turntable help

You can ground it to the preamp case without a washer perhaps (just secure one part of the horseshoe shaped contact). Or buy a washer.

The only turntables I've ever had have been cheapo Vestax-type things. I don't have a stereo system.

What advice would you give a *total idiot* about what turntable they should buy? Here's one of my many stupid questions: Can you plug a turntable directly into speakers?

I guess I have about £400 to spend. Is that too little for anything decent?

Can you plug a turntable directly into speakers?
in order to do that you need a turntable with a built-in pre-amp and powered speakers
it's more common to have passive speakers and a turntable that need to be connected through an amplifier/ receiver.
not sure how it is in the uk, but i would recomend buying a used turntable, i have a technics direct drive, that despite being basically the bottom of the line model in 1981 has never needed repairs other than changing the cartridge. they're workhorses and sound good enough, imo. audiophiles will tell you belt driven turntables sound better.

for four hundred pounds you can get a really good turntable, but you also need a receiver and probably a preamp/phono stage

the classic system is source / amp / speakers.

the turntable will be your source. £220 will get you a Pro-Ject turntable which is well regarded (and one of the 'audiophile' turntables mizzell mentions, rather than a more dj turntable like the technics. bit more delicate.). something like this: http://www.richersounds.com/product/turntables/project/essential-2/proj-essential-2-blk (the cheaper, shaped Pro-Jects don't appear to come with lids, which annoys me)

and if you use the same site and click on Amplifiers, and filter on "Phono Stage" at the bottom there then there's a list of amps that you can plug your new turntable into (without a phono stage you'll need a separate pre-amp because a turntable doesn't produce line-level signals like a cd player or tuner does). the denon (£130) or marantz (£150) look like bargains and these things will last forever.

http://www.richersounds.com/products/hi-fi-separates/separates/amplifiers-receivers#1

what speakers do you have? a new system may expose flaws in cheap old speakers.

(am sure there's another thread for this stuff btw)

here: Turntable recommendation required herein

reading that you'll see that the pro-ject is an uncontroversial choice...

Thanks for all this help! I don't have speakers either... I guess realistically I'm looking at closer to £600 for everything.

I live in a tiny flat, so I don't need things to get very loud. The truth is I have a Vestax Handytrax and it's plenty loud, but a new cartridge is about £30 and the whole thing cost just about £150, so I figured maybe it was time to just upgrade. Also on another site someone said it could be damaging my records, though they still sound okay to me.

Seems like there's a huge gap in the market for something that's a couple hundred bucks all-in and sounds decent!

I live in a tiny flat, so I don't need things to get very loud.

get some good headphones.

seriously.

obvious i know, but they make a massive difference.

i have some very cheap basic sony headphones, and i seriously cannot wait to upgrade them.

If you get a turntable with a line-level output/built-in preamp, you can buy some speakers and a mini amp like the Lepai LP-2020A+ (cheap on Amazon). The Audio-Technica LP120 seems to be decently made, though you might want to switch the cartridge out, or try the Pro-ject or whatever.

You may want to know that it is a bit annoying to change speeds on those budjet Pro-ject-esque turntables. I bought an old Technics SL-1600 mk2 for $200 and and I love it. You will then pay another $100 or so for a new cartridge, though.

Aww man now I want to play Spyro.

From Turntable Recommendations II, the one linked by Tom Waits for no one plays through computer (which can rec CD-Rs from vinyl thusly), and good price, good accessories. The Denon linked by Areo looks good, but more expensive:

a friend rec'd me this and it looks like exactly what i was looking for fwiw
http://www.lpgear.com/product/ATLP60.html

― Tom Waits for no one (outdoor_miner), Friday, April 25, 2014 12:15 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
4 months pass...

Anybody have any opinions about Denon turntables?

http://www.needledoctor.com/Denon-DP300F-with-2M-Red-Package?sc=2&category=1143

― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, September 19, 2014 8:49 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I started out with the really cheap Denon with a p mount cart and I didn't really like it, but the DP300F looks cool. It has antiskate, but it looks like there's no way to adjust VTA (which you can get with a cheap used Technics).

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0105/4542/products/handy1_large.jpg

Is there anyone out there making a battery-powered/USB turntable similar to the Vestax Handy Trax? Sadly, they're out of business and the eBay prices are climbing.

There's the Numark PT01USB. I think it has the same (regrettably heavy-tracking) cartridge as the Vestax but it's a bit bulkier. Single built in speaker.

There's also a Sylvania ripoff of the classic Sound Burger portable that goes for like $30-35 on Amazon and is apparently USB equipped, lots of "works great after I tinkered with it" reviews though.

Anyone know where to buy stereo equipment in NYC? I used to buy my stuff at J&R on Park Row but its closed. Thanks for any help!

A replacement stylus for the Shure M97XE used to be available for ~$50 on amazon. Does anyone know what happened? Might as well buy a new cart I guess.

Yeah, I bought a couple of the N97XE from Amazon like 5 years ago for $49 a pop. Not sure why they're up to $90 now. A bunch of places still have it listed in the $45-$50 range, but who knows if they're in stock or not.

Was poking around today trying to figure out what the deal was, wondering if Shure is discontinuing the M97XE.

Just FYI that cartridge has non-Shure aftermarket styli available, the Pfanstiehl number is 4771 or 771; you can get them for $21 and under at

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/

Not familiar with Shure, but Ortofon 2M Red cartridge is great value for money - you can upgrade to the 2M Blue needle if you wear out the red one

Shure still has the full cartridge listed on their site, but not the replacement stylus. A buddy of mine works at Shure HQ; I'll see if he can find out what's up.

I have an Ortofon currently
But I have a huge love for Denon cartridges...
Grado makes some good affordable carts

thanks, all. I'm going to buy an aftermarket stylus and maybe one of the more affordable sources of the Shure part will restock in the meantime. Or maybe I'll be fine with the aftermarket part. I may look at some other carts, as well, just because it's fun. The ortofon 2m Red replacement stylus is ~%80 of the cart cost as well. I wonder if one does better buying an expensive stylus and replacing less frequently vs. buying an aftermarket stylus and replacing more frequently.

I'm having trouble getting my Stanton T.92 with new aftermarket stylus sounding good myself (it sounds awful right now, and I THINK I have everything set up properly?), but it's frustrating because it's pretty hard for me to isolate where the issue lies. I'm not a gear guy really.

do you have the correct tracking weight for your aftermarket stylus? I noticed that it can be different than that recommended for the cart manufacturer's stylus.

Oh good call. I hadn't considered that. Not too sure how to figure that out though- trial and error perhaps?

the website GPIIH linked to helpfully shows tracking weights for aftermarket styli if you remember which one you have.

Thanks, hopefully it will clear things up. It perks me up to consider that I won't necessarily have to roll the dice on yet another stylus and hope it fares better.

Also bear in mind that carts can take time to "burn in" to the sound you'll eventually get. But tracking weight and where the stylus is hitting the groove are important. Vinyl Engine has protractors you can print out and use if you need to, it's pretty simple to do.

this is probably NOT what you're looking for, but there are aftermarket styli from JICO in japan that people swear by for shure cartridges"

http://www.jico-stylus.com/product_info.php?cPath=18&products_id=1525

like people seem to buy the shure n97xe more or less with the idea of putting a JICO stylus in it

fyi I have an Grado model that was equivalent to a silver, and then put a gold stylus in it. it sounds really nice, but doesn't always track very well on inner grooves or on loud parts I guess?

tell me more about denon cartridges... the MC ones get good reviews, but then maybe I am going down the road of buying a separate preamp (even though yeah I know they're high-output).

I have seen some excitement over the JICO stylus, but it is indeed a bit too pricey. Who knows. I ended up ordering the Pfanstiehl. It will be fun to compare it with the old n97xe stylus that I currently have, anyway. If the $50 n97xe comes back in the meantime, I can do a fairer comparison. tbh, the desire for a new stylus started when I noticed a lot of sibilance on bjork's "Show Me Forgiveness", and I later discovered that it's mostly from the recording.

that grado silver cart looks pretty cool btw.

sibilance is what has driven me crazy trying to replace cartridges and fine tune alignment in the past, but I wonder if I'm just sort of at the limit of the medium. inner groove distortion and sibilance. people make claims about cartridges that can track everything and sound beautiful on inner grooves, but I guess I kinda don't trust them?

I try not to fool myself about the limitations of vinyl. I just want to make it sound as good as I can.

I've been struggling with the same problem, replaced my Grado cartridge last year and have been noticing distortion and sibilance more and more. Maybe it just isn't broken in yet, as I don't use the turntable all the time. I definitely struggle to wrap my head around some of the finer points of adjusting a turntable.

^ This is exactly my problem word for word, except replace "Grado cartridge" with "Stanton stylus".

I doubt that "burn in" really is a thing

yeah never heard abt that actually

what can you do - align the cartridge, check weight and antiskating?

there's sibilance on cds too

The sibilance on CDs isn't a function of their playback mechanism or physical condition though, is it? It's bad recording.

if you have the same cart and you're hearing sibilance that you didn't hear with the exact same cartridge before, it's almost certainly a set-up issue

(again i thank god i live in the same city as Needle Doctor so I can buy a cart in the store and have them put it on)

I hadn't understood you were experiencing sibilance on tracks that used to play without - just meant to say that sibilance is a pretty common feature of recordings and not necessarily product of poor cartridge alignment/worn records

^^^ I listen more carefully to vinyl, and so I notice more good and bad things in the sound. I tend to blame the bad things on my setup too quickly.

this is a good explanation of what can be going wrong. So even if you hear more sibilance on the vinyl compared to the CD, it could be due to error/compromise in the cutting process.

so my problems ended up just being a worn/damaged stylus. the Pfanstiehl that GPIIH pointed me toward has been great. the plastic parts are hilariously fragile, so I just ripped off the little stylus guard. the weight difference with shure stylus was also pretty hilarious, so definitely had to recal tracking force (xp to Evan in case he didn't do this with his aftermarket stylus). think I'll be happily replacing the stylus more frequently with this option.

Thanks, I actually haven't looked into it yet! I keep putting it off. I definitely hope it just comes down to needing to calibrate it in a differently way than the old one. I probably haven't done enough experimenting with trial and error? I don't want to end up putting too much weight on it without realized it either. I get a little paranoid about carving up my records due to my gear ignorance.

(on the offchance anyone not following the other thread is following this one, apologies for duplicating)

Hellos.

My 17-year-old Ariston turntable has started making a weird whinnying sound if its been playing for more than 15-20 minutes. Someone on Facebook suggested I replace the belt, which has never been replaced in its lifetime, as the belt can sometimes make that weird noise if its too old.

I've tried to purchase replacement belts online, but if they're even a few millimeters too long, it seems, there's a massive impact on the speed of the record player - if too tight, too fast, if too loose, too slow. Like, an unlistenable impact.

So:

a) do I need to let one of these new, tighter belts run in, or are they just too big?

b) is it the belt that is causing this problem?

I am v close to getting rid of the turntable and buying another (old) one off eBay but am also worried that I will hit a similar impossible-to-remedy problem.

I am also newly reconverted to the appeal of CDs now (not really, the tray of my CD player is also busted and I can only put CDs on through the use of a bent up piece of thin metal).

ANY help or advice appreciated.

I've had good luck emailing the Needle Doctor with questions they are pretty helpful