low cost vinyl record player

Shiraz (Ray) · #1 11-10-2015, 11:57 PM

Hi. The grandkids have recently taken an interest in some of my vinyl records (eg. they were amazed that Star Wars music could be on something so ancient). Rather than let them loose on my Shure/SME setup, I bought them a cheap AudioTechnica LP60 turntable at Costco. What a ripper. Although clearly made to a low price, it has been designed to make the absolute most of the allocated plastic and metal. It has smooth single-disk automatic operation, belt drive with no appreciable rumble, MM cartridge with quite reasonable tracking (at 3 grams fixed), good frequency response and low distortion, built in preamp and USB. I am listening to some Vivaldi on it now - a pleasant sound. The cartridge alone has to be worth a good part of the $135 price of the whole thing.

A most disturbing aspect was that the Costco checkout staff asked what it was and what it did!

Anyway, if you need an el-cheapo record player to get onto the vinyl revival, this one is OK.

RB (Andrew) · #2 12-10-2015, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shiraz

A most disturbing aspect was that the Costco checkout staff asked what it was and what it did!

blink138 (Pat) · #3 12-10-2015, 12:17 AM

are you going to let the grandchildren loose on your vinyls ray?
have you an sme turntable?
i absolutely love my vinyls and my turntable
pat

PCH (Paul) · #4 12-10-2015, 12:29 AM

Once you've played your precious vinyls on a crappy stylus, you do know they won't ever sound the same on a your good quality deck/stylus!

Shiraz (Ray) · #5 12-10-2015, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blink138

are you going to let the grandchildren loose on your vinyls ray?
have you an sme turntable?
i absolutely love my vinyls and my turntable
pat

Only some of them Pat - we have quite a few clapped out 45s and some 33s with kids music, Christmas Carols, The Seekers etc. where they can't do much damage

.
I have an old SME 3009 s2 arm - lovely machine.

Shiraz (Ray) · #6 12-10-2015, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PCH

Once you've played your precious vinyls on a crappy stylus, you do know they won't ever sound the same on a your good quality deck/stylus!

good point Paul, but this is not a crap turntable like some of the cheapies. With a compliant moving magnet cartridge, low tracking weight and gentle mechanism, I am quite happy to play anything on it - it is actually surprisingly un-crappy where it matters.

glend (Glen) · #7 12-10-2015, 09:05 AM

Hmm, must get out the 'Dark Side of the Moon', and 'King Crimson' for a spin.

LewisM · #8 12-10-2015, 09:09 AM

I still cringe when I think back to 2009 when my father sold the family house after we kids left home. He had kept 4 large stacks of LP's...

All went unceremoniously into the skip bin. When I said he could have sold them to collectors etc, his reply was that no one cared therse days - there are CD's nowadays. The old PYE turntable and 3 foot genuine wood speakers went into the same skip.

Some people just do not get the collector mentality. My wife, unfortunately, is one of those, although she does collect money VERY well (bless her! I tend to spend it all otherwise!)

blink138 (Pat) · #9 12-10-2015, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shiraz

Only some of them Pat - we have quite a few clapped out 45s and some 33s with kids music, Christmas Carols, The Seekers etc. where they can't do much damage

.
I have an old SME 3009 s2 arm - lovely machine.

ah yes ray, i had the 3009 and a shure 4 on a lovely 80's rega planar 3, served me many years, but for sucking sonics from a vinyl, moving coil cartridges reign unchallenged!
pat

Shiraz (Ray) · #10 12-10-2015, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glend

Hmm, must get out the 'Dark Side of the Moon', and 'King Crimson' for a spin.

yes, it's a bit like meeting some old friends - Shearing, Knopfler, Karajan, Kirkby, all sounding as good as they ever did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LewisM

I still cringe when I think back to 2009 when my father sold the family house after we kids left home. He had kept 4 large stacks of LP's...

All went unceremoniously into the skip bin. When I said he could have sold them to collectors etc, his reply was that no one cared therse days - there are CD's nowadays. The old PYE turntable and 3 foot genuine wood speakers went into the same skip.

Some people just do not get the collector mentality. My wife, unfortunately, is one of those, although she does collect money VERY well (bless her! I tend to spend it all otherwise!)

don't despair totally Lewis, there are huge numbers of records available on the second hand market. I am also a collector at heart - a lot of effort went into some of the old records and they can still bring a lot of pleasure, even though some of the artists may no longer be with us (Gigli springs to mind) - I am all for that sort of immortality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by blink138

ah yes ray, i had the 3009 and a shure 4 on a lovely 80's rega planar 3, served me many years, but for sucking sonics from a vinyl, moving coil cartridges reign unchallenged!
pat

You reinforce the reason for buying the AT player - nothing in the above list should be put anywhere near a grandchild