Beginner’s Guide to Turntables & Hi–Fi *READ 1st PAGE BEFORE POSTING NEW THREADS / BASIC QUESTIONS*

[allenh]

he's from UK, he can actually buy from a good company and doesn't need to resort to "the only one that's there" 

 

I like QED and Chord

 

QED used to make a complete range of Hifi, the turntable is quite interesting as it has an arm made by Helius and when they come up they don't tend to make too much money as they haven't got the right badge on.

[slinch]

QED used to make a complete range of Hifi, the turntable is quite interesting as it has an arm made by Helius and when they come up they don't tend to make too much money as they haven't got the right badge on.

 

Man I'd really love to sit down with you some day and pick your brain, we usually have very similar opinions and views on hifi in general, but you have roughly 1000 times the knowledge and experience

[allenh]

Man I'd really love to sit down with you some day and pick your brain, we usually have very similar opinions and views on hifi in general, but you have roughly 1000 times the knowledge and experience

 

That's because I'm old people and have a terrible affliction when people try to sell me hifi, I think the word no but it just seems to come out as yes so I've bought and tried all sorts of obscure HiFi over the years

 

There you go QED R232 and this one's in a very rare colour as they're usually a lot darker. Might be an export thing as I found one on ebay Canada in that colour

 

http://thecarversite.com/yetanotherforum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=18072

[ajxd]

Get a room you two.

[LEUCISTIC]

Spanner in the works as I was all but ready to pull the trigger on a project carbon + marantx pm5005 + Kef Coda 7's combo but thought I would check my account first. Sadly its taken a bigger hit than expected due to my impending stag do (Yay fun but boo no record player). So I started looking at some used tables on the fleabay UK, for less than what the project would cost. Any ideas on these guys:

 

AR EB101 (old type with the arm coming thru the base), AR tone arm, unknown cart (so would need to buy a new one), new belt, looks in good shape for its age- £100

SEE Revolver Rebel, Linn Basik LVX arm, c77 cart (unknown usage), looks like new overall - £200

or

wait find a Rega Planar 3 or Project Carbon used for between £170-£250
or
New Rega RP1 £220 and update it at a later date
Or
Just hold off for the Project Carbon new

[allenh]

Spanner in the works as I was all but ready to pull the trigger on a project carbon + marantx pm5005 + Kef Coda 7's combo but thought I would check my account first. Sadly its taken a bigger hit than expected due to my impending stag do (Yay fun but boo no record player). So I started looking at some used tables on the fleabay UK, for less than what the project would cost. Any ideas on these guys:

 

AR EB101 (old type with the arm coming thru the base), AR tone arm, unknown cart (so would need to buy a new one), new belt, looks in good shape for its age- £100

SEE Revolver Rebel, Linn Basik LVX arm, c77 cart (unknown usage), looks like new overall - £200

or

wait find a Rega Planar 3 or Project Carbon used for between £170-£250

or

New Rega RP1 £220 and update it at a later date

Or

Just hold off for the Project Carbon new

 

OK I'll add some opinions

 

AR EB101, nice table and £100 a fair price but the UK version is not as good as the US version, still a very good buy at £100 and probably where my money would go.

 

Revolver Rebel, utter shite, buy one at £70 tops for the arm and throw the rest away. The platter and main bearing are terrible.

 

Used Rega Planer 3 yes at the right price but it would have to be cheap to beat the EB101 at £100

 

New RP1, a used Planer 3 or the EB101 would be better for less money.

 

I think you can see where my £100 would go and you've then got some money to put a nice cart in it.

[LEUCISTIC]

Yet again thank you Allen, you really are a fountain of knowledge.

 

What sort of cart would you recommend for this arm? 

[allenh]

That very much depends on your own taste and what the rest of the system is but an AT440 although costing more than the table would mate very nicely with it. If not a Shure M97XE would be a very safe bet or an AT95 if money's really tight

[LEUCISTIC]

At this cost I could probs keep the marantz pm5005 and kef coda 7's.

 

Is it ok to pm you the link to the table? even tho the details and description is rather sparse

[MisterBrownstone]

Hi I'm new to all of this stuff.  I've read through a lot of this post and there is some great info so thank you very much.

 

Question: I need a phono preamp.  I was going to buy the u-Turn but I don't want to wait for the week or so it will take.  What are your opinions on the Emotiva Audio XPS-1 Phono Preamp?  Amazon can have it here in a couple of days but that's not the best reason in the world to buy an amp.  However, a friend of mine says it is pretty solid.

 

[Guest]

 

Hi I'm new to all of this stuff.  I've read through a lot of this post and there is some great info so thank you very much.

 

Question: I need a phono preamp.  I was going to buy the u-Turn but I don't want to wait for the week or so it will take.  What are your opinions on the Emotiva Audio XPS-1 Phono Preamp?  Amazon can have it here in a couple of days but that's not the best reason in the world to buy an amp.  However, a friend of mine says it is pretty solid.

 

 

 

What's the rest of your set-up? The Emotiva is supposed to be a really good preamp for the price.

[MisterBrownstone]

I have a u-Turn Audio Turntable.  For the foreseeable future I will be using an Onkyo HT S5100 to power the speakers.  Speakers are a pair of NHT 2.9s.

[LEUCISTIC]

I had some extra cash after my trip away so bought a used rega planar 3 with the 300 tonearm. Now it has the standard felt slip-mat which I hear is a static nightmare so what would be best to upgrade it to (cork, leather etc)? and thickness required?

 

any UK sellers would be great

 

Thank you guys

[allenh]

Acrylic or better still a complete acylic platter. Have a look on ebay there's a few people that sell them

[LEUCISTIC]

Disaster!!!! the table turned up and was broken :angry: :angry:

 

 

gutted beyond belief and my vinyl quest continues to be off to a bad start

[pyramidhood]

anyone got an opinion on the pro-ject elemental turntable?

[Guest]

Disaster!!!! the table turned up and was broken :angry: :angry:

 

 

gutted beyond belief and my vinyl quest continues to be off to a bad start

 

That sucks. Shipping a table can be tricky, and a lot of people don't take the extra time to make sure everything is secure. I hope you got your money back.

[HankScorpio1985]

Hi,

 

I inherited a lot of vinyl and now need to play them on something. I have never owned a turntable before so I'm looking for something for a beginner that still has decent sound. From my basic research I think I am looking at purchasing a turntable, amp and speaker setup. I guess there is a big increase in sound quality when having a separate amp rather than one where it's included on turntable?

The turntable I had in mind was the Marantz TT5005 http://www.richersounds.com/products/hi-fi-separates/separates/turntables#1

Amp: CAMBRIDGE AUDIO TOPAZ AM5 http://www.richersounds.com/product/amplifiers-receivers/cambridge-audio/topaz-am5/camb-topaz-am5-blk 

And speakers: CAMBRIDGE AUDIO SX50 http://www.richersounds.com/product/standmount-speakers/cambridge-audio/sx50/camb-sx50-dk-wal

Is this a good setup for a beginner? Or can people suggest anything else that won't break the bank but has good sound quality, is easy to use and can be added to in the future.

Another question I had was could I hook up and play my tv up through those amp/speakers? How about my Samsung tablet?

 

Thanks for any help,

 

Jonathan

[allenh]

 

Hi,

 

I inherited a lot of vinyl and now need to play them on something. I have never owned a turntable before so I'm looking for something for a beginner that still has decent sound. From my basic research I think I am looking at purchasing a turntable, amp and speaker setup. I guess there is a big increase in sound quality when having a separate amp rather than one where it's included on turntable?

The turntable I had in mind was the Marantz TT5005 http://www.richersounds.com/products/hi-fi-separates/separates/turntables#1

Amp: CAMBRIDGE AUDIO TOPAZ AM5 http://www.richersounds.com/product/amplifiers-receivers/cambridge-audio/topaz-am5/camb-topaz-am5-blk 

And speakers: CAMBRIDGE AUDIO SX50 http://www.richersounds.com/product/standmount-speakers/cambridge-audio/sx50/camb-sx50-dk-wal

Is this a good setup for a beginner? Or can people suggest anything else that won't break the bank but has good sound quality, is easy to use and can be added to in the future.

Another question I had was could I hook up and play my tv up through those amp/speakers? How about my Samsung tablet?

 

Thanks for any help,

 

Jonathan

 

 

The weakest link in that list is the turntable itself, it belongs to the list of turntables that are made by Japanese electronics giants that are just re hashes of the black plastic crap they made in the 90's at the start of the CD revolution. They add things like on board phono stages and USB to make then look new but they were rubbish back in the late 90's and adding things like doesn't get over the fact they're still rubbish, the giveaway is the tonearm and if you look at a lot of the tables at that end of Richers list they all use a similar arm and look quite similar generally. The lowest table in Richers list I'd look at is the Flexson Vinyl play or the Project Elemental but you'd need a phono stage with the Project.

 

Normally I dislike phono stages built into truntables as they're pretty much all rubbish as are the USB boards but the Flexson is worth the extra money over the Project and you can add a proper phono stage at a later date if you want as the Cambridge amp and speakers are more than up to the rest of it.

 

Edit

 

Yes you can plug your TV or tablet into it provided the TV has a some form of analogue audio out be that through RCA's, a 3.5 jack or even a scart or HDMI, the Samsung will be easy as you just need a 3.5mm to 2 RCA's lead so you just need to use a lead with the right connections and the guys from Richer's should be able to help there.

[andynz]

I'm looking at two different speaker stand options... I'm just looking for a bit of advice around preferred construction materials and style, and which of the two below would be better.

 

FYI, I have wooden floors and will be sitting some Mission 780SE's on them (180mm x 200mm base). 

 

Option 1:

Wood constriction

Rubber Feet

Adjustable height (660mm - 26inches at it's lowest point)

Speaker Base is 195mm square 

 

 

Option 2:

Steel Construction

Spike Feet

Fixed height (615 mm high - 24 inches)

 

[allenh]

All other things being equal I'd go with Option 2 because you can fill them with something and they have spiked feet plus wood stands need to be very heavy ideally

 

That said height might be more of a factor so when you are sitting in your normal listening position ideally the tweeters need to be around ear level which is more difficult with the 780's as they’re upside down so you might want to aim for the centre of the speaker at ear level

[LEUCISTIC]

That sucks. Shipping a table can be tricky, and a lot of people don't take the extra time to make sure everything is secure. I hope you got your money back.

 

Yeah was fully insured, just was a complete ball ache getting the money back from the seller. In the end ebay sorted it just in time for record shop week and I picked up a project carbon from richer sounds instead. Which I think works...........see below lol

Just a shame the marantz (brand new in box) I also got was buggered as it just lived in protection mode. So now I am awaiting the replacement to arrive haha.

I think my system is doomed

[slinch]

I'm looking at two different speaker stand options... I'm just looking for a bit of advice around preferred construction materials and style, and which of the two below would be better.

 

FYI, I have wooden floors and will be sitting some Mission 780SE's on them (180mm x 200mm base). 

 

If you have wooden floors I'm guessing there's a high possibility that they're not absolutely even. Might be a bit harder to find, but I'd go for stands that only sit on 3 feet instead of 4, you'll get much better stability. Something in the vein of these:

 

[HankScorpio1985]

The weakest link in that list is the turntable itself, it belongs to the list of turntables that are made by Japanese electronics giants that are just re hashes of the black plastic crap they made in the 90's at the start of the CD revolution. They add things like on board phono stages and USB to make then look new but they were rubbish back in the late 90's and adding things like doesn't get over the fact they're still rubbish, the giveaway is the tonearm and if you look at a lot of the tables at that end of Richers list they all use a similar arm and look quite similar generally. The lowest table in Richers list I'd look at is the Flexson Vinyl play or the Project Elemental but you'd need a phono stage with the Project.

 

Normally I dislike phono stages built into truntables as they're pretty much all rubbish as are the USB boards but the Flexson is worth the extra money over the Project and you can add a proper phono stage at a later date if you want as the Cambridge amp and speakers are more than up to the rest of it.

 

Edit

 

Yes you can plug your TV or tablet into it provided the TV has a some form of analogue audio out be that through RCA's, a 3.5 jack or even a scart or HDMI, the Samsung will be easy as you just need a 3.5mm to 2 RCA's lead so you just need to use a lead with the right connections and the guys from Richer's should be able to help there.

Hey. Thanks for your reply. Ya I gathered that the turntable was the weakest part. But it's quite a jump in price to the ones you recommend. I might just start with the Marantz and replace the turntable in the future. Unless you can recommend another one that's round the same price range.

[allenh]

Hey. Thanks for your reply. Ya I gathered that the turntable was the weakest part. But it's quite a jump in price to the ones you recommend. I might just start with the Marantz and replace the turntable in the future. Unless you can recommend another one that's round the same price range.

 

It might be a jump but buying the Marantz is a false economy because it costs a lot more than it's worth and you'll struggle to get much back for it when you want to buy something better.

 

If you wait and save up a bit more for the Flexson because of the above it will cost you less in the long run. Also it's Rega based so the sky's the limit when it comes to Upgrades for it.

 

The basic thing to take away from this is that there is no such thing as a good cheap turntable