Playing old vinyls?

jamesperrett

I'd agree with SouthUKMan - many of the cheaper turntables have an arm that is too short and so there is a huge amount of distortion as you get towards the inner grooves. On a budget I'd take a look at some of the DJ turntables with S shaped arms as at least they've got the geometry right. Secondhand hifi turntables from the 70's and 80's are also good - you may need to buy a new belt for some of them but they're not expensive and easy to fit.

buglawton

Can anyone explain why an S shaped arm is better geometry? The total length from pivot to needle is the main thing surely? (longer = arm stays more parallel)

Heedtheadvice

S shaped arm?

It's all to do with selling something that is better!
Just like oxygen free copper or gold connectors sound vastly better too.......

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and by the way the earth is flat, there's no global warming, the sun goes around the earth and radio waves travel through ether.....:rotfl:

When you get to the upper reaches of hifi, like most other things, logic goes out of the window. Somebody will claim perfection with this or that, a reviewer will confirm an improvement and a gullible 'enthusiast' will buy so that they have the latest and best even though they cannot hear any difference and there is no difference in geometry, as you rightly wrote, between going on a roundabout route from pivot to cartridge or going in a straight line!

Looks nice though.......and it can be easier to manufacture a squiggly tube than one with angled heads and still keep low mass.

artyclarty

I would thoroughly recommend going down the second hand route. I had a budget Numark TT-USB and some second hand £30 eltax speakers (and an early 90s hifi I already had) that served me well for a good decade but decided to treat us to something a bit nicer.

We went for early 80s stock: £50 for a Technics SL-B2 (plus headshell which cost the same again but can go cheaper here, generally though most setups will come with this), £30 for a Technics SU-5 and we use the same speakers. The difference is like night and day!

And to think I spent £80 at the time on the cheap crappy Numark!! I also found out later that they were also badged as Ion and a few other crummy makes. Avoid these if possible, you can do so much better for your money.

David_Aston

Great posts guys. You've covered everything from the snake oil merchant who would spend a decent portion of the UK debt, provided that you had the money in the bank, to the absolute best bet for someone with very limited dosh.
To the op, I would just add that my small vinyl collection, collected over 45 plus years, is rarely listened to. I am a Spotify, via Sonos and then through my decent hifi, listener these days.

fred246

My first thought was to concentrate on your digital needs but make sure you have an input on your amp for a turntable. I setup my Dual turntable with a Denon AV amp bi-amped into two floor standing speakers. In between the speakers I put a 60 inch TV so the system could double up as a home cinema. So I can choose vinyl, CDs (stored on a HDD in FLAC) or I can watch youtube videos. I am afraid to say I watch youtube videos more than anything. The adverts are annoying but I can choose almost any piece of music that has ever been recorded plus I have something to watch. Music quality is slightly inferior but you have to be pretty obsessed with music quality to bother. Vinyl equals plenty of time searching for the record, working out which track you want the tonearm to land on, dust, crackles etc. I really don't rate it's long term future. I would never pay current vinyl prices. Paying current vinyl prices and playing them on a £30 turntable is totally crazy.

fred246

I remember as a child my parents were looking at 100Hz televisions when most were 50. They asked the salesman which was best. He said look at those TVs side by side. The 100Hz is slightly better. In your lounge you will only have ONE TV. Whichever TV you buy you will be happy with it. It's like that with music formats. You really have to keep comparing them to realise that one is slightly different to the other. I have music recorded on FLAC and MP3 at the highest bitrate. There is a difference but not much.