Help support the Mego Museum
Help support the Mego Museum

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Turntable recommendations...

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • cjefferys
    Duke of Gloat
    • Apr 23, 2006
    • 10180

    #16
    I think I have a room closer to that, so this turntable might work for me. What cartridge did you upgrade to? I was thinking of trying something other than the standard one which they install on their basic model.

    Comment

    • emeraldknight47
      Talkative Member
      • Jun 20, 2011
      • 5212

      #17
      As far as skipping goes, does the old trick of placing a coin on the tone arm help any at all with newer vinyl? I remember using either pennies or dimes on an old Motorola record player we used to have and it cured the problem pretty easily...
      sigpic Oh then, what's this? Big flashy lighty thing, that's what brought me here! Big flashy lighty things have got me written all over them. Not actually. But give me time. And a crayon.

      Comment

      • jimbutsu
        Memory *is* RAM!
        • Apr 11, 2002
        • 4158

        #18
        Originally posted by emeraldknight47
        As far as skipping goes, does the old trick of placing a coin on the tone arm help any at all with newer vinyl? I remember using either pennies or dimes on an old Motorola record player we used to have and it cured the problem pretty easily...
        If you have to do that, either the record or the equipment is bad. Putting that much additional weight on the arm will chew up the records pretty bad and wear down the needle and suspension in the cartridge. A record that's clean and well maintained (this is the real challenge with vinyl) shouldn't have any problems with skipping on a decent system with a quality needle unless it's defective.

        As far as the question about what table to get - yes, please steer clear of Crosley. U-Turn has a good rep as making a solid, nice table that sounds good, but the cautionary tale about them earlier in the thread is important - not for U-Turn specifically, but for any direction you go: you have to match the component to the rest of the system, including the room. There's a school of thought about making tables as light as possible, and another about making them heavy. A light table in a location where vibrations (speakers, footfalls, being next to train tracks) are going to hit it is going to ring. If your setup accommodates one over the other, you have to go that way regardless of how they allegedly sound. You're not stuck with U-Turn either.... if you're thinking of a similar $500 investment, there's lots of options out there.

        What do you already have that you want to connect it all to, and how much do you want to sink into a table? You could spend $500, you could spend $500,000...
        "If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man."

        - Mark Twain

        Comment

        • emeraldknight47
          Talkative Member
          • Jun 20, 2011
          • 5212

          #19
          Originally posted by jimbutsu
          You could spend $500, you could spend $500,000...
          Damn it, if only I had won that Powerball jackpot!
          sigpic Oh then, what's this? Big flashy lighty thing, that's what brought me here! Big flashy lighty things have got me written all over them. Not actually. But give me time. And a crayon.

          Comment

          • noelani72
            27inaleon
            • Jun 25, 2002
            • 4608

            #20
            Originally posted by cjefferys
            I think I have a room closer to that, so this turntable might work for me. What cartridge did you upgrade to? I was thinking of trying something other than the standard one which they install on their basic model.
            ($55) Grado cartridges have been hand built in Brooklyn, NY since 1953. The Black1 features a unique generator that delivers rich sound with punchy bass (taken directly from their website).
            It sounded great...alomst too much. But, after I put about 40hrs on it to break it in, it settled down a little.

            Comment

            • cjefferys
              Duke of Gloat
              • Apr 23, 2006
              • 10180

              #21
              Cool thanks, I was thinking of upgrading from the standard cartridge when I ordered an Orbit, and I have heard good things about that Grado cart.

              Comment

              • cjefferys
                Duke of Gloat
                • Apr 23, 2006
                • 10180

                #22
                OK, any recommendations for preamps? I'll need one of those too, U-turn sells one to go with their turntables, but there might be a better option out there?

                Comment

                • jimbutsu
                  Memory *is* RAM!
                  • Apr 11, 2002
                  • 4158

                  #23
                  Grado are good carts, as are the ortofon red and blue that U-Turn also offers. I'd say if you don't want to go all the way with a blue (the highest-end cart U-Turn offers), you're no worse off with the Grado than you would be with the Red, so it's a good approach.

                  Preamps are a tough one - there's a lot of really nice stuff out there that can cost more than a decent turntable - what sort of amp are you going to hook it up to, and what kind of speakers? Your receiver/amplifier might have a built in phono pre, but that's getting less common these days...
                  "If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man."

                  - Mark Twain

                  Comment

                  • noelani72
                    27inaleon
                    • Jun 25, 2002
                    • 4608

                    #24
                    i have a couple pre-amps here and one is from Orbit...it has a better punch, but not near as good as the built in preamp in any of my other turntables...and that pre-amp was something like $99 from Orbit and it is sitting in a spare room of my house collecting dust. :-/

                    Comment

                    • jimbutsu
                      Memory *is* RAM!
                      • Apr 11, 2002
                      • 4158

                      #25
                      Originally posted by noelani72
                      i have a couple pre-amps here and one is from Orbit...it has a better punch, but not near as good as the built in preamp in any of my other turntables...and that pre-amp was something like $99 from Orbit and it is sitting in a spare room of my house collecting dust. :-/
                      What tables are you using with built-in preamps? Few if any built-ins have a reputation for sounding good...
                      "If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man."

                      - Mark Twain

                      Comment

                      • cjefferys
                        Duke of Gloat
                        • Apr 23, 2006
                        • 10180

                        #26
                        Originally posted by jimbutsu
                        Grado are good carts, as are the ortofon red and blue that U-Turn also offers. I'd say if you don't want to go all the way with a blue (the highest-end cart U-Turn offers), you're no worse off with the Grado than you would be with the Red, so it's a good approach.

                        Preamps are a tough one - there's a lot of really nice stuff out there that can cost more than a decent turntable - what sort of amp are you going to hook it up to, and what kind of speakers? Your receiver/amplifier might have a built in phono pre, but that's getting less common these days...
                        Yeah, I don't want to go nuts, so I might get the Grado. I also don't want to go nuts with a preamp, ie. don't want to spend more for that than for the turntable. Unfortunately I'm not a rich audiophile (I wish!), I have some JBL speakers and a Yamaha amp. The Yamaha is around 15 years old but still works like a champ, it's always had a great sound IMO, alas no phono pre though.

                        Comment

                        • jimbutsu
                          Memory *is* RAM!
                          • Apr 11, 2002
                          • 4158

                          #27
                          In the absence of a phono pre in the amp, and with decent speakers like JBLs, you could do a lot worse than the Pluto that U-Turn sells. It does a nice job for the price, gets solid reviews, and it won't break the bank. If you know you like the table you're getting, you can have the Pluto built in, but the modularity between table/pre/cartridge/stylus offers a lot of customizability and fixability if you ever want to try something different or something breaks down.

                          Other pres that have a good rep in the $100-200 range:
                          Schiit Mani (well priced, can use lots of different cartidges with it - which won't be an issue if you stick with the Grado, but the Pluto generally is said to sound better in reviews)
                          Graham Slee Communicator (Supposed to be one of the best budget-friendly pres out there, but has to be ordered from the UK and comes with all the associated headaches)
                          Musical Fidelity V90 (there's a lot of people who really like this one, though to be honest I've never heard it)

                          I've gone with a few things, but settled on the Parks Audio Budgie. It's probably more than you want to put into a preamp right now, but I bring it up because sooner or later you're going to have to ask yourself if you want to dabble in sticking tubes anywhere in the chain. Some people look at tubes and quickly say "hell to the no, I'm not going to do that."
                          And to those people I say: You are probably much, much smarter than me.
                          "If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man."

                          - Mark Twain

                          Comment

                          • cjefferys
                            Duke of Gloat
                            • Apr 23, 2006
                            • 10180

                            #28
                            Thanks for the advice sir! I'd like to try something with tubes someday, that Budgie looks nice, but I think I'll work my way up to that.

                            Comment

                            • Nostalgiabuff
                              Muddling through
                              • Oct 4, 2008
                              • 11290

                              #29
                              I have found the same issues as Noelani on new vinyl, not all, bust some of them. I prefer vintage turntables. I bought a beautiful console Magnavox at an estate sale. it was hard to find someone who still makes repairs and it was costly but it sounds great. I paid $50 for the console at an estate sale and it cost me $300 to have the turntable repaired but well worth it. also has storage for records, radio, etc. though you do have to have the room for such a large piece

                              Comment

                              • noelani72
                                27inaleon
                                • Jun 25, 2002
                                • 4608

                                #30
                                Originally posted by jimbutsu
                                What tables are you using with built-in preamps? Few if any built-ins have a reputation for sounding good...
                                in my earlier post that had all the links - the best sounding one was the Sony (oddly enough). I have two of them and I was half tempted to open it up, remove the pre-amp and wire it up for the U-Turn Orbit....but then we get into the area of what kind of amp is needed for the cartridge type...didn't want to tinker.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                😀
                                🥰
                                🤢
                                😎
                                😡
                                👍
                                👎