from either Pro-ject, Music Hall or Rega but the more I read the more I learned just how much better the 1200 is than all those fancy pants tables, both in construction and sound quality. For the price, I couldn't pass it up. The modding and upgrade potential for the 1200 is also enormous so I'm sure this deck is going to be with me for a LONG time.
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Dec 14, 2008 08:14
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Pibborando San posted:The modding and upgrade potential for the 1200 is also enormous so I'm sure this deck is going to be with me for a LONG time. Nice choice. I'm beyond pleased with my 1200/Shure m97xe cart for listening duty and I'm just trying to stop buying records long enough to afford some mods for it. I'll probably pick up the KAB tonearm fluid damper eventually, it seems like a really great idea and I've read nothing but great reviews.
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Dec 15, 2008 01:43
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Owsla posted:I'll probably pick up the KAB tonearm fluid damper eventually, it seems like a really great idea and I've read nothing but great reviews. Same here. First purchase though will be a Denon DL-110 which I've heard nothing but praise for and is often recommended with the 1200. I will be attaching that to an LP Gear Zupreme headshell for added mass and stiffness (and the ability to adjust azimuth). Then I'll get the cardas wire upgrade for the tonearm and THEN the fluid dampener. Might also experiment with different mats. Oh man the tweaker in me is so excited! My wallet is not! e: and this beautiful and inexpensive record clamp as well Pibborando San fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Dec 15, 2008 |
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Dec 15, 2008 02:18
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Wow that's a great deal on the clamp and it's great looking too  I'm pretty sure I have to buy that, thanks for the link.
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Dec 15, 2008 06:47
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No prob. I just ordered mine from their eBay site. You can submit your own offer. Seems $22.50 is the lowest they'll go on the TTWeight. +$15 shipping comes to $37.50. Good deal considering lesser quality items are going for $50 or more, before shipping. e: Check out this polished silver faceplate! I don't think my thirst for mods will ever cease... and the deck hasn't even arrived yet! Oh and here's some links for DIY rewires and other mods: Modified Technics SL-1200MK2 How to Rewire a Technics Tonearm Part I How to Rewire a Technics Tonearm Part II How To Rewire a Technics SL-1200 Tonearm Pibborando San fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Dec 16, 2008 |
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Dec 15, 2008 21:42
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