Recommendation Needed

[Grem]

I need to get a record player to make someone happy and my life more pleasant.  

I have no receiver,  or speakers. 

It has been a long time since I have shopped for a turntable. Has things changed?

[craigb]

43 minutes ago, Grem said:

I need to get a record player to make someone happy and my life more pleasant.  

I have no receiver,  or speakers. 

It has been a long time since I have shopped for a turntable. Has things changed?

Found one! 😁

[Rain]

Vinyls are hip again, so there are a lot of options, and many all-in one cheaper setups, with built-in speakers. My ex grabbed one for me a few years ago, just so that I could listen to a couple of old vinyls. Not an audiophile experience by any stretch, although I'm not sure that it's actually much worse than what the average consumer had access to when I grew up. For me, that's never been the point of vinyls. In fact, quite the opposite.

Same reason I like to pop in a 8 track tape to listen to old Elvis albums once in a blue moon. The flaws are part of the charm. I am not sure that I buy the idea that vinyl sounds "better".

Of course, you get what you pay for. This part hasn't changed. There are just a lot more options I would think.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Rain

[Kurre]

Too bad you don't have a reciever. Ikea has a turntable that got good reviews.

I've got an old Pioneer stack. It's nice to listen to AC/DC and other heavy rock on vinyl. It feels like there's more of that low register from vinyl.

I probably should fix the volume potentiometer and source switch on the reciever. It can take some time to jiggle them in position.🙂

[jackson white]

i need one as well, this startup seemed to have a modern take on it.

https://uturnaudio.com/

[Grem]

5 hours ago, jackson white said:

i need one as well, this startup seemed to have a modern take on it.

https://uturnaudio.com/

This is looking like a very good canidate!! Thanks!!

 

@Rain Not really going for "audiophile" either. Just wanting something to put older records on.

I remember listening to DSOTM on 8trk, IIRC there was a break in the middle of the solo for Time. Man I just thought about the click you would hear when the trk changed!! Hadn't thought of that sound in forever!!! 

 

11 hours ago, Kurre said:

listen to AC/DC and other heavy rock on vinyl.

I still remember the guy that I learned a lot of my guitar licks from bringing the BIB album to my house so we can learn it. He opened at the house. I never really was much of an AC/DC fan before BIB, but within the first few beats of BIB (first song) I was hooked forever!! We learned every song on that first side that day!! 

[craigb]

3 minutes ago, Grem said:

I remember listening to DSOTM on 8trk, IIRC there was a break in the middle of the solo for Time. Man I just thought about the click you would hear when the trk changed!! Hadn't thought of that sound in forever!!! 

Man does that bring back memories!  I only had two 8-tracks:  Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Heart's Dreamboat Annie.  Arguably the most popular track on that Heart album was Crazy On You and, right in the middle, it changes track!  😆

I ditched the 8-tracks and never looked back.  I had well over 2,000 records when CD's came out and, after testing each against a really nice system, the records sounded so bad in comparison that they all got sold.

[kitekrazy]

 If you are in the US, retail stores have record players.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cd-players-turntables/turntables/abcat0202007.c?id=abcat0202007

Don't get a turntable since the prices of receivers are not what they use to be.

 

[Grem]

1 hour ago, craigb said:

the records sounded so bad in comparison

I remember the first time I listened to DSOTM on CD, it was the first time that all I heard was the heartbeat. No hiss, no scratches, just pure silence. And when On The Run came on, I was sold by then!! Wasn't going back to vinyl. Or tape for that matter.

[Rain]

Yes! That sound!

Got these for Christmas a few years ago, with a little 8-track player - identical to the one we had when I grew up. Obviously, they're not in mint condition, but, still...

 

[mettelus]

If you can find an old vintage Show'N Tell, that has the filmstrip display too!

Edited November 24, 2022 by mettelus

[Grem]

My Mother-In-Law loves Elvis. She has a clock on the wall with Elvis swinging his hips!!

[Starship Krupa]

On 11/23/2022 at 7:56 PM, mettelus said:

If you can find an old vintage Show'N Tell, that has the filmstrip display too!

I had one of those! The filmstrip part broke early on, but the record player lived for a few more years. Until I started....experimenting on it.

[Tim Smith]

My son gave me one of those 'ok' turntables with the built in amp.  Not anything close to audiophile quality. Not bad either. It has phono outputs to feed an amp.

I found an 8 record set of old radio comedians and it was perfect for that. Very mid range. Very little bass. 

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by Tim Smith

[mettelus]

13 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

I had one of those! The filmstrip part broke early on, but the record player lived for a few more years. Until I started....experimenting on it.

LOL, I couldn't for the life of me remember the name of it and took a while for me to look it up. I got all the hand-me-downs from my older brother and sister, but I really liked the fact that turntable had 4 speeds to it (not sure I have ever seen a 16 1/2 rpm record in my life, but playing records on the wrong speed was fun as a kid).

[Rain]

Of course, in an ideal world, one can score something like this...

[pwal³]

On 11/23/2022 at 6:45 AM, Grem said:

I have no receiver,  or speakers.

🤔

[pwal³]

what's the budget? you could get a decent setup (turntable, amp, speakers) mixing new and 2nd hand for 2-300? also depends on the room it's going into... also depends on how serious the person-to-keep-happy is about it all (just for show? or archive of 2000 lps to get through? etc)

Edited December 1, 2022 by pwalpwal

[Starship Krupa]

10 hours ago, mettelus said:

I really liked the fact that turntable had 4 speeds to it (not sure I have ever seen a 16 1/2 rpm record in my life, but playing records on the wrong speed was fun as a kid).

I have a story about that. This experience is burned into my mind.

When I first got mine, at age 5, my mother also gave me a kid's record called "The Ballad of the Headless Horseman," which sounded "fun" scary to me.

It came on a 7" with a small hole, and I had the Show 'n' Tell set to 33 1/3 because that was what I was used to from playing my mom's Sinatra records on her console (I was a weird kid; I really dug Sings Only For The Lonely and September of My Years).

The Headless Horseman record, though, was cut at 78, so when I put it on, all by myself upstairs in my bedroom, this terrifying "BWWWOOOOOOOAAAAAAAH" sound came out. Terrifying as in "I remember the details 56 years later" terrifying, and I ran out of my room not even stopping to turn it off. Fortunately it wasn't set on auto repeat (if the S+T even had that feature).

It was a great introduction to the power of raw sound to stir emotions, I gotta say.

 

[Shane_B.]

How clean your LPs are will have a far bigger impact than the difference between a low end and high end turntable. If you are even considering getting an all in one stereo with a turntable built in then it doesn't  matter which one you get. They all sound equally low fi.

I made my own LP wet vac system for like 50 bucks plus the the cleaning chems which will last a lifetime.

There was a massive impact on the sound quality after cleaning them.

I'll post pics later of what I made. There may be pics floating around the forum somewhere already.

Also the room will have a huge impact on sound quality just like recording. IMO speaker/room placement and how clean the LPs are have a far bigger impact than money thrown at high end gear unless you have golden ears and a perfect wave coming through your AC ... which nobody has unless you buy a $10,000 dollar wave regenerator.