how much did you pay for your turntable?

[BroomHead]

Not for DJing, just for vinyl listening. A question for vinyl collectors. I'm looking at one for $150 CAN, and I wanna know if anything less would be shit quality or what. Basically, is there a price where the sound quality can't possibly get any better, at least to the human ear? Is it mainly the speakers that dictate the sound quality?

thanks.

[cosmo105]

numart pt-101. about $100 us, i believe. i don't know much about turntables, but the quality on this one is pretty nice. i loves it.

[chickinwhite]

Yeah I picked up the cheapest one I could find at an A and B Sound store for 80 bucks canadian and I couldn't notice any difference. Speakers would make a little bit of difference with reciever and wire and stuff like that but the main thing that would make any difference is the needle. As long as it spins records and has a decent needle you probably wont notice any difference. I went with something cheap and its been working great for 2 plus years now.(y)

[korn_phr33k]

well for only listening sometimes the turntable itself dosnt matter, but the cartridge does. cause you can have an awesome turntable with a crappy cartridge and youll get crappy sound.

[mikizee]

i picked up a Vestax PDX2300 MkII Pro for about $500AUD, off ebay, its 10 months old. (that model sells for about $1200 new here).

Its my dream turntable. I've wanted one for aaaaaggess.

Its got an Ortofon Nightclub E cartridge. They sell for about $140AUD here.

Check it out here -

http://www.djmag.com/tech/Vestax_PDX-2300_MkII_Pro.pdf

one cool feature is the instant reverse button. as soon as i got the turntable i dug up all my beatles records and went searching for the famous 'paul is dead' backmasking. i found a few (y)

[chromium05]

Turntables - hmm...depends on if you want a DJ deck or a table for just listening.

If it's just for listening - I recommend the Clearaudio Emotion. I had one of these and they are as beautiful to listen to as they are to look at.

http://users.teledisnet.be/web/pde09591/newspics/emotion.jpg

Price is about $1200 but does include the very decent Satisfy Tonearm and Aurum Classics Wood Cartridge.

I sold mine as it seemed an absolute travesty to play nothing but 80's / early 90's hip hop on it and bought one of these:

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/2016

A bit less expensive, the Project Debut 3 - around $200 with cart. The sound is very good for the price and it is much better sounding that any DJ turntable. It even comes in different colors to suit your decor - Go with gloss black or white for easy resale if needs be.

[steve-onpoint]

just go for the tech 1200. they're durable and good for listening to records. also, you da man with those beats, g. so it'd be worth your while to make that small investment anyhow.

i paid 300 american dollars for a used one from my friend.

good luck.

[FunkyHiFi]

cause you can have an awesome turntable with a crappy cartridge and youll get crappy sound.That's VERY true.......to a point. REALLY cheap turntables though can have tonearms that vibrate in time with the needle's vibrations ("resonance") which adds junk to the music, or they can be so crappily made they don't hold the cartridge correctly at the proper angles.

That being said, my tt is the basic Technics SL-BD22 ($180 in 2003) with a Shure* cartridge ($80 same year). Technics now only makes the SL-BD20 (http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=25127) which is missing the pitch controller but unless your power company sends you wildly fluctuating voltage, don't worry about it. Also these tts use the "p-mount" cart mounting system which means you just plug it in and (barely) tighten a tiny set screw & you're done. Regular carts are much more time consuming to set up but pretty much all other tts use these now.

And many people have used the SL-1200 series at home with great sounding results.

FYI: make sure to spend the $10 or so on a decent record cleaning brush - taking a few seconds to get the dust off really makes for long-lived/quiet vinyl.

Analog gear like tts and tape decks are much more fussy about build quality and set-up. That's why with speakers - also in the analog category - you definitely get what you pay for. Cheap speakers almost always sound cheap too. Bose is the only exception: IMO and many MANY other gearheads' opinions, their speakers are very overpriced. But they do have an awesome marketing department.:rolleyes:

some good brands I like:
JBL (http://jbl.com/home/products/series.aspx?SerId=VEN&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA)
Infinity (http://infinitysystems.com/homeaudio/series.aspx?SerId=PRI)
Boston Acoustics (http://bostonacoustics.com/home_product.aspx?collection_id=1&category_id=4) I own these.
Cerwin-Vega (http://cerwinvega.com/products/homeaudiovideo/index.html) The classic LOUDspeaker(y) , but their new CLS series is more refined than their older stuff but still louder than its competitors.
The Insignia (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7705307&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03043&id=1138085354138) at Best Buy - this $50 per pair model has got many hobbyists yapping (in a positive way). BB very probably sells it so cheap to get people interested in buying the other gear it connects to. btw: the tweeter is set into the middle of the woofer.

* until just last year, Shure made what many audiophiles and audio professionals consider the best cart ever made, the V15-VxMR (http://www.amazon.com/Shure-V15VXMR-Audiophile-Phono-Cartridge/dp/B00006I5SE). Last year it cost around $275.

[FunkyHiFi]

double post

[mikizee]

there are 2 companies in adelaide (south australia) which are 2 of the top speaker makers in the world!!
they are - Vaf research, and krix.

i would loooooove to have a set of Vaf's in my house, but i doubt i could ever afford them.

www.vaf.com.au

www.krix.com.au

it kinda sucks that ive got a fairly good turntable, but i can only afford a shitty cheap preamp and real shitty speakers. kinda defeats the purpose. but, u gotta start somewhere.

[ggirlballa]

is this too good to be true? (http://cgi.ebay.com/TECHNICS-DJ-VINYL-SEMI-AUTO-TURNTABLE-MIXER-SL-BD20D_W0QQitemZ120055306572QQihZ002QQcategoryZ6462 6QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

[The Notorious LOL]

contrary to what all these other nose in the air vinyl dorks may say, any decent brand name turntables retailing at $100 are fine. Numark is good.

[Documad]

I have several turntables but I haven't purchased any in about 10 years. I don't understand how they work.

All I know is that my old Denon one has terrific sound, the needles cost a fortune, and the arm has this thing that you can turn so that it won't be as likely to skip. I only use that turntable if the vinyl is in good shape. For my crappy old 45s and my dad's old 78s, I use a turntable with a crappier needle.

If you're a freak about good sound, there are so many things you have to do to your stereo system to make that happen. I can't deal with that and my ears aren't good enough. Plus a lot of my vinyl isn't in mint condition so what's the point?

[BroomHead]

Okay thanks everyone. I think I agree with what you're saying LOL. I ended up buying the 150 I was looking at. I live in buttfuck nowhere so it was hard to find much else. That's the cheapest one I could get and it sounds just fine to me. They're Nexxtech if you wanna know.

[kaiser soze]

I have 3 1200's for a rough total of $1200

too bad I only use 2 =(

[BroomHead]

hook me that other one