Retro-style vinyl player?

thriftwizard

You're probably wondering why anyone would want one, but I'm a "vintage" trader & want to find a record player, mostly for home use, that will fit in with the general atmosphere of my stall on our market for occasional use there. So the spec basically is, a stand-alone player, 50s/60s styling, reasonable sound quality & strength from its own speakers although being able to use external speakers would work, plus the ability to convert to MP3. CD, radio or iPod would be nice but aren't essential, and cassette would be wasted on us! Max budget is about £150 but I'd be happier around the £100 mark. I seem to have been reading customer reviews all day, can't find any serious reviews (probably beneath their notice) and am now completely confused as to whether I need belt-driven and whether any of them are any better than novelties! Please can anyone help me?

googler

There's oodles of them out there, in the catalogues that fall out of the Radio Times, in the classifieds in Radio Times itself, on eBay, on Amazon .... I can't recommend any because they all look like plastic tat.

Why not just buy a genuine vintage model? You won't get the mp3 capability etc, but at least you'll get something real.....

penrhyn

A nice Dansette, with a BSR autochanger, or did they use Garrard? Been a while!

almillar

This conversion stuff is rubbish IMO - a cheapo record player with a USB port. That USB port is no use, just use the normal audio connections! Using this logic, you'll get great stuff second hand.
A stand alone turntable (that you would put in a HiFi rack) would be my choice, with a compatible amp (again second hand), then you can output from it to your computer, and use the programme Audacity to rip the records onto your computer.

InsideInsurance

Most turntables these days are designed to be part of a hifi system. Whilst there are some ultra modern looking tables the vast majority are fairly traditional. Second hand can be fine but need to be careful about the state of the stylus. As tables are mainly the preserve of audiophiles these days many styluses are almost the same price as a new table (with mine the price for the full unit was less than the price of just the arm and stylus)

The line level from a turntable is much lower than from other sources so you need to sure that the amp you buy has an appropriate phono stage built in (mm or mc) otherwise you'd need another separate stage before you can plug it into the Aux/ CD etc of the amp.

For recording on a computer, agree with others, the all in one solutions are terrible quality. Use the line level output from your amp or phono stage to the audio input on your computer.

penrhyn

Steepletone do Dansette lookalikes for around £100. They have speakers.

geordieracer

I hoik one of these around with me when I'm record hunting.http://www.amazon.co.uk/musical-instruments/dp/B0000WRVK0

esuhl

thriftwizard wrote: »

I seem to have been reading customer reviews all day... and am now completely confused as to whether I need belt-driven and whether any of them are any better than novelties! Please can anyone help me?

I'm not sure how reliable this is, but I've heard that the belt-drive ones are good because they reduce vibration between the motor and the turntable... but in the higher-end models (that have more refined motors) the direct-drive ones can sound better.

If you specifically want a retro style deck, I guess sound quality isn't absolutely paramount, so I wouldn't worry too much about whether the player is direct- or belt-driven.

penrhyn

Can't go wrong with Thorens.