Now I've done it -- getting a turntable

You can't go wrong with a P6, especially if you don't plan getting too serious. And if you do there is room to improve.

Good luck with isolation. I have bouncy floors and my Ovation has to go on a wall shelf. I also replaced the spiked feet with isolation feet. I have HRS Nimbus but I also tried isoAcoustics Orea and they work about as well.

RT - short of moving the 'table to the wall shelf, what's the most effective 'bouncy floor' solution you've found?  (I think we'll be pretty ok given the ability to just sit and listen.)

Bart posted:

RT - short of moving the 'table to the wall shelf, what's the most effective 'bouncy floor' solution you've found?  (I think we'll be pretty ok given the ability to just sit and listen.)

Wall shelf is only solution for me. I'm on second floor of 90 yr old brick house with bouncy floors. I've had Sondek LP 12, Rega 3 and now my Clearaudio Ovation. If there's a way to make it work on a floor shelf I don't know about it.

i have a rega rp8, bouncy wood floor.  The turntable sits on a black granite platform: superb sound!   the arm is tracking perfectly.   ( 5 cm of granite)

French Rooster posted:

i have a rega rp8, bouncy wood floor.  The turntable sits on a black granite platform: superb sound!   the arm is tracking perfectly.   ( 5 cm of granite)

I think it's pretty much YMMV. When I lived in a condo with bouncy floors, my LP12 worked pretty well, but not in my current house.

I have had Planar3 and RP10 on Fraim near corner of the room.  Floor is suspended, but solid 95-year-old construction, original oak t&g.  Both turntables have been remarkably satisfying and un-fussy, quiet.

Floors can vary widely, of course.

FWIW, my Naim dealer put my fully-updated, c. 2003 Planar3/Exact in his second home system, for the fun of it!  I felt somewhat a fool for letting it go, after that.

Have fun.

Nick

The suspended tables like the LP12 seem to be worse with a bouncy floor than the more rigidly mounted. I couldn’t walk near the rack when I had a Manticore but had no problems with a Rock mk2 (sorbothane feet and later spring in bellows feet) even without the damping trough and an Aro fitted, nor with my current Artemis which sits on rigid cones. The Rega will likely be fine on a Fraim and is simple to set up, mainly because you can’t set up much beyond levelling it and adjusting the tracking weight (maybe cartridge alignment using the slots but not azimuth or VTA). A Well Tempered Simplex is also worth considering if you (and your wife) don’t find its arm too alarming) but there’s a host of other candidates.

You neen to clean them as well... maybe get a static gun, gloves to handle lps, a rack, plastic covers for all, phono stage, Cleaning liquid, a brush for LPs , a tiny one for cartridge, oil for belt....

vinly is like a having a puppy, feels good, it makes you happy,you love it but it is hell of a Job... 

? will get another one where i will be on a retierment timings!

p8 just Came Out and it is very nice...

hi Bart,  TT can give you immense joy with a limited investment, the “value for money” curve is quite different from digital.

I understand Rega’s are very popular here (presumably due to the dominance of the British element in the forum demographics) - an alternative is Pro-ject. This is where I started from (a “Debut” with an Ortophon Blue). That should be sufficient to start with .

 I have ever since moved up the ladder to a Clearaudio Ovation but with a commensurate investment in both old and new LPs :-) 

Hi Bart

An LP12 is a no no I also thought it won't matter I won't be jumpimg around whilst I'm listening but you have to walk back to your listening chair once you have put a record on.

Your other problem is that you are used to a high quality playback and I get that your not buying a TT to compete with your ND555 but if you go too cheap it will sound so inferior that you won't enjoy the experience.  I would go for a used RP8 or the new P8 anything less including an an RP6 won't work because of the level you are used to.

My other advice if you get to a place where you want to add to your 30 or so records would be to buy original 1st presses like the ones your wife has recovered if it isn't possible or it is a new release pay attention to mastering and pressing and ask advice here.

If you do it right you will have a nice alternative listening experience and you'll rediscover the pleasure of playing a record.

If you really found original Beatles, i would sell them and buy lots of records  and a big turntable...

Beware: She will only be listening to that The Sound of Music record. 

A Planar 6 + Ania is a good choice. Or even a Planar 3 with a Neo PSU and an Ania, after all, do remember that you'll need a phono stage as well. If you want to spend more then, with the arrival of the new Planar 8, its predecessor the RP8 is currently selling for a very good price Stateside - under $2k I see just from a quick online search.

Otherwise, if you just want to play some classic Beatles LPs then how about a classic turntable?  I would find it hard to resist the charms of a pre-Cirkus/post-Nirvana Linn Sondek with a nice Ittok on board.  But it's a potential rabbit hole for the initiated with lots of pitfalls for the unwary and myriad upgrade options tempting your cash.  My advice; go for the best you can afford and keep it simple.  

Or perhaps a restored Thorens?  There's a company Stateside who specialise at this. They're stripped, cleaned, polished  and rebuilt, usually with new plinths and sporting improved tonearms (Rega, Jelco, SME etc..). They also restore vintage AR Turntables and some of these, with extensive "Merrill" mods, can sound very nice.  Main weakness with the AR is/was the original arm, usually replaced with something better like a period Stax or Grace. Whether Thorens or AR, they certainly look gorgeous.  Hopefully they sound as good as they look.

Or maybe consider a new but homegrown option, such as a deck from VPI.  These appear to us in Britain as conspicuously good value at their US selling price. If I were in the US, I'd certainly have their record playing decks on my audition list. 

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

Quote:

"I don't see us going DEEP into vinyl"

All you need is a cheap but good TT for that couple of lp's once a week. So simple to set up ones like Rega RP1, Pro-ject Essential/Budget or other  brands will get you the goodies. 

I bought a Michell Orbe, SME IV and Ortofon Cadenza Black after carefully looking into the RP10 (very nice btw) and several other TTs.

Took the best part of a day to carefully adjust everything and get the whole thing perfectly tuned. Sounded great although some of the most recent 180g remasters are exactly like the vinyl of old  i.e not very good, so buying vinyl is still a lottery. So I bought ca 150 classical records from a well respected source...Deccas and EMIs mainly....all mint.  They sounded wonderful apart from needing a clean and I don’t have a cleaner. 

I then set up a Innuos Zenith MkII SE. Completely blew away the vinyl in every respect to the point I stripped down the TT and traded it in. Certainly not worth all the fuss and bother of playing records to get inferior SQ.  I went into Qobuz and added all the vinyl titles to my favorites, so now they’re all available at the point of a finger.  Conclusion? I now have 180 records, no TT and instant access to the same music with superior quality...a real folly 

Bart

with your system I would want to get as much source as within your budget to be honest, but Rega P6 is a good deck

however a good SH LP12  is within reach,  my dealer can work with in your budget my first LP12 was £600

its the route I went down and will never return have a number of the remastered Beatles albums and they just shine on my deck

also as mentioned LP12 like wall shevles

I’d also suggest giving the Well Tempered models an audition 

You’ll find even a P6 nicely set with a good cartridge will do things an ND555 can’t do in terms of presentation. 

Good luck. 

Lindsay

There seems to be little love on this forum for a Techy 1200 direct drive. Don't know why cos with a little modding it can sound as good as any. As a base TT, with a reasonable cart, it's pretty good but with a couple of mods it's exceptional. I wouldn't swap mine for any, including an LP12. Plenty available on 'that' auction site but buy with care and it'll do you proud.

Oh I don't know...

I LOVE Technics turntables.  They are a part of my formative hifi DNA.  At school, a Technics deck was pretty much the standard - Technics for turntables, Nakamichi for tape deck -  and when I was a DJ on the school radio station we used a pair of SL-150 MkIIs with Syntec tonearms. Those decks put up with a ton of abuse (IIRC, they even played a Pizza on one notorious late night show) and were still going strong right until they were retired and sold off.

I like the SL-1200.  I have had a number over the years and still have a very early Mk1 as well as a Mk2. I've heard many of the mods, and they do improve on the basic deck.  However, there has always seemed to be something of a glass ceiling to their sound. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's something that just stops them from hitting the top tier in my experience. In many respects the SL-1600 MK2 is a slightly better performing deck in my opinion.  Very closely related but without the moulded compound base (I once modded an SL-1200 and replaced the base with ply and it was an improvement).  And the SL-150 Mk2 again, possibly slightly preferred to the standard SL-1200 Mk2. These two - the SL-150 Mk2 and the SL-1600 Mk2 are my favourites and I still have mint examples of each to satisfy my nostalgia. I'm looking forward to hearing one of the new Technics decks though, and as ever, I keep an open mind...

raym55 posted:

There seems to be little love on this forum for a Techy 1200 direct drive. Don't know why cos with a little modding it can sound as good as any. 

I think a lot of this came from the Hi-Fi press in the 80s. If it wasn't belt drive and made in Scotland then it wouldn't make the grade and some finely engineered Japanese turntables were overlooked.  

I think for a toe in the water move ...an rp3 would be a good move 

Just a hand full of albums doesn't take long to get bored with...and if it's not to become a main source ...then a Rega 3 either new or second hand is a nice table

Richard Dane posted:

Oh I don't know...

I LOVE Technics turntables.  They are a part of my formative hifi DNA.  At school, a Technics deck was pretty much the standard - Technics for turntables, Nakamichi for tape deck -  and when I was a DJ on the school radio station we used a pair of SL-150 MkIIs with Syntec tonearms. Those decks put up with a ton of abuse (IIRC, they even played a Pizza on one notorious late night show) and were still going strong right until they were retired and sold off.

I like the SL-1200.  I have had a number over the years and still have a very early Mk1 as well as a Mk2. I've heard many of the mods, and they do improve on the basic deck.  However, there has always seemed to be something of a glass ceiling to their sound. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's something that just stops them from hitting the top tier in my experience. In many respects the SL-1600 MK2 is a slightly better performing deck in my opinion.  Very closely related but without the moulded compound base (I once modded an SL-1200 and replaced the base with ply and it was an improvement).  And the SL-150 Mk2 again, possibly slightly preferred to the standard SL-1200 Mk2. These two - the SL-150 Mk2 and the SL-1600 Mk2 are my favourites and I still have mint examples of each to satisfy my nostalgia. I'm looking forward to hearing one of the new Technics decks though, and as ever, I keep an open mind...

 Yes, the SL150 was a great deck. Here is one I owned for a while paired with an SME3009 arm. Great combo.

Nice SL-150 Tony.  I too had one with an SME 3009 S2 but sold it on about 9 years ago. I still have an SL-1500 though.

The SL-150 Mk2 however, is quite a different beast. It kept the thick alloy top deck but updated the motor, added quartz control, a heavier platter, and a rosewood plinth base with interchangeable rosewood armboards.  You also got two types of feet - small ones fitted directly to the base and larger ones that fit over the small ones to give some extra shock resistance where needed. It was a sort of half way house towards an SP10, but probably more closely related to the SP15. If the SP10 was out of reach money-wise then it was the next best thing if you were a DJ, with almost instant start up and rock solid reliability. I'd post a pic of my own but it's all packed up in its original box and packaging, so here's a pic from David Price's zstereo site, which is always a good read if you're interested in notable older kit;

Anyway, my apologies to Bart for the slight thread digression..

I'm getting on really well with a Rega Planar 3 and elys 2-£650? Lots of fun and sounds just super. Recent tweaks have been a £10 marble block under it on a wall shelf and replacing the rega MM3 with a Tisbury audio phono stage. £149 .  This is set to 50db gain which brings a fullness of sound and kick that the Rega didn't have. I still don't quite understand why new 180g vinyl is sometimes warped and  30 year old records seem to be flatter and also sound great. 

I'm looking at a Neo PSU but don't really know if I need it