Turntable advice

The easiest way it to go vintage. You can often find quality tables for dirt cheap. I got a near-mint Realistic LAB-500 for 20 bucks. Quartz lock, direct drive. This was TOTL back then.

At least look in the for sale section (local and audiogon).  A used Rega P3 has a much better arm than the P1.  The other beginner standard is the Technics 1200 series.  Your ideas for a receiver/amp with phono section, and book shelf speakers, once again, from the used market will get you well on your way to great music.

Buy used.  You should be able to find a used Rega Planar 3/P3 for around $400-$500.  They're superior to the usual "entry" models around the same price.

Don't worry much about buying used.  The Planar 3 I had was about 30 years old and worked great.  It's still spinning at a friend's house, too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xiaoipower 

thanks guys - but I was hoping for a lot broader advice 

 

1) a rough price guide to what you think the components will cost (something that would be the equivalent of a good price-performance ratio - like I said I only have an IE7 to offer as a comparison which I consider to have be not too expensive but a strong performer but obviously a lot cheaper than the top end $1000 customs) - the problem is that I have no feel for prices at the moment

 

2) Are they all the components you need - no pre-amp or anything - I would prefer to have the most minimalist setup possible 

 

3) Any good places in London to test out some kit?

 

Hi

I don't know how to answer 1) because I would not buy new. I think that you should buy a second-hand Rega on eBay. You are in London, so you can buy these Regas very cheap indeed second-hand as there are so many in the UK.

For 2), well, you will need turntable and arm of course, on the arm is the cartridge and then there is the phono stage. I think it is rare to find amplifiers today with built in phono stages so you will probably need a separate one if you buy a new amplifier.

But I wouldn't buy a new amplifier or speakers. I would go to eBay.

Massive numbers of systems just like the one you describe were made in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s and so you can pick up all these things very cheaply second-hand.

With regard to 3), I'm sure there are good places to listen to this in London but I don't know them because I tend not to buy new if I can avoid it.

I'm going to recommend you go used, just like a few other people here.

That is, unless you are prepared to spend around 1k USD for your first new table to have a decent one. A great table 'new' starts around 1500-2000 USD, assuming you pick very carefully.

You can really get a high performance table for low money if you carefully pick certain Japanese 80's units that have superb arm/table combo. For 400-600 USD you could get a table that really never needs any upgrading; but you will want to also consider the cartridge. A mediocre cartridge on the best table will get you nowhere.

You need a good phono preamp too. I recommend getting one with some variable loading options in case you need to optimize loading for the cartridge you choose. The Clearaudio Nano has this ability plus it has a dial variable gain to optimize gain for your particular cartridge. This is a little bit costly, but you would not have a reason to ever 'upgrade' unless you are simply having a case of OCD.

I agree "used" is the way to  go, if you can trust the seller. I've got a Sony PS-4750. It's about 32 years old. When I purchased it new, I already had, in just a few years,  disappointments from a least five turntables from that period; but, the all manual direct drive Sony did not disappoint.  I  use it today with a vintage Shure V15vMR for both new and old vinyl. It's fun, perhaps, because it requires my involvement. It sounds as good as any SACD, or CD, I've auditioned on my system, so unless my system, or SACD player is suspect, I'd  say my turntable is getting as much HI-FI as any but the most esoteric turntables can get from the groove. One thing though, on all but a few albums I own, snap, crackle, and pop, along with some tracking problems on occasion usually interrupt the Nirvana. Those distractions were the reason I bought an SACD player. I think, therefore, today the only good reason to have vinyl playback capability is to get vinyl onto CD-removing the pops and other stuff which distracts from the presentation. However, once again, like others here, I suggest you look for used, mostly, because new today being what it is, small scale, is not as efficiently priced as it would be if there were a mass market for it.