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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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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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Sir Tonk posted:
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Dec 7, 2008 00:13
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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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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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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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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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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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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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I'm getting an ATN-3600DLX stylus, I'll post back once I get a chance to listen to it.
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Dec 19, 2008 04:48
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Grave $avings posted:This seems like the right place to ask. I've been working on restoring an old Sansui 1000x that I've rescued from my grandfather's attic. While it is fully functional, the damned needle indicator light has burned out. Worse, it's potted with epoxy or something similar into the needle assembly. Does anyone know of a method, short of getting a new needle assembly, to replace a light such as this? I didn't see anything from a cursory look, but the service manual may have something: http://www.clarkeworks.com/clarkeworks_sansui.html I'm guessing you'll need to either remove the epoxy and bulb, or just get a new assembly.
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Dec 20, 2008 21:13
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woot fatigue posted:Here's my setup: That's an impressive setup. How does the Rega P1 compare to the Debut III?
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Dec 21, 2008 19:30
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Thanks for the review, I linked in the OP.
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Dec 21, 2008 23:08
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MrCompson posted:I'm buying a new turntable, and my two main candidates are the Rega P3(24v) and a Technics SL-1200mk2. The Technics seems like it would have more longevity, but Technics turntables are really expensive where I live (Norway). Well, that is to say it costs about the same as a Rega P3, but the Rega seems to be in a much higher price class than the Technics in America. Would I get more for my money with a Rega P3, assuming it costs the same as a Technics SL-1200mk2? You're starting to get into the quality realm where you have to listen to both TTs and see which one you like better. However, if they were the same price and I couldn't listen to them both, I'd get the P3.
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Dec 22, 2008 06:50
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Is anyone getting/buying any cool turntables, vinyl or vintage gear for Christmas? Aside from the aforementioned stylus, I'm going to pick up some shelves to hold my LPs since I'm starting to run out of room.
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Dec 22, 2008 19:38
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Aeka 2.0 posted:My local music store went out of business, anyone know any good online sites to buy LP's from? Amazon is always a few dollars lower than the local place near me.
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Dec 23, 2008 00:19
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The Human Cow posted:Owsla posted:
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Dec 23, 2008 07:13
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Not an Anthem posted:I kinda want this, for no good reason: http://chicago.craigslist.org/nch/ele/966906608.html That thing reminds me of this 
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Dec 23, 2008 20:31
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metaxus posted:
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Dec 24, 2008 07:15
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Pibborando San posted:that is sweet. how do you like it so far?
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Dec 26, 2008 01:00
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Pibborando San posted:It's great! Pibborando San posted:EXCEPT, it seems to be riding really low on the LP surface, and the very bottom of the plastic housing sometimes scrapes against the record which makes an annoying dull "khkkhggkhh" sound. That shouldn't be happening. Is your turntable level? I guess just wait until you get it back to your house and see if it keeps happening.
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Dec 26, 2008 05:09
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Chaucer posted:I just bought a Pro-ject Xpression III for my Marantz 2245 receiver. One of the reasons I got this receiver was because they were made during the heyday of vinyl and would come with a really nice phonostage built-in. I'm assuming that the 2245 sounds fine on all other inputs, and on AM/FM. Try wiggling the cables from the TT and toggle all the buttons on the front panel a couple of times to free up any crud. On my SX-525, the phono input jacks were dirty (I guess) and I had to plug/unplug them a few times to get rid of static. Next step is to listen to the TT through the headphone jack on the receiver. Any distortion there? Do you get the distortion on both the main and remote speaker outputs? Next step I would do is to open the receiver up, and look for any leaking or scorched. While it was open, I'd also clean all the pots with Deoxyit, as outlined here. Also, clean the microphone input jack, sometimes it's a part of the audio path for phono, and it gets filthy with age. If that doesn't do the trick, next step is to get the service manual and start testing with a mulitmeter. Does the distortion only come in after the receiver has been on for a little bit, or is it there at the start? andretti fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Dec 30, 2008 |
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Dec 30, 2008 21:30
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I'm having a cat fur problem with my LPs, they seem to attract tons of it. I always operate my turntable with the dust cover on, and my LPs are only out of the sleeve when they're being played. Is there a way to keep the cat hair off my records? It adds pops and occasional skips, and I can't blow it off.
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Dec 30, 2008 23:51
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I got my ATN3600DLX stylus the other day. I thought there would only be a small difference in the sound, but the new stylus is very noticeable. Instruments and vocals are much clearer. I got it from LP Gear, it was definitely worth the money, even for an entry-level turntable like my AT-PL50. Note that if you buy the AT-PL50 from LP Gear (link), it comes with the better stylus and a better belt. If I had known the difference in sound, I would have just bought them all together and saved a little money.
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Jan 2, 2009 18:55
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kingcobweb posted:Hey all, I'm looking to rip a lot of old LPs and 7"s, and I'd like to get some good equipment to do it. I have an old turntable (unsure how good it really is), that Chaintech sound card nerds are always talking about, but I need advice on how to rip records so that they'll sound good. I assume I'll need a good preamp, cartridge/needle... what else? What's the make and model of the turntable? That will help with the cart/needle question. If you can't dig up a receiver with phono inputs, you'll have to get a preamp.
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Jan 10, 2009 00:44
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kingcobweb posted:Turntable is a JVC, model JL-A20. How much does the quality of the turntable affect the final sound, if I get a good cartridge/needle? The TT should be more than fine, as long as the belt is in decent shape (no slippage) and you're not doing jumping jacks next to it. If you're picking up a new stylus/cart anyway, you may as well get the belt too. It's $18 from lpgear.com. You should be able to use any cart recommended in the OP, but I'm not 100% sure since I can't find much info about the JL-A20 online. The seller should know for sure though. Anyway, you just need the TT, RCA cables to pre-amp, RCA cables to sound card, and probably an adapter to go from RCA to whatever plug your card uses.
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Jan 11, 2009 04:16
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Not an Anthem posted:Does anyone use DIY vibration dampening under their tables? My table is a cheap one sitting on an MDF ikea entertainment center, walking forcefully near it will pop the needle. Any ideas on solutions? I was thinking a heavy stone slab with a rubber mat on top maybe? This guy recommends that you get a gravestone with a typo in it for cheap (or a piece of plexiglass), and then glue bouncy balls to the bottom of it. It seems pretty legit to me, I'd do it if I had problems with skipping. http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=tweaks&m=71904
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Jan 18, 2009 01:23
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muckswirler posted:Solder spade connectors on the ends and shove em in there. This is what I did, it works well enough.
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Jun 12, 2009 22:56
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proton posted:Not sure if y'all can help, but I brought her out of my dads basement and it worked great for a few weeks, but now I'm starting to notice some fuzziness in the right channel. I'm using it as a headphone amp on my computer so its driving me crazy. It sounds like you have a dirty connector somewhere. If you turn the knobs back and forth a lot, does it change the fuzziness at all?
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Jul 20, 2009 00:45
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bought an 8 track player because I'm an idiot: It's going to be used for radio mostly, but if I find some 8 tracks that I want, I may buy a few. The unit works, but is scratchy when you turn the knobs (likely just needs a spray or two of contact cleaner on the pots). I have a Pyle amp that I'm going to use instead of the built-in amp, so I won't need to replace the caps. It's a Realistic Modulaire 8, and is pretty light when you pick it up. The radio works great, the 8 track had a lot of wow when I tried it out, but I'm not sure if that's from the heads or the tape being old. I'm going to crack it open in a few and look for any popped caps or dead bugs, hopefully all is well!
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Mar 28, 2011 03:29
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