Help for a turntable newbie

[admin_exported]

Hello,

I will preface this by saying I know absolutely nothing about turntables! However, I want to buy one for my boyfriend's 30th so I was hoping for some advice.

Firstly, would you recommend buying a turntable with an inbuilt phono stage or a separate one? The CD player he has is an ONKYO CD515 - would a turntable connect to this ok with a phono stage? Would I need to buy anything else?

Secondly, is there a big difference between the Pro-Ject Essential and Pro-Ject Debut?

Thanks for any advice!!!

S

 

[Captain Duff]

What a lucky b/f you have 😉

Ok, first a 'straight out of the box' complete turntable with arm/cartridge/leads sounds to be just what you need. Both the Pro-jects you mention are great in that respect, the differences between them mainly come down to the Debut having a slightly better arm and cartridge so it should sound a bit better - however you need to think how much it will be used to really work out if the extra money involved would be worth it (the Essential is a great product at a very good price). Also, another one to consider in that price range would be the Rega RP1 which is another complete product.

As to whether you need a phono stage (which is a mini amp booster as the signal strength from a turntable is lower than that from a CD) depends on what amp he has (as the turntable would be plugged into that, not the CD) as some amps have built in phono stages, some don't - however I'm wondering if what he actually has is the Onkyo CR 515 which is a one box combined amp, radio and CD player? If it is, then no it doesn't have a built in phono stage, so you would either need to get a seperate one, or a turntable with one built in. Both the Pro-ject models you mention come in versions with a built in phono stage (and also USB which allows you to transfer recirds to digital formats), or Pro-ject also sell a seperate phono stage box for around £60, although many other phono stages are available at various prices and you don't need to have the same brand as the turntable itself.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for your help! I had been trying to piece together what I needed from various forums and reviews etc but it's great to have it in plain English!

You're correct that the Onkyo he has is amp/CD/radio all in one, so I will need to get a phono stage. What would you say are the advantages and disadvantages of separate or inbuilt phono?

Thanks,

S

 

[The_Lhc]

You're correct that the Onkyo he has is amp/CD/radio all in one, so I will need to get a phono stage. What would you say are the advantages and disadvantages of separate or inbuilt phono?

An inbuilt one you know has been designed to work well with that deck and won't require a separate power supply but a separate phono stage will give you the option later of upgrading if you feel like you want to improve the sound.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, that's great, thanks for the advice. I think I will go for the Project Debut 3 Phono SB then. Sounds like a good option for a starter, ready to go turntable!

Thanks again for the help!

S

 

[moriarty]

I'd endorse the previous comments; you really can't go wrong with Pro-Ject or (preferably) Rega.