Help me, I just bought a turntable

Varg Did Nothing Wrong said:
@OP enjoy your expensive-as-fuck records that will wear out if you actually use them for listening to music on the daily.
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Not to be "that guy" but good record players only track with a couple of grams of force, and shouldn't damage a clean record for thousands of plays. Shitty record players will absolutely carve a record up, though.

Granted, CDs are good until bitrot or the heat death of the universe. Swings and roundabouts.
 
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Spudnik said:
Not to be "that guy" but good record players only track with a couple of grams of force, and shouldn't damage a clean record for thousands of plays. Shitty record players will absolutely carve a record up, though.

Granted, CDs are good until bitrot or the heat death of the universe. Swings and roundabouts.
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A lot of that is down to how well you balance your tone arm. Too light and it'll skip, too heavy and it'll distort but a little too heavy and you'll wear your record and your cartridge. CDs are 'fine' if the audio on them has been recorded on modern digital equipment. Analogue masters transferred to CD always IMO sound worse than analog recordings of the same music. For reference I have the Pro-Ject Genie:
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For anyone wanting to get an audiophile grade turntable for under 300 quid Pro-Ject are your best bet. Obviously you'll need a receiver and speakers as well.
 
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LazarusOwenhart said:
CDs are 'fine' if the audio on them has been recorded on modern digital equipment. Analogue masters transferred to CD always IMO sound worse than analog recordings of the same music.
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I'd generally agree with that. Though a lot of early CD's, I think, captured the right tonality of their analog counterparts. Nothing like the real thing, though. I have a couple Digitally recorded records (DDA) that sound fantastic as well.

Under ideal conditions, Analog is definitely the best choice.

For reference I have the Pro-Ject Genie:
For anyone wanting to get an audiophile grade turntable for under 300 quid Pro-Ject are your best bet. Obviously you'll need a receiver and speakers as well.
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Oh man, that's a nice table! I haven't quite got the heart to put that much into a Vinyl setup yet. The worst thing about Audio as a hobby is you buy one quality piece and feel to have to upgrade everything else, it's never ending. I usually run a couple Infinity bookshelf-ish speakers and an old silver-faced pioneer receiver, with a pioneer PL-7, pretty cheap table on the secondhand market, but has a nice low-mass Graphite arm (not my pic, but same thing:) I have my tracking at like, 1.5 grams no issues.
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Basically, @Splendid Meat Sticks is seeing a glimpse of his future...you had a chance to run, man*yawn*
 
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@Spudnik I'm currently running mine through a Yamaha reciever and speaker setup but it's a modern one and not the best. Pioneer gear is awesome tbh, next on my list is, in fact a Pioneer sx 3600 because A it's a good reciever and B it looks like this:
IMG_1148-e1322534552789.jpg

Haven't decided what speakers I want yet but I'm a little limited on space.
I also have a complete Bang & Olufsen 5500:
https://sneed-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/2c/65/64/2c6564cd161342a9c5412a657b345592.jpg
However the speakers need refoaming and the CD player needs a bit of work so I can't use it until I can get it on my workbench for an afternoon and go to town on it.

As for you @Splendid Meat Sticks I agree with Spudnik. This is your future. You did a stupid thing and bought a turntable. Now you will learn the true cost of your folly.
 
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LazarusOwenhart said:
@Spudnik I'm currently running mine through a Yamaha reciever and speaker setup but it's a modern one and not the best. Pioneer gear is awesome tbh, next on my list is, in fact a Pioneer sx 3600 because A it's a good reciever and B it looks like this:
IMG_1148-e1322534552789.jpg
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Shit man, I have it's big brother next to me, a SX-3800 . I'm working on rebuilding/testing the powerboard (I think a cap or regulator went bad). For the record, they're very nice receivers, have a great clean sound (pretty famous for having a good phono stage as well). They also weigh a metric ton. The Fluoroscan pioneers look real nice, though i'm partial to the older black/blue ones. I have a SX-525 that needs a new output, and my main unit is a SX-727.

If the 3600 is anything like my 3800, don't stack stuff on top of it, they run hot. Part of their really nice sound is they run in non-switching class AB, a really unusual amplifier layout, but great results...and great heat.
 
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@Spudnik Luckily my ProJect only has a total of 6 square mm of surface contact split between 3 conical feet and a 50mm air gap under neath it. I can stand it on more or less anything without ventilation problems. The motor unit is free standing but shouldn't be a problem.

EDIT: Nice thing about The Genie is that ProJect have gone out of their way to make sure it's as un mechanical as possible. The motor is literally a seperate unit that stands next to the player (sits in a ring to mark where it should be but doesn't actually touch the body of the player, only physical link is the belt) To change the RPM you move the belt onto a bigger drive wheel so there's no switching or anything. The body and the platter are heavy guage cast aluminium connected by a free moving bearing that's more or less bulletproof and the tone arm can be completely replaced by unscrewing three screws and lifting it right off. The pre-amp is separate and grounded.
 
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It arrived and the whole thing seems to work fine. I was testing it out on someone else's much nicer setup, and I had to crank the volume up a lot though. Does this mean I need a pre-amp?
 
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Shit a turntable is only useful nowadays if the music you are playing only exists on dubplates or vinyls such as jungle oldies or hipster music.
 
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Splendid Meat Sticks said:
It arrived and the whole thing seems to work fine. I was testing it out on someone else's much nicer setup, and I had to crank the volume up a lot though. Does this mean I need a pre-amp?
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Yes. Yes you do. Do not be conned into buying one with vacuum tubes unless you're going to invest in a serious receiver/speaker setup. It's a waste.
 
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Splendid Meat Sticks said:
It arrived and the whole thing seems to work fine. I was testing it out on someone else's much nicer setup, and I had to crank the volume up a lot though. Does this mean I need a pre-amp?
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Ah great! glad to hear it's working. I assume you plugged it into the auxiliary input. If so, yes, it will be VERY quiet. You need either a separate amplifier or a receiver/amp with a built-in one, called a Phono Stage, typically, or Phono Amplifier.

Turntable cartridges are very small pickups that put out very small voltage, usually in the low mV (millivolt) range, and a "line level/ auxiliary input level" is usually around a volt or two. Big difference. A regular pre-amp will work, but it'll sound funny, since records are cut/mastered with an RIAA curve that a dedicated Phono stage corrects.

LazarusOwenhart said:
Yes. Yes you do. Do not be conned into buying one with vacuum tubes unless you're going to invest in a serious receiver/speaker setup. It's a waste.
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Tubes can be fun...but really, don't bother. An awful lot of people will say they make it sound better, they make it sound warmer. In some regards its true*, Tubes are adaptable. But they're a real headache, just get a Solid State, they're more reliable, more accurate, and a good quality one will outperform a tube amp in many cases. They do sound a little different. Realistically, it makes nearly zero difference with something as small as a phono stage. Avoid audiophile memes.

*sperging; there are a lot of technical reasons a Tube can sound better, whether it's impedance, odd-order harmonics, etc. However, tubes have much higher distortion figures, and a comparatively low life span to Solid State. I have a Headphone amp with a Tube-based preamp (little dot I+), it's fun because you can change the sound with different brands of tubes. It's also a headache because you have to worry about Current Bias and matching them, and them eventually burning out, and sourcing them, and figuring out Tube "families".

Look, you got a turntable, so you're going to wind up selling your blood and collecting aluminum cans to pay for "one more upgrade".
You start up with tubes...man...you'll wind up giving out dumpster BJ's just for NOS Raytheons.
 
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I hope to one day get a nice HiFi system with a quality turntable. Vinyl is the best. Right now I just have a Rock-Ola 460 jukebox and that only plays 45s.
 
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Turntables? Everyone knows cassette tapes are where it's at.

For real though, I think it's cool you got a turntable.
 
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