Cheap turntables

fred246

In the late 1980s I put together a new HiFi separates system. CD player, tuner, amp and speakers. Vinyl was dying so we bought a second hand turntable from the newspaper ads. We still had a large vinyl collection. I'll never forget looking at my wife when we played a record. It sounded so much better than the CD. I remember checking all the connections. Just could not understand it. In the 2000s the children certainly liked the novelty of seeing a record spinning. I now have a large CD collection on a media server ripped to FLAC. Nice amp bi-amped to floor standing speakers. I like comparing digital to vinyl. Vinyl is such a pain trying to land your stylus on a track, hisses and crackles, better drums, more emotion somehow. Digital so easy to choose your track, so pure but robotic. Then I see cheap turntables in Aldi and Lidl with tinny speakers on the front. Who are these for? New vinyl is so expensive. Good music is so freely available on youtube. Not the best bitrate, but it's really OK. These turntables will go straight from factory to landfill. Unless you're putting together a quality turntable system just stick to digital.

Mr_Toad

Friends of mine have just bought one, I think it was about £50, they said it brought back memories of the old players they had in the bedrooms as kids.

They have a large collection of old singles and albums so had plenty to play.

Yes they are cheap and nasty but to be honest they are great fun. I was round there not long after they got it and we spent a couple of hours listening to some of their old singles and a few albums and they sounded just as we all remembered.

Not the thing for audiophiles but definitely fun if you have a stack of old vinyl doing nothing in the loft.

googler

So, these folks have lots of vinyl, had a turntable to play it on 'back in the day', but managed to lose/sell/dispose of it, whilst keeping the vinyl, and HAD to buy a cheap piece of tat to recreate the experience.

Am I the only one to find this weird?

They found the space for the (much heavier, much bulkier) vinyl, but not for the device that plays it back?

The plasticky playthings to be found in the supermarkets are there to be avoided.

DigForVictory

If I'd the vinyl to play, I'd be headed for richer sounds for the kit to play it on. They really know their stuff & they discount end of line high end gear a charm.
No connection, just a very happy customer.

RumRat

googler wrote: »

So, these folks have lots of vinyl, had a turntable to play it on 'back in the day', but managed to lose/sell/dispose of it, whilst keeping the vinyl, and HAD to buy a cheap piece of tat to recreate the experience.

Am I the only one to find this weird?

They found the space for the (much heavier, much bulkier) vinyl, but not for the device that plays it back?

The plasticky playthings to be found in the supermarkets are there to be avoided.

Seems to be a bit of Vinyl snobbery there...;)
I have an original Bush SRP52 with a Garrard turntable. So, my Vinyl is played on on what it was 'Back in the day'.
I also have one of the 'cheap piece of tat' machines you are deriding. Both are portable record players of their time and neither can match a high end HiFi system.
The Bush and Dansette record players were the way the vast majority listened to their music not through anything near high end.
The Bush is the better of the two but the cheap one holds it's own for casual listening.:)

Crag30

Glad I kept my old Dual 505-2.

elsien

googler wrote: »

So, these folks have lots of vinyl, had a turntable to play it on 'back in the day', but managed to lose/sell/dispose of it, whilst keeping the vinyl, and HAD to buy a cheap piece of tat to recreate the experience.

Am I the only one to find this weird?

They found the space for the (much heavier, much bulkier) vinyl, but not for the device that plays it back?

.

That makes me weird as well then. I currently have a stack of old records taking up space and nothing to play them on as the record player died years ago and wasn't replaced. Can't bring myself to get rid though, so it's entirely possible that at some point I might buy said cheap bit of tat to give them a whirl.

EssexExile

I have an old Riga turntable that I bought as part of a hi-fi system in the nineties. When I dug it out recently to copy some vinyl to cd it didn't sound too good, new belts didn't help either.

UncleZen

Crag30 wrote: »

Glad I kept my old Dual 505-2.

Still got my Dual CS506 !

G_M

I've got 3 turntables stashed away.....

Gloomendoom

I ave a Systemdek turntable somewhere. It needs a new cartridge though.