[Marco2]

Hi,

Just after some advice on choosing a turntable and phono stage. This will be my first record player so I am a bit wet behind the ears when it comes to vinyl replay.

I have a budget of £500 - £600 tops and I am looking to purchase new kit ideally but am open minded about 2nd hand.

My first question is what sort of split of the cash should I spend on each, i.e. £300 on deck and £300 on phono stage ? Or is it beneficial to spend more on one than the other ?

On that sort of budget am I best looking at MM or MC technologies ?

I have been looking at the Goldring GR2 and Project Xpression Mk2 as possibles on the deck front and Graham Slee Gram Amp 2 SE and Project Tube Box SE as possible phono stages. Does any one have any experience on these products individually or combinations there of ?

I am looking for something with forward presentation. Would like it to be on the warmr side of neutral, good PRAT and an insightful, refined treble.

Any other suggestions of kit to try in my budget would be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

Marcos

 

[Herandu]

The Cambridge Audio preamp has received some good reviews, so well worth checking out at U$150 odd. That leaves you with more cash for a TT and decent cartridge. Don't get drawn in the trap that a good phono amp is going to set you back U$300 plus. At that sort of price your TT/arm/cartridge would have to be 10x the phono preamp before you would notice your mistake.

 

[memepool]

You are best off spending the lions share on the deck itself followed by the cart then phonostage in that order. Phonostages are really quite expensive for what they are and you should have a pretty top flight turntable before considering anything but a Cambridge Audio phonostage from Richer Sounds or something at that level ( under 100 quid ).http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/assets...40-640PPDF.pdf

Your budget puts you in a bit of a grey area as there arn't that many worthwhile decks between entry level Rega P3 http://www.rega.co.uk/html/p3.htm territory around 350 UKP and Roksan Radius 5 level at about twice that. http://www.roksan.co.uk/radius5_recplayer.html

Most new decks should come with a reasonable cart bundled in and so it's not really worth blowing a load on a Rega P3 and an MC like 300 quid Rondo from Ortofon. You can get a superb Moving magnet cart like the Goldring 1012GX for around 60 quid.

Another possibility is a Technics SL1200 which is around 300UKP from studiospares http://www.studiospares.com/Product.aspx?code=633000 and an upgraded Rega tonearm from Origin Live http://www.tonearm.co.uk/dj-technics-arm.htm which you would need to fit yourself but it's pretty straight forward. This would probably be the best "bang for buck" as they say around here.

On the 2nd hand market you can pick up some serious decks for this kind of money. Something like an 80s Linn Sondek with Valhalla power supply and LVX arm should be attainable and this is a whole world up from a Rega type deck. There is a good 2nd hand buying guide here http://www.tnt-audio.com/guide/index.html

 

[Marco2]

Thanks for the advice so far. Seems I want to invest the biggest amount of cash into the deck itself.

The Cambridge 640P certainly seems to be worthy of consideration. Seems to be generally well regarded.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Given my experience with the Pro-Ject Tube Box I'd say don't bother. Fancy box, mediocre components, and died after less than a year.

 

[goldenratiophi]

I'm quite satisfied with my Cambridge Audio 640p, so x3 on that!