allenh

+1

At last an educated and erudite human being who understands the real danger here. This has been an illuminating and informative read and I think I have learned at least one new insult but on balance I think I will wait for the film, the action has been a bit slow at times and some of the pauses have been long enough such that I've actually had to go and put some of my gramophone leaves on my phonograph on occasion, if I could only switch the thing on all would be fine.

Yes I agree entirely and was trying to make a similar point but in my case was talking about the more European stuff, the point stands though no matter where the market is just because hype takes hold of a particular item, Hong Kong and China have an enormous thirst for all things British, simple supply and demand I know but in that example things like the Garrard 301's and 401's and LS3/5a speakers go for very high amounts and value like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Garrard's are superb turntables but can you spend less and get a better sounding turntable, I think so but that's only my opinion and I'm sure someone who spends a fortune on one would disagree, that said the things that make up it's price are visual as well as sonic so if it looks better to you than the cheaper but nicer sounding alternative that may sway your decision, I've had a few of both and have sold them all, I like them but not enough to keep them. I don't think they are anywhere near the worst though in the price against ability question. Sadly things like that Pioneer don't seem to have as much of a following over here and the vast majority of the far eastern produced stuff of the period can be a bit sneered on by the hifi cognoscenti in Europe. Although I have a mountain of hifi I have an allergy to spending a lot of money on it (the Yorkshire war cry kicks in "OW BLOODY MUCH?") so I tend to buy and sell my way up to things. As an example with that Pioneer the guy wanted £100 as a cash value but let me have it for £90 as a trade value, he's a friend and it was part of a deal where equipment was moving in both directions so I reckon it probably owes me £30 and £30 on a whim I'm happy with. I see them sell for between £150 and £200 here but vary rarely so don't know how accurate that is and to be honest it's monetary value isn't it's value to me, I like it so will keep and use it. The great thing about the vintage stuff for me is you can luck into a gem, or not and those lessons need to be learnt from, but it is all a learning process which for me is part of the interest and there is so much out there to learn from. You are absolutely right research with this stuff is the key and listening to it is the best research there is, so if you buy a bit of vintage kit for X and don't like it you sell it, sometimes you sell it for X minus a bit and that to me is where in a roundabout way you are paying for that research but you are forming an opinion of what you like and don't like along the way. And as you get better at it you then tend to sell it for X plus a bit so the research pays off.

For $15 it will get you started and it's all you need for now, you've already got a good start with the turntabke so the rest can move on from thier over time. The speaker cases look quite interesting for a diy project though, could you take a couple of pictures with the grille removed from one?

Not knowing whether you are in the US or Europe but assuming the US by the choices both will not dissapoint but whether they can be bettered is another thing. I'm not fimiliar with the choices you have in the US or the pricing but the Marantz seems expensive in the US compared to here and I am guessing it doesn't have as much competition in the US. The Marantz though is an integrated amplifier not a receiver, a receiver has a radio tuner built in As to other options I see a bit of mention about Cambridge Audio in the US and if I were making the choice here that is where my money would go but I don't know if the pricing in the US makes that viable or not. For a turntable another choice would be the Uturn with the acrylic platter but I haven't seen any direct back to back tests or enough reviews full stop to know if that's a good suggestion or not. I'm sure some VC'ers from that side of the water will give you some better feedback than I

No problem Don't upgrade the cables until you've upgraded the amp, the idea being if you think the new amp is not giving you as much as you think it should then upgrade the cables if you think the upgrade has been as expected then don't spend the money or spend it on more records, it's the music you should be in it for first and foremost.

What taylo234 says is very valid. It's not the person being able to hear the difference though it's the quality of the kit that is being connected by these cables, so there is a point where the limit is the equipment not the cables. I'm not familair with the monoprice cables but have seen and used very similar here and at that price would be more than happy with them for what you are doing. Also at that price if you upgrade later you have the chioce to upgrade cables later and you will have lost very little.

It's a difficult one. If the Turntable is going to stay 6' from the reciever then invest in the best cables you can afford but if not then it's a different thing. Not really knowing what is available in the US I am not going to be a great deal of help but my comment about some of the Chinese made ones on Ebay still stands. To be fair $40 for a good quality 6' RCA cable doesn't sound too bad but yes I'm sure you can better it.

Yes it's called PVA wood glue but not all glues are the same, there are some great threads on the net about it. This stuff is very good as it removes the two usual problems found with the wood glue method i.e. that it usually comes of in one sheet and much lower static but is obviosly much more expensive. I use the wood glue method on very dirty records. I haven't had a problem yet and it will only remove dirt not fix a scratch but for records that are just plain dirty it's very effective. I understand the BBC pioneered the wood glue method for the archiving of records. I haven't used it on any records with any real value yet but there is no real reason I can see not to. If you are contemplating it read up on it and watch all the you tube videos as it can get very messy if you just have a go.

I'm a sucker for a test pressing and have picked up quite a few over the years from all sorts of musical genre's, should make a list really. I picked up quite a few test presses back in the late 80's and early 90's when I was DJ'ing, some great, some not and quite a few forgettable and to be honest not the sort of music I listen to or collect now, but although I picked it up much later the one I am most pleased with from that era is the test pressing I have of the UK release of the Sugarhill Gang LP with Rappers delight on, it's got the A&R sheet stuck to the front of the plain white sleeve with very yellowed tape and the A&R sheet is dated 30th Jan 1980. The LP is in superb condition and is a great reminder of a very mis spent youth

Here are a couple of pictures of the Pioneer PL-550 I got yesterday. I got it in a deal with a friend who has a 2md hand shop doing records and hifi, stuff went both ways so i'm not sure what it owes me yet. I'm in two minds whether to dive in and do things like rewire the tone arm with decent wire and look at the electronics as it's in such nice original condition. I have an Optonica that I bought back from the US and I did rewire the arm and rebuild the electronics and am very happy with the results but then that had the odd leaky capacitor in it so really needed to be done. Bearchuck I agree with you on most of that but some of the vintage stuff now has a price tag way above it's ability. The problem is hype takes hold and some things get a reverence from people who really wanted to own an item when it was new but have never actually owned one and this drives the price up. There are quite a few bits of hifi I've owned that I couldn't sell quick enough purely because the hype behind them meant it was worth a lot more to me in money value than listening value. I'm not saying a lot of this kit isnt a legend for a reason but the drive to own it drives the price more than it's actual ability.

I've got a recordable Akai four channel 8 track up in the loft, toyed with the idea of using that a while back but never have, it will probably end up on ebay next clear out. Over here we get plenty of the B&O music centre's, they look the part but are definately an example of form over function, cost someone an absolute fortune back in the 70's which is why people hang onto them but a real pain to work on. You don't see many of the ilk of that Seville beastie though now, not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. I used a B&O to get a turntable allowed into the lounge by the ex wife one Christmas many years ago, it passed the wife test but that's about all, that said I still have the B&O and wife the 2nd is a bit more accomodating when it comes to my vinyl obsession.

The longer the cable the bigger all of the electronic values you don't want, resistance etc. I fully understand the wife factor so compromises need to be made, I had to buy mine a bigger house so I could have a hifi room, extreme I know but some sacrifices need to be made. For the earth cable normal multistrand wire that you get from radioshack will do, I'm not sure what the correct AWG would be as we use metric over here but hopefully someone will be able to tell you. The turntable comes with an earth and RCA cables so you can get a 15' extension for the RCA's (male to female connectors) and the earth ideally needs to be one length so replacing the earth wire at the point it leaves the turntable unless you can make a really good connection where your extension and the original earth cable meet. car hifi RCA cables quite often have an earth cable down the centre so this could be one way round the problem but you would need to make ends and or splices especially with the earth so would need to find someone to help with the soldering unless you can find some good screw on connections.

Don't buy from that seller, unless a record is a one off you will find it from someone else eventually.

He needs a 15' cable between his turntable and receiver.

The 550 has quartz lock and VTA adjustment, yes I agree without at least the VTA adjustement I think I would be shifting it on pretty quickly. The 550 has a totaly different arm to the 530 and the quartz lock on this one is as stable as a rock so I'm suitably pleased with it.

15' is a long way for a cable so I would try to get the turntable closer to the amp, the problem you have is that a turntable output is very low and the longer the cable the bigger the signal loss so the better the quality cable that is needed to mitigate the loss. If you are stuck with the length then there are some quite nice cables for not too much money on ebay, which will be a gamble but at least not a big one. I can't help much with them as I haven't tried many so it's a bit hit an miss and with Chinese made stuff price isn't a guage of quality so if you need to go that way look through them and take a gamble, if they are any good and after you've upgraded they become spare you can always cut them into shorter lengths and make lots of smaller sets all the same.

I've used What Records quite a few times and found him to be very helpful and give a good service but that said I do think he can get a bit overwhelmed when it gets busy, It's a 2 way street some people have no patience and communication from the seller is always a good way to stopping the loss of patience. I bought these when he first got them and at that time they were at a very special price, can't remeber how much but 10 or 15 pounds each sounds familiar.

Picked up a Pioneer PL-550 today and I think it's a keeper. Anyone else have or had one? I'm a bit of a sucker for Pioneer kit of this vintage which comes from a love of the component in car stuff from the late 70's to the late 80's. Mine's in timewarp condition and I'm listening to it now, I have to say it does look the dogs nadgers as well as sound very nice. It has an Ortofon VMS20E Mkii in it that seems in good condition, I'm going to run it for a bit and then fit a nice MC in it to see how it copes. I'll post a picture tomorrow in the daylight.

Soldering is best but most banana's have a screw to grip the cable. I don't think there is any real pro or con to banana's over spades I think it's just convention but whatever you feel most comfortable with. I always think black speakers look cheap but that's only my opionin and each to thier own, I only like black if it's shiny, the cherry I always think makes the speakers look their money and when you are spending a substantial amount of money you want the item to look it's price or more. You don't have to buy the Epos stands if you can get some of similar height cheaper, the key is weight or being able to add it by filling them with sand or similar. I have seen some that have a glass tube that you fill with coloured glass beads, a friend bought them and they passed the wife test so he earned many brownie points.

I know the Erie store and think it's becasue there's not a huge amount of competition for quite a wide area. My parents live in Bradford and I always take a look in Erie when I am over.

Are you trying to do this as it's the only turntable you have or just trying it because you can? You mention you have a receiver so if it's your only turntable you'd be better off getting a proper turntable and plugging it into your receiver if you want any sort of sound quality.

Computer speakers are designed to do a different job. They have a built in amplifier as the sound card in your PC has a line level output the same as a pre amp or any CD player, Tuner or tape deck. Hifi speakers need an amplifier to drive them. You could use these with a phono amp between the turntable and the speakers, the problem with most computer speakers is that the power supply and power amp are in one of them so you quite often hear the power supply and the power amp won't exactly be good quality. All integrated amplifiers (most you will see with lots of switches and knobs on) are made up of two parts, the pre amp and the power amp. The pre amp deals with the volume and input switching and the power amp makes the noise. Just to confuse matters more most turntables have a different output level so a phono amp is needed to make the phono level the same as line level. CD's output are different technically but essentially they are line level so you can plug them into an unused input on your amp. When having a turntable was the norm most integrated amps had the phono amp built in so upto the mid 90's really which are the ones you are most likely to see in a charity shop. So you buy your big heavy 80's amp in the charity shop and the matching enormous speakers, take it home plug it all in with your turntable, turn it on, crank it up and your neighbours will instantly hate you. You can't really do that with computer speakers. All of the major makers pretty much all made good and bad so look for weight, nice feeling controls, use of metal and wood rather than plastic and the usual names like Pioneer, Rotel, Technics, NAD, Onkyo, Denon etc etc. Make sure it's 2 channel so not an audio visual amp with surround sound and more than just left and right speaker connections, no front and rear etc. No 5.1 or 7.1 or anything like that. Two sets of outputs are fine if you can switch them on and off i.e a switch or switches that does A or B or Both. It's also a lot more interesting than just ordering something from Amazon Please chime in with the brands I have not mentioned especially the better US brands. Always nice to buy locally made stuff.

Just had a proper look at your amp. Don't try bi amping with this as it's a Av amp not a hifi one and the front and rear outputs are totally different. To get the best out of your speakers with this amp you will need to run it in 2 channel mode, I'm not sure which mode that is on the amp as they are called different things on different AV amps like 2CH or bypass but it's the mode that turns the rear and centre outputs off. I read in your earlier posts you are looking to upgrade this amp at some point and when you do go for a proper 2 channel one rather than an AV one, you won't be amp limited with your new speakers so time to get saving.

We tend to use 4mm Banana plugs here so I haven't got a lot of experience of spades but I guess the angle of the spade is dictated by how recessed the speaker terminals are in the back of the speaker, either way there should be quite a bit of room around the terminals so there shouldn't be a problem. This is a link to the Epos page on them that shows the terminal arrangement. http://www.epos-acoustics.com/products/epic-1/ What colour did you go for in the end? Are these cables made lengths or do you cut them yourself? You probabaly already know but the cables should be the same length both sides (left & right) If you are thinking of bi amping the speakers at a later date then you need to give a bit of thought to the spade angle to make sure you keep all the wiring away from each other. If your amp has two sets of speaker outs (i.e switched a and you could bi amp the speakers by having two sets of speaker cables and wiring both sets of outputs and removing the shorting links on the back of the speakers. The results will depend on whether your amp actually has for outputs internally or splits the two outputs into four. The idea is that one amp is dealing with the bass and mid and one the treble and as each is a pretty different task whether the distinction of how the four outputs are derived is quite important. You will obviously be working your amp a lot harder if you do this and listen at high volumes for long periods so I would only do this if you normally only loisten at average volume. Some people use bi wiring which is one output at the amp wired with extra cable to the two sets on the back of the speaker with the links removed, I can't actually see the point of this apart from subsidising the speaker wire industry but some people swear it makes a difference.