What to look for in a turn table

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What to look for in a turn table

Postby Athena » Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:19 am

I've started to get a hold of excellent/mint condition Kimagure Orange Road LPs and I want to hear them because people keep telling me how awesome vinyl is compared to CDs/MP3s (Beo, I'm looking at you). Obviously, since these LPs are 1) rare 2) expensive and 3) in such amazing condition for being 25 years old, I really want to make sure I do not do anything to harm them.

What am I looking for? The last turn table I owned had Big Bird on the case (so.. uh... 1987? Maybe?).
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Re: What to look for in a turn table

Postby Beowulf » Sat May 09, 2009 12:20 pm

Vinyl is a world to its own. You can study sound reproduction for 10 hours every day for the rest of your life and not know anything about it when you die. Theres tons of turn tables, all with difference sound signatures, and then theres tones of tone arms, all with different signatures, and then theres tons of cartidges, all with different sounds, etc etc.

All that aside, look to spend about $500 on a decent turn table. $500 is a common price point.

I recommend the Technics SL-1200. It is the quintessential "turn table". Its been around forever, is rock solid, and one of the most popular and iconic turn tables of all time. Its cheap, Its built like a tank, it will last forever if you take care of it, and it can be upgraded to a bonefied hi-fi turntable with the right tone arm and cartridge. Most of all, you're not going to beat a Technics with a good cartridge for under $1500. Its the little turn table that could.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1200
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Re: What to look for in a turn table

Postby SJCorrectet » Sat May 16, 2009 8:26 am

Is it true that a belt-drive would work fine for just simple playback, though? I'd say twelve hundreds if you wanted to get creative with it, but for capture, we'd just be looking for some good-quality components on a table that plays at a steady speed, right?
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