[nhancakes]

I'm new to the audiophile community and i'm trying to put together a real cheap, budget set up for my dorm room.

I'm slowly buying stuff for it: some grado sr-60, kimber cables, Sony SCD CE595

I picked up a Marantz 2018 off ebay today. Since i'm getting into vinyl, I'm wondering if it's phono input would be sufficent or do I need to buy a separate phono preamp for it for a turntable i would get?

Also i'm considering the Pro-ject Debut III, but are there any reasonably good vintage TT options i can look to to save some cash?

 

[Uncle Erik]

The Marantz should be fine as a phono preamp. I'm not too up on vintage turntables, but look through the Source Forum here - there's a thread or two about finding them. You should be able to turn up quite a few on Craigslist, thrift stores and junk shops. Garage sales are good, too. Just go out looking. Oh, and pick up good vinyl if you run across it, even if you don't have a turntable yet.

 

[JadeEast]

Look for well built Japanese direct drive turntables I think that is where the sweet spot is in used decks. The technics 1200 is becoming the goto recommendation as far as a solid intro in vinyl with possible upgrade paths.

If you do a little window shopping on ebay do a search for direct drive turntable and look at the offerings. Some are obviously a bit cheap looking but there are some that are built very well. I would stay away from the newer designs design for djing.

Over all I think that the cartridge, proper set up and a good cleaning go a long long way in the overall quality of playback.

 

[texashorn91]

I can second the Marantz and Technics combo. Unless you want to pay another $300 or so, the Marantz phono stage is great. I love my Technics 1200, but there are a ton of used turntables out there you can get for very little money. Some people say they don't work just because they don't have a belt, or something like that, but that is very easy to find. Good Luck!