I'm looking to start a small Vinyl collection. Can anyone recommend a good player that doesn't cost the earth? It doesn't have to be anything fancy. I don't want USB or recording capabilities just something I can hook up to some decent speakers. I'd like something quite compact too as I don't have much space (I know the width is fixed a lot of them are huge chunky things.)
Ion USB turntables do the job and playback is good, usually go for around $40-80 depending on where you buy from. Problem you will have is since needle is cheap will be more sensitive to scratches but putting a penny on top of the needle can sometimes solve the skipping. Also will need aux to av and female aux coupler if you want use pc speaker otherwise have to hook up to receiver. Technics are of course top of the line but are pricey and needles for them really expensive ($60 starting).
Pro-Ject sells good and reliable players: http://www.project-audio.com/ They already have a needle installed and deliver good music quality. I would not recommend a cheap player, as the needles and the tracking force (don´t know if this is the correct english word) are very bad and easily wear your records. P.S.: If your amp don´t have a pre-amp you also need to buy one
Try an old Denon or Technics, they are pretty solid. If you care about a sustainable good condition of your vinyls, you will want to invest in a reasonable needle (30-50 Bucks) and not buy some cheap USB turntable because the arm will tend to be not as well balanced as high quality players and can put too much weight on the record, damaging it in the long run. The best under 300 GBP turntable is probably still the good ol' Technics SL-1210, but there are cheaper alternatives in the 100-200 bucks segment by Denon and the like. I would always trust an older brand because back then, companies knew what customers expected. Nowadays the market is small and low-quality products can get away with it due to limited consumer choice and generally less knowledgeable customers. And yes, you will need to buy an AMP with a phono input. I didn't realize this at first when I bought my first turntable, but pretty much none of them have their own amp. This is no big deal, my old Technics phono AMP cost me a mere 27 Euros and it did a very nice job for the speakers I used it with. I was also able to sell it for EXACTLY 27 Euros 2 years later... some AMPs are very, very cheap. If you don't have the money to become an audiophile with $5000 speakers, that's fine. My setup with AMP+speakers+cables cost me around 120 bucks and it provided stunning quality for the price. The speakers would've cost 250 each if I bought them new, mind you, that's why.
I was looking at the Ion's, they suitable for what I need for now seeing as I'm on a budget. I've got plenty of aux couplers lying around.
Oh dear. Technics are not top of the line. They're one of those brands people who don't know about hi-fi think are good. They make decks for DJ with some pretty useless features that aren't hi-fi in any sense of the word. Sorry, MADE - they've stopped now. Yes, before anyone says it, you can spend a stupid amount to upgrade it - but what's the point? You can get a better, PROPER hi-fi turntable for less. To answer your question, it sounds like you aren't that fussy about quality at this stage - fair enough. Consider this, though. Firstly, a bit of advice - don't call it a vinyl player! And never call it a deck. You're looking for a turntable. You will then need an amplifier, and possibly a pre-amp, before you can connect it to those speakers. The only time you don't want a turntable is if you're looking for an old record player (something with a turntable and an amplifier combined), or even a gramophone or radiogram (big beasts)! If you want a decent deck that doesn't cost the Earth, I'd suggest something like: Rega - Planar 2 or 3 would cost around £100-400 with arm and cartridge. A new RP3 is about £550 with arm and cartridge. Pink Triangle - PT1 or PT2 would cost around £400-500 with arm and cartridge Linn - LP12 would cost around £400-2,000 with arm and cartridge Thorens - They actually do a mini turntable for around £250. That makes it about 25 times cheaper than their more expensive turntables. When you get a bit more serious about your equipment, you'll probably want to blow a grand or two on a Michell with a clamp, or an entry level Clearaudio. When you get realy serious, you'll probably contemplate the Clearaudio Master Solution for £4,000 or their Anniversary turntable for £6,000... perhaps their Maximum Solution for £8,500. Or maybe you'd rather have their Master Solution for £17,000. And then, of course, when you win the lottery, you'll get the Clearaudio Statement for £90,000 - turntable only. The tonearm is £20,000. Wait, what am I saying? You've won the lottery! Get the Goldmund Reference II - it's only $300,000! Can everyone see now why Technics turntables really are far from top end turntables? Anyway, a second hand Rega should do you to start with. It will be big, but if you're playing 12" vinyl, you don't want the crappy small turntables, anyway. And you'll need an amp and speakers. Make sure the amp allows you to connect a turntable, or you'll need a pre-amp, too! Oh, and this might help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSINO6MKtco
I would buy a solid preowned/old unit before I ever touch an Ion. retro has good advice if you've got the cash, but an entry level table will get you by for now.
Do NOT buy a cheap turntable or even a USB turntable, i know you are not looking for that functionality, but just as a warning, many of those will ruin your vinyl, and there are even better solutions to getting vinyl digitalized. But first you should ask yourself: Why do i want this? Many people expect the wrong things from vinyl, and secondly, i must inform you: It's not that cheap. These aren't the 90's anymore, people realized that vinyl was quite a cool thing, so expect to shell out 5 to 25$ for a vinyl, it's usually not like you still could get a stack of vinyl for a 5er. Well, you never mentioned your budget, but prepare to spend around 500$ or more. Personally i'd recommend a Pro-Ject, i really love them, and they usually are great value for money. Personally i got myself a RPM 1.3, which is quite nice for what it costs, but i'm sure their other turntables are great too, otherwise Thorens are also very recommendable, i'm not sure if i like the idea of a used one, but if you do get used one, get the needle on the cartridge checked, and do a good setup, in theory you can do that yourself if you are up for it, meaning you don't mind learning one or two new things, and investing a bit of money (~50-100$ i'd say, without being that sure of the prices). You also need a pre-amp, i'm using Pro-Ject's Phono-Box MM, which costs about 100$ and it should basically be their Phono-Box (150-200$), just that it misses the ability to handle MC (moving coil) pickups, and isn't made from hand-selected components, which isn't that much of an issue to me. IF you would like to digitalize, there are also USB phono pre-amps, but you can either buy adapters, or some soundcards even support input from two RCA connectors natively, so you can also use a regular phono pre-amp. Getting into vinyl is a great thing to do, but consider that it's not casual listening, you need to clean every record before you first play it, and you need to brush it with a carbonfibre brush before every time you are listening, but at least the later isn't such a big deal, cleaning them is quite annoying though, and you can't just let them lying around, you need to store them at least remotely well, upright and away from heat, and there's also no such thing as a compact record-collection. No matter how small your recordplayer is, once the records in on the turntable you will always need space the size of a record, and then some, because the arm needs to come from somewhere too, and you also need to store these records, they don't vanish into thin air, and if you buy a device with a smaller platter, so i wouldn't bother with that at all. Well here is a picture of mine: It's as as casual as it can be, since it's mounted to the side of my desk, i had to place my PC under my desk actually, because it was picking up the vibrations from my HDDs when playing, and it still picks up crap from my new lights i had installed when they are turned on, but oddly enough, placing the motor so near the arm doesn't cause any issue at all. That's also why i like my RPM 1.3, there is a thingy where the motor should go in to, but you don't have to have it there, i've secured it there with some velcro outside the frame, and this way i don't have to get up to change sides. I'm aware that there is a cheap AT cartridge on my arm, but it's only a temp, i'm getting a new Ortofon 2M Blue next month. If there are any questions feel free to ask.
All great advice so far, thanks people. Haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. One question I have though is how can a player damage a vinyl? Surely as long as the needle is good it should be ok?
i use an old 90's sharp hifi to play vinyl, (CD player - dual cassette deck - radio tuner - turntable) and it does the job, uses its own speakers, which are massive anyway and sound great. does the job for me and i got it cheap second hand. im sure you could find one easy enough plenty of seperates about or even systems that can be hooked up to external or 3rd party speakers
The "needle" can and will be damaged, usually it'll just wear out after a while, how long it takes greatly depends on many factors, but usually it'll last you 600 to 1000 hours if you take care of it, and it'll better last that long, needles are not for free. Well, you can GREATLY reduce the life-span of your stylus by playing dirty or damaged records, and the fun thing is: A worn out or damaged stylus will inflict great damage to your records if not replaced. Records also wear out after a while, it'll take long and if you are careful it'll still sound great after many years. It's not that bad, it's just how it works, there is a needle in a groove and they rub against each other, and there is friction and all that, it's just how it is. But yeah, bottomline: Clean your records before you play them the first time (even new ones), don't play worn out records (you'll know it when you got one), and use common sense, and don't torture it, when the side is done, use the mechanism to lift it and bring it back to it's rest, and all such things, and you will have very little problems, but i'll recommend to check your needle each year or every two years if you haven't been playing much.
@Xaromir I would not place the player on a usual desk. The player should only be standing on a heavy base (e.g. heavy sideboard). As you said, you got vibrations from your pc harddrives. If the base is vibrating, your needle starts to vibrate too. This could be such a small vibration you could not even see or hear, but this will start wearing the record and the needle very fast (click noises and so on). @Twimfy As the playing is not "contact-less", the needle starts to widen the vinyl groove (everytime playing it will carve out a little bit of the vinyl and so it will also wear) and you are hearing clicks, if it was played very often. Also, if you bought used records and they got wet played before you also need to clean it with water, before playing it. Even if the liquid for wet record playing evaporates, there are still residues which will destroy the groove if it is played dry and will result in clicking while playing.
Honestly I haven't had issues on my vinyl but when the needle wears down the cartridge can start scraping. All turntables do not require a phono amp but most do, how you can tell if you need one not sure but if you buy one online it usually will say it has a pre amp. So pre amp will allow direct connection to speakers. Now if you get an old one and it doesn't have a pre amp make sure you get an older receiver that has a phono amp as new receivers do not support phono out only turntables with pre amp. Also keep in mind a needle for a good turntable will cost you. I myself wish I had money to get a good turn table with s tone arm. Had a real good realistic turntable with an amazing needle but had to get rid of cause had issue where it played slightly too fast.
Anything that requires some form of pickup in contact with the moving media is going to be a destructive format when you play it. Tapes shed oxide whenever you play them and records get damaged. With the right care and attention, that damage can be minimal. A properly balanced tonearm is essential. Cheap turntables won't allow you to set tracking force or anti skate. You're likely to get too much force on your records, which is obviously going to damage them, or not enough - in which case, the arm is likely to bounce across the surface if you hit some dirt or a warp! They're also likely to have poor cartridges / needles, which may not be to specification for an awkward record. If you're really interested in this topic beyond casual questioning, check out this seminal document from 1978. It's actually a pretty informative read! http://shure.custhelp.com/app/answe...lity-phonograph-cartridge---technical-seminar
