[niko-time]

It can cost around £80 and it has to be new and not from eBay as my grandparents are buying it.

I'm a vinyl noob to be honest; I use a Arcam Delta 290 as an amp, I don't think it has a built in phono stage (is that the correct terminology?)

I'm not too fussed about sound quality as I won't be listening using it that much. What would be quite good?

 

[kpeezy]

If you won't be using it much, why not get something else?

 

[niko-time]

I will be using it, but not as frequently as my cd player. I have vinyls lying around, would like to listen to them

Basically, whats the best turntable I can get for around £80?

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by niko-time /img/forum/go_quote.gif It can cost around £80 and it has to be new and not from eBay as my grandparents are buying it. I'm a vinyl noob to be honest; I use a Arcam Delta 290 as an amp, I don't think it has a built in phono stage (is that the correct terminology?)

Buying new at that price your choices are limited really to the Pro-Ject Debut or Goldring GR1 in the UK which you should be able to find for 100-130ish.

Don't bother if you find anything cheaper than that as it's a waste of money.

Ask them to buy you a phonostage like the Cambridge Audio 640 from Richer sounds and get yourself a 2nd hand Dual Cs-505 from ebay for anything between 15-40 quid. Try to find a local seller or otherwise someone who konws how to pack a turntable and get it sent by parcelforce insured as the chances iof it arriving broken are pretty high otherwise.

I made a lsit of cheap 2nd hand buys here http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=230443 and http://www.tnt-audio.com/guide/sources_e.html this is a good read for building a Hi-Fi for next to nothing.

 

[niko-time]

Thats REALLY helpful advice. I think I'll just do that, thanks a bunch!

 

[lini]

niko-time: How much is the Technics SL-BD20 over in the UK? Over here, street price is ~ 140 Euro new, so that could be somewhere near 80 quid in Britain. That thingy is the last remaining model in a long line of pretty decent entry to mid level Technics turntables and quite a bit better than those horrible, plasticky entry-level models otherwise sold today (e.g. Audio Technica AT-PL50, Dual CS410, Denon DP-29f, Pioneer PL-990, Sony PS-LX250 - which are all very similar, btw). If you want something new, within your budget and good enough for occasional use, I'd recommend to go for the SL-BD20.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lini /img/forum/go_quote.gif niko-time: How much is the Technics SL-BD20 over in the UK? Over here, street price is ~ 140 Euro new, so that could be somewhere near 80 quid in Britain. That thingy is the last remaining model in a long line of pretty decent entry to mid level Technics turntables and quite a bit better than those horrible, plasticky entry-level models otherwise sold today (e.g. Audio Technica AT-PL50, Dual CS410, Denon DP-29f, Pioneer PL-990, Sony PS-LX250 - which are all very similar, btw). If you want something new, within your budget and good enough for occasional use, I'd recommend to go for the SL-BD20.

That Technics belt drive model isn't really sold here anymore. The cheapest decent turntables I could find were the Goldring GR-1 for 99UKP or the Project Debut for 125UKP.

The newly relaunched Duals are pretty rare here too as they have effectively priced themselves out of the market.

The Audio Technica AT-PL50 is 95UKP and Denon DP-29f or DP300 are pretty nonexsisent in the shops although are perhaps available from Amazon.

Richer Sounds have
Bush MTT1 Silver £49.95
Ariston TT420 £59.95
Sony PSLX250 £99.95

But all these are junk really compared to the aforementioned Goldring or Pro-Ject if you need to buy new.

2nd hand we are really spoilt for choice as you can get a Dual CS-505-2 for as little as 15UKP on ebay since these were so common back in the 1980s and they sold bucketloads.

Being a little more selective though you can find a lot of really nice belt drives like the Revolver, Logic Tempo, Aristons, AR Legend, Dunlop Systemdek, CJ Walker, FONS, Heybrook, QED, STD, Strathearn, etc for around 100UKP if you look around. Most of these will outperform a Rega P3, some by a considerable margin but support can be patchy if there are any bits missing with the more obscure ones.

http://www.vinylengine.com is a good resource for obscure decks especially British ones from the 1980s which probably didn't shift that many units outside these islands.

 

[niko-time]

I'm currently bidding for a turntable on eBay which was recommended on your thread meme; I will not disclose which model as I don't want to be outbid ^^

Do you know of any cheap phonostages which are any good as well?

 

[memepool]

Separate phonostages are expensive these days unfortunately. I'd go for the Cambridge Audio one I mentioned above but there are others by Pro-Ject and NAD to name but two.

 

[niko-time]

So theres no semi decent vintage phonostages even on eBay? I can't afford the £60 at the moment

 

[lini]

niko-time: Iirc, the Delta 290 could be upgraded with an optional Arcam MM/MC phono stage. Maybe you can dig up one of these for cheap, nowadays... And to your question: Vintage MM phono stages are rare, 'cause back in the day at least a proper MM or even an MM/MC input (on higher class equipment often with capacity/load trim) was a standard feature of every half-decent integrated amp, pre-amp or receiver - hence there was no real need for standalone phono stages. But maybe you can find a nice vintage pre-amp...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[niko-time]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lini /img/forum/go_quote.gif niko-time: Iirc, the Delta 290 could be upgraded with an optional Arcam MM/MC phono stage. Maybe you can dig up one of these for cheap, nowadays... And to your question: Vintage MM phono stages are rare, 'cause back in the day at least a proper MM or even an MM/MC input (on higher class equipment often with capacity/load trim) was a standard feature of every half-decent integrated amp, pre-amp or receiver - hence there was no real need for standalone phono stages. But maybe you can find a nice vintage pre-amp... Greetings from Munich! Manfred / lini

Thanks for the advice

I had a quick hunt and couldn't find the optional Arcam phono stage. I apologize, but if I bought a pre-amp would I not need a phono stage?

 

[riffer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by niko-time /img/forum/go_quote.gif I apologize, but if I bought a pre-amp would I not need a phono stage?

Not unless the pre-amp has a specific phono-input. Not only does a phono stage amplify the signal, but it applies th "RIAA Equalization Curve":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization

If you have any receivers lying around the house, see if they have a phono input. My Father has a Yamaha or something - totally modern multichannel amplifier, and it actually has a phono input.

As for the cheap equipment, I would tend to hit the charities and yard sales (don't you guys have something over there where people sell stuff out of the trunk of their cars). At least you will be able to see if the turntable is functional.

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by niko-time /img/forum/go_quote.gif So theres no semi decent vintage phonostages even on eBay? I can't afford the £60 at the moment

There is the Cambridge 540 for 40 quid at Richer Sounds.

There is a Pro-Ject and a QED Discsaver on ebay which might go for less than this but most of the ones on there like the Musical Fidelity XLP will go for more.

Lini's idea about contacting Arcam may be worth a shot as they may still have spare phonoboards in stock to upgrade your amp to 290P status.

 

[lini]

memepool: Forgot to reply on your post a bit more above: Sorry to hear that the SL-BD20 is no longer available on the UK market. But at least the Goldring GR-1 for 100 quid seems to be a very fair offer. Over here it was quite a bit more expensive, and with the Duals' recent price hike, the only remaining decent new turntable around the 150 Euro mark is the SL-BD20. However, on the German HiFi Forum a rumour goes around that Panasonic/Technics might try a comeback in the hifi market, following the recent trend back to quality stereo hifi. I don't really believe that it'll come true, but it would certainly be nice to see Technics back on the market with a complete hifi line-up again... And if it really came true, I'd sure hope they'd also restart cartridge production - they had so many nice quality carts (both MM an MC) back in the day, but nowadays the prices for NOS carts and original replacement needles sure have skyrocketed especially for their top models with boron cantilevers...

niko-time: No need to apologize. As already explained, back in the day sporting a least a decent MM phono input was a standard feature of practically every pre-amp, integrated amp or receiver - line-only pre-amp stages were rare exceptions back then. And separate pre-/power-amp combinations usually represented the top end of each manufcturer's line-up - thus you can usually expect to find a good to very good phono stage in almost every vintage pre-amp, often enough for both MM and MC carts and with additional options (switchable input capacity for MMs, switchable load impedance for MCs). In addition, a good vintage pre-amp often has quite a good headphone-out and also serves well as an input/output extender in setups with a lot of devices - and compared to using an integrated amp or receiver as phono stage only, a pre-amp usually consumes a lot less power, produces much less heat and is smaller in size: all factors that make it easier to integrate a pre-amp into an existing set-up... Hence my recommendation to check, whether you could get a nice, used vintage pre-amp for cheap, which could at least serve as good phono stage, but might also be of additional use for you.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini