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Not really a thrift store but near where my parents are in the US there is an antiques mall that I have picked up a few bits at. Antique is a bit of a hopeful title to be honest but fun to look around anyway. Last big thing I bought was an a direct drive Optonica RP-3636 turntable with a man made plinth that looks like granite and weighs like it is granite. Cost me $40 to buy and another $50 to get it back home to England on the plane, it took some getting home as well because the limit was 50lb's and packed it was 52, so it took a little charm to get it through. I still have it and still use it. It worked well enough but I have since rebuilt the electronics and re wired the arm with better wire and it's now a real giant killer. Over here though I always look around the 2nd hand shops, one man's junk etc. You just need to be prepared to get your fingers burnt every now and then and it helps if you are technical.

Exactly what he said

Best advice is go listen to some stuff and see what appeals to your ears, once you have paid over the money it's yours so I would never suggest buying without listening unless it's for no money. The most important thing with all hifi is setting it up properly, the most expensive kit set up badly will sound cack. Powered speakers are more convenient but as with everything in audio that's convenient you loose quality, that said you have to go a good way up the food chain to hear that difference. Also all things are relative so a good powered set can wipe the floor with an average passive set and average amp. but it's about noise floor and putting the power supply in with the item that vibrates the music out is risky unwanted noise wise, the same is true of putting your turntable too close to the big power supply in an integrated amp. The other thing to consider is upgradability, if you are sure you are going to just buy some stuff and stick with it then TT, Phono Pre and powered speakers will suit you absolutely fine provided you are happy with the sound. If you are the sort who likes to change stuff then the more bits you split it up into then the more room for upgrade you have. Also you mentioned amps with built in phono amps, when Vinyl was king (70's and 80's) the phono amps in an average Japanese integrated was much better than most average separate phono amps you can buy now so going vintage can be very good but of course anything vintage is exactly that and might not sound at it's best after 20 or 30 years. The phono amp built into any average integrated amp from the early 90's on is likely to be poor though as it was an afterthought

Yes sorry about that, at least it spiced up your day for a short while though

Got it thanks on both

The Cookie Monster with a sub machine gun, a similar temperament to my ex wife.

Sorry I can't see how to edit the topic, if anyone can tell me how I'll change it.

Apologies I'll edit it now.

Does anyone know of any plans to re-press this? I bought it when it was current because I like it and now I get a message on Discogs at least once a month to ask if mines for sale, the more messages I get the more I think yes I need to give that a spin and I'm going to wear it out sooner or later so a re-press would be a very good thing.

I had another look last week and made another order anyway, some I know, a lot of stuff I've not heard and quite a few that were ones and two's left so I'm looking forward to seeing what arrives. I've finally gone through the 55 LP's I ordered over four orders, I got most of what I ordered and of the 30 or so I hadn't heard I only had 3 that are not my thing so very happy.

Sometimes it's a combination of methods, you are right about the the glue not picking up the oil so you need to wash it first in something that will get that moving before you apply the glue.

An MC cartridge can often take a longer listen, it's quite often not an immediate hit and requires a longer listen to get used to the sound. Given the choice I'd go MC every time but if you are auditioning in small snippets in a shop most MC's don't stand out so I can see why they are sometimes overlooked, often after a decent length listen to an MC cart it's the swap back to MM that convinces you on the MC.

That ground wire looks ok but it's difficult to see the plug properly, also the picture above is perfect so should help a lot. that's hopefully the ground wire sorted and you might well have a 2nd problem causing the one channel sound. With no ground wire I would expect sound from both channels and both with a hum, so do you have any other RCA cables you can use to substitute? You can also try swapping sides, re to white etc. to see if the fault stays on the same side or follows a cable.

A worn belt is always possible and quite likely anyway of the TT is a few years old but I would expect it to have more trouble starting and keeping speed than randomly stopping. For it to stop because of a worn belt that you don't have starting or random speed issues with you would need to have a fair amount of tracking force on your stylus to create enough resistance once the thing is actually spinning. If it's slipping on start-up you should be able to hear it, turn the amp off and just listen to the deck on start up. There's lots of info on the net, you tube videos etc. regarding checking and changing belts but it depends how technical you are as you need to take the platter off to get at and check the belt.

The first question is has this just started to happen or have you just set it up and it's the first record you've tried? Its more likely to be the turntable but it could be either and it's a lot easier to try another record than another turntable, play a couple of others and see if you get similar effects. Not wishing to be insulting but that isn't a great example of a turntable so If it turns out to be a turntable issue I would look around at an upgrade, something vintage with a little bit of research shouldn't cost you a lot.

Yes you need a ground, that looks like the type of connection used for a DC powersupply, hence the easily confused man, so it depends how practical you are, I doubt you will find the correct lead so you will need to make up something that does the job. The sound from one channel could be anything in the chain but I would start with wiggling wires and connections to see if it comes and goes, after that the only way without test equipment is to replace stuff bit by bit until you find what is at fault, but for that you need another set of everything.

Sometimes I'm a complete plumb, I should have looked at what the words said, it says quite clearly 120V AC so not a DC turntable and that socket next to the red and white RCA connections must be a ground point which you would need to take a wire from to the ground post on your phono pre amp.

Ok, the socket next to the red and white ones if that's where the power goes in it may not need a ground as it's a DC table and it's possibly grounded internally but if not then that socket is for the ground. I don't recall ever seeing a TT that doesn't need a ground but that doesn't mean one doesn't exist and some of those 80's 90's DC powered ones that came with a system did all sorts to keep the costs down.

if you have a hum on one side only and music with no hum on the other side then either something is not plugged in correctly on the humming side, and that can be from the cartridge all the way up to the speaker or the same but a broken connection. Start at one end and work along. If you have hum and music on both sides then it's probably a ground problem as suggested above. For audio a turntable will have a left cable and a right cable which both have 2 parts (signal and earth/0V) and a ground cable and the ground needs to be grounded at the phono preamp.

Start it up and move the arm across to the platter slowly to see if you can replicate it, it might be one ofthe auto switches has become loose or slack or something as simple as a bad connection internally, it does depend on how happy you are with opening things up and having a play.

Sage advice indeed. You have to start somewhere and the Crosley and it's putrid spawn are rampant in the department stores and supermarkets of the world so a very easy trap to fall into without any other frame of reference. A family member was given one for Christmas a few years ago, I did the decent thing and took it outside and shot it but not before replacing it with some vintage kit I had picked up for a tenner at a boot fair. The only way to learn about anything properly is by making the mistakes so if you've never owned crap how can you tell how much better good sounds. The first TT I owned was a Dansette, quite cool now but utter cack in it's day and still sounds cack and wrecks records today, sadly that experience and the hearing of a halfway decent system at an impressionable age caused me to embark on the addictive wallet emptying road I am on now. There are several morals in there but mostly never show your eccentric uncle the new Crosley you got for Christmas if you don't want him to use it as target practice after a little to much free Christmas Ale

Nice little system that, the Rotel amp and Cambridge Phono are a really good basis to build a really nice sound from and could cope with a much better turntable with ease.

Depends how old the amp is, in the heyday of vinyl the built in phono stage on most half decent amps would have been better than a lot of the average phono stage today, but as the need to add a phono stage waned the quality dropped accordingly. Technics held onto phono stages for longer than most for obvious reasons but how good they are in the later amps I don't know. The lower end Project phono stages I have heard I wasn't impressed with but this will depend on the amp the phono stage is feeding, if the amp is average an average phono will be more than fine but if the amp is a bit higher up the food chain then it will show up the phono amps deficiencies. This is always true in any chain of hifi of course, the system is as good as the weakest component.

That's a good place to start, the more functions you add to anything the more potential for things not working.

Go vintage for now then but factor in you might need a new stylus and or cartridge, there are quite a few cheap ones that are perfectly good for a first turntable and a lot of info and videos about on how to fit them and set up your turntable properly. Have a look in the local thrift stores and ask around with friends and family, you might turn something up for nothing or next to nothing.