Music Record Players (Vinyls)

Bought 4 yesterday

Rumours -Fleetwood Mac
Velvet Underground and Nico - Velvet Underground and Nico
A Beatles Compilation
Innervisions - Stevie Wonder
 
Like Weaste said, get yerself down to Oldham Street, then buy a USB converter thing.
 
Alright, so I got a player and some cheap speakers (both Sony), now I need an amp. Can someone please help me find something that's relatively cheap and yet decent? I don't really know much about them since I've never bought one.

Would it be a better idea to return the speakers and buy an audio system? Cost is obviously a concern here.
 
Great cheap amps Mehro, can't go wrong with Cambridge Audio, bought one as my second amp upstairs.

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=CAMB-A1V3-BLK

This is the one I bought.

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=CAMB-A5-SIL

Excellent sound quality for the price.

What Hi-Fi said of it:

Rich and powerful, the A5 combines weight with insight into the mix....it punches above its weight extraordinarily well." said What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision magazine, awarding it the Best Buy award for amplifiers up to £200
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mehro said:
Can't find it on ebay or amazon. Only seems to be available on UK sites.
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Yup, never occured to me that Mehro, ah well shame really.

Just on a side note, any amp that you choose will have to have a phono stage (the inputs for connecting the equipment together) to plug the turntable into (they output lower power than CD players etc that run at line level).

Either that or you will need a mixer or some such to bridge between the turntable and the amp. What this does is take the phono level sound from the turntable and outputs it at line level to plug into the line in socket on the back of the amp.

Edit: this second option is what I had to do, and I'm actually glad I have as it gives me more control over the sound before it gets to the amp, eg, bass and treble controls and trim levels etc.
 
This is a fecking bargain if you want a full home cinema amp for very little money.

http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AVR-170...?ie=UTF8&s=audio-video&qid=1216068887&sr=1-12

I own it's smaller brother the 1507, and it's class, excellent sound quality for music or films. Only negative is no phono stage, but a cheap mixer will do the job.

This is a great deal if you ask me, Denon make great amps and are built like brick shit houses, as you'd expect from Zee Germans.
 
I paid 90 bucks for the player and got bookshelf speakers for another 50. Had no idea I'd be looking at those kind of prices for an amp.
 
Just realised how hard Stereo recievers are to come by these days, the vast majority seem to be multi channel now.
 
mehro said:
I paid 90 bucks for the player and got bookshelf speakers for another 50. Had no idea I'd be looking at those kind of prices for an amp.
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You can spend as little as you like Mehro, but you obviously get what you pay for, how much do you want to spend? I'll see what I can find.
 
I'm not looking for anything fancy. I just want to be able to hook the thing up and have some sort of volume control. Just so I can play the damn thing. I'll upgrade slowly.
 
mehro said:
I'm not looking for anything fancy. I just want to be able to hook the thing up and have some sort of volume control. Just so I can play the damn thing. I'll upgrade slowly.
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Just give me a figure then and I'll have a look.
 
sammymc said:
is this serious?

if so (reads like a pisstake to me)......albums are generally 12" same with 12" singles/EPs etc...theres 7" singles and EPs too..plus 10" albums/eps etc...yes a single player can play all sizes...im no tech head so cant say which system to go for.

if you want a collection like that in 5 years youll be spending a rake of cash...i hope youre loaded.
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that answer doesn't give the whole story - e.g. the Linn sondek LP12 , as it's name suggests, will **NOT** play at 45 RPM - though in fairness that player is in a minority - so if you intend getting 45's make sure the turntable you buy will play them.

Oh and Vinyl is the best sound quality by a massive, massive margin - you'll love it - make sure you can find a good hifi shop - it makes all the difference.
 
Well I obviously have no experience with turn tables but the one I bought had really good reviews and was supposed to be good value for money. Like I said, I will upgrade to something better before long. And I have to assemble two systems, this one's for my girlfriend, I'll get something better when I buy it for myself.
 
mehro said:
under 100.

And thanks.
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For that money Mehro, I'd recommend going around some second hand electrical stores and get yourself an older amp (5-10 yrs old) by a reputable firm, for one, it'll sound so much better than anythiing new that is available to you, and two, it will almost certainly have a built in phono stage.

Ebay will do just the same and you can post the links for ones you are thinking about. for opinion.
 
mehro said:
Well I obviously have no experience with turn tables but the one I bought had really good reviews and was supposed to be good value for money. Like I said, I will upgrade to something better before long. And I have to assemble two systems, this one's for my girlfriend, I'll get something better when I buy it for myself.
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yeah that's fair do's mate.

The percieved wisdom is spend the most dosh on the source (in this case turntable) , then the amp and then the speakers. There's an element of if the turntable ain't so great the amp can't improve it etc - you know crap in crap out.

It really is worth finding a true, true hi fi specialist - because it is also important to get all the kit matched up.

this came home to roost when I blew my 15 year old Royd Audio speakers in Dec 2006 - they'd cost me £115 approx 15-17 years ago and were unbefeckinglievably good - ludicrously under priced - as I found out when it took me three attempts to replace them - 1st speakers I tried were shite, 2nd ones which were highly rated in most hi fi circles (rega speakers) were rougher than a bears arse and 3rd ones I settled for had a RSP of £750 !!! and still weren't as good as the £115 Royd's :( I settled on them though as I could not afford any more - oh and I got them for £300 as they were ex shop demo models :D:D

But a good specialist will ensure you get a balanced system that will work well together - they should also interchange several sources and amps to let you hear the difference.

Expect them to book a demo room for you and expect them to spend at least 2-3 hours demoing different kit - seriously dude the difference in sound you will experience is worth the time, effort and money.

I spent 2 and a half hours in the demo room when I bought my kit all those years ago and it's still serving me well. Make sure you take some of your records with you as you want to hear what your preferred music sounds like on the kit being trialled.

welcome to the wonderful world of vinyl - oh and treat yourself to some This Mortal Coil albums and Cocteau twins LP's :D;)

Hope you get a couple of good systems bro
 
mehro said:
thanks for the help, guys.
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You're welcome.

This is my set up (well more or less - the amp is a more recent version of the same model):

rega_planar3_zonder_mat.JPG


Arcam-Alpha-6-Plus.jpg


rega-ela-1-2_LRG.jpg
 
Nice setup Ruud.

Don't think much of your speaker placement though ;)
 
LOL ta

the pics are just taken from t'internet so those aren't actually my ones but the turntable and speakers are exactly like mine - but the amp looks different to min as mine is 17 or so years old - sounds pretty OK but really miss the Royd Speakers - still got em but the cone in one of em is fecked :(:( - too much volume forgetting I had the balance shifted to 98 % of the sound going through the left speaker and tore the cone :(:(

The 1st time you hear a good set up you will hear things you'd never heard before listening to the same disc on an inferior system - it really blew me away just how good it sounded when I 1st bought my kit - all for £570 - though that was ,as I say, about 17 years ago - that included:

turntable
amp
speakers
tape deck
all cables needed
 
ruuds left boot said:
:lol::lol::lol: too close together you think ? :confused::confused: :lol::lol:

since also added a Rotel CD player but Vinyl sounds soooooooo much better
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Is that you actuall placement?

I had assumed the two speakers at the front were rear surrounds* and the ones behind were your front left/right.

Edit: *Placed for photographic purposes.
 
LOL no that's not my actual kit just the same models - as I say my amp is an older version of same model - nah just two of those speakes - either end of a wall - bout 2-3 feet in from the wall, bout ten to twelve inches from the side walls and at a slight angle pinting towards centre of the room

and this:

soundorganisation_Z540.gif


is similar, same brand, to the support thingy I have it all on - though mine is wider n less square - the shelves are jet black glass :drool::drool:
 
ruuds left boot said:
you bought a SONY turntable :eek::eek::eek: you fecking serious ??? :eek::eek:

Sorry I got the impression you wanted a good sound - fecking waste buying vinyl if you're gonna run it through a pile of shit system :rolleyes::rolleyes:

For turntable was going to suggest something like a Rega Planar 3 (That's what I have) if you were looking at the budget end or, if you had money to spend, a Clearaudio Emotion - about £700.

Seriously mate if you make the right decision to go with vinyl you are wasting your money on the discs if you're not gonna buy something decent to play them.

If you want to hear a disc that sounds really good go listen to Tango in the Night by Fleetwood Mac on a good system set up by a true hifi shop - it'll blow you away.
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i know what youre saying but id say hes best spending a bit of cash on getting some vinyl first... aslong as the needle isnt fecking them up a wee cheapy will do for a while....get yourself up to about 100 before splashing the cash.

feck me we probably all started out buying records and playing them on a single speaker gramophone or some shit sanyo/hitachi hi-fi system with a 10 year old needle.

unless hes totally minted then he should invest now.
 
sammymc said:
i know what youre saying but id say hes best spending a bit of cash on getting some vinyl first... aslong as the needle isnt fecking them up a wee cheapy will do for a while....get yourself up to about 100 before splashing the cash.

feck me we probably all started out buying records and playing them on a single speaker gramophone or some shit sanyo/hitachi hi-fi system with a 10 year old needle.
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:lol::lol::lol::lol:

true - used to play mine on whatever shit japanese crap all in one system my brother had at the time :lol::lol: - think the last one was some Akai or Aiwa shit system :rolleyes::rolleyes:

It's just he won't be able to really appreciate the quality of vinyl on such a system, but as you say - it's what he can afford at the time and it gets him started
 
WeasteDevil said:
In terms of frequency range and response they are, but they are also prone to degradation. With something like SACD the point is moot in any case, but it's even further mooted by the fact that the kids of today are taking us backwards from both with their love for MP3 and nobody giving a shit about SACD.
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Not at all, in pretty much all scientific testing you can do between vinyl and CD, CD wins. All apart from subjective testing, that is. The fact is, we don't necessarily like what sounds the most accurate, we like what sounds good - which is probably why SACD hasn't really taken off (although extra costs involved for the consumer are probably also a factor, amongst other things).

Vinyl does sound so good though
 
Sound is analogue. You place it on an analogue storage medium, then you get the best possible quality. Sorry, there is no argument about this.

But it degrades (the recording) because it has to be produced using analogue means.
 
WeasteDevil said:
There is nothing wrong with vinyl, it's a perfect replication, but degrades. That wasn't my point. Low bitrate MP3s was what I was on about (I think).
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WeasteDevil said:
Sound is analogue. You place it on an analogue storage medium, then you get the best possible quality. Sorry, there is no argument about this.

But it degrades (the recording) because it has to be produced using analogue means.
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If you record sound on the ideal analogue medium, then you get best possible quality. Vinyl is far from ideal, it adds plenty of noise and distortion to the recording. No analogue medium that has gained common usage has been near ideal.

Line up a turntable, a cassette deck, and a CD player, connect them into the same set of speakers, and in turn play a copy of John Cage's 4'33" in each of them at full blast. There will only be one clear winner as far as accurate reproduction goes!

An extreme case - but you get my point? ;)
 
MrK said:
If you record sound on the ideal analogue medium, then you get best possible quality. Vinyl is far from ideal, it adds plenty of noise and distortion to the recording. No analogue medium that has gained common usage has been near ideal.

Line up a turntable, a cassette deck, and a CD player, connect them into the same set of speakers, and in turn play a copy of John Cage's 4'33" in each of them at full blast. There will only be one clear winner as far as accurate reproduction goes!

An extreme case - but you get my point? ;)
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You forget the point that the digital storage medium is actually worse than the analogue at point, because for CD quality, your 16bits of range every 44,000 times per second is also losing one hell of a lot of both horizontal and vertical resolution that vinyl would capture. ;)
 
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