Less bad suitcase turntables

[Comstock]

I'm looking to buy something similar to the dreaded Crossley Cruiser. Thing is, despite all my research I can't find a less bad alternative, even though I'd willingly spend twice the price (although that would be the upper limit )

All I can find is lots of stuff about why the Crossley is so bad (I could write an essay on that by now ) and why I should get a proper HiFi (I don't have space and don't really have the money ) and that Steepletone and GPO and Ion are just as bad.

Are there really no less bad alternatives even at say £150?

 

[Al ears]

I'm looking to buy something similar to the dreaded Crossley Cruiser. Thing is, despite all my research I can't find a less bad alternative, even though I'd willingly spend twice the price (although that would be the upper limit )

All I can find is lots of stuff about why the Crossley is so bad (I could write an essay on that by now ) and why I should get a proper HiFi (I don't have space and don't really have the money ) and that Steepletone and GPO and Ion are just as bad.

Are there really no less bad alternatives even at say £150?

No there aren't. Forget vinyl.

 

[Vladimir]

 

[Canguino Purlat]

Facts are facts, and Crosleys ara bad. We are not going to say the contrary because that would be a lie. Buy a Rega RP1 or a Project Essential, not so expensive. Or forget vinyl as Alears said.

 

[Comstock]

Oh I'll never forget vinyl

I know Crossleys are bad and I know why. It's just a shame that twice the price doesn't get you something less bad, or more to the point less damaging to vinyl.

It's not even that I want fantastic sound quality. Just something less damaging to my vinyl.

 

[Canguino Purlat]

I don't know what to say... Things are what they are, and they are no going to change by our wishes. You need some money to get a decent audio rig, but there are quite nice and inexpensive options: rega and project tt, project and cambridge phono preamps, onkyo amps... not best of the best, but good enough for having a nice listening time. And not damage your records.

 

[Comstock]

I might get into tapes instead.

I've seen turntables as low as 40 quid, so you would have thought it would be possible to make a semi reasonable one for 4 times that.

 

[Vladimir]

I presume this is a wank thread, but for random readership's sake, there are MANY excellent TTs at that price second hand. You can buy a japanese vintage TT for 10 quid that blows any Crosley out of this world.

 

[Al ears]

Nice!

And the price is??

 

[Al ears]

Oh I'll never forget vinyl

I know Crossleys are bad and I know why. It's just a shame that twice the price doesn't get you something less bad, or more to the point less damaging to vinyl.

It's not even that I want fantastic sound quality. Just something less damaging to my vinyl.

I don't think you are going to find one if sticking to the suitcase variety. Buy a cheap stand alone with a decent tonearm and cartridge otherwise you're simply throwing money away.

 

[Al ears]

I presume this is a wank thread, but for random readership's sake, there are MANY excellent TTs at that price second hand. You can buy a japanese vintage TT for 10 quid that blows any Crosley out of this world.

Come again?

 

[Vladimir]

Nice!

And the price is??

150 euros for the suitcase.

 

[Comstock]

Like I said in the OP I don't have space for a full size system.

I think it's time to give up until I do.

 

[MajorFubar]

The reason why what you want doesn't exist is because there is no market for it. You'd be looking at something of equivalent quality to the well reviewed £100 Audio Technica AT LP60 but with its own amp and speakers in a carrying case, which would probably push the price towards £150-£200. Crossley buyers are happy with cheap mediocrity (their call, it's not a criticism), and those who want to spend more don't usually want an all in one suitcase-style unit. I do see the hole in the market that's causing you frustration, but it's not a big enough hole for any of the market's players to think about filling it.

 

[Comstock]

Yeah that is exactly what I want and pretty much exactly how much I'd be willing to pay.

Disappointing there is no market for it. Anyway I've seen a well reviewed Sony cd radio cassette for 60 pounds or so so I might go for that instead.

My youth was the late 80s early 90s so I should probably be getting into cassettes rather than LPs for my mid life crisis anyway!

 

[thescarletpronster]

I must admit I assumed that you have a load of records and want something to play them on, but can't afford very much for it.

If you don't actually have any records at the moment – and it sounds this way from your last post, as you're thinking about cassettes instead – I would advise you not to buy a turntable if you don't have much money. The market for second-hand records has gone mad over the past few years because 'vinyl' (as the hipsters call it) has become really trendy, and people are snapping up all sorts of things for stupid money. And most new releases are at least 50% more expensive than the CD version. So, if you don't have loadsa money (remember him?), it's not a good hobby to start at this moment - unless, perhaps your taste is for the sort of music that was once very popular but now isn't, and therefore might be available second-hand at cheap prices.

Assuming you decide not to go ahead with a turntable, my next question is: why go down the road of cassettes? You mention nostalgia, but by the time of your childhood – late 80s to early 90s – CD was already available, so are just as nostalgic. Unless you want to intentionally invest in a crap format (which cassette is, as is vinyl at the cheap end of the market). Honestly, go for CDs. They're retro enough now – the vast majority of the music market is currently download and streaming – and sonically far superior to cassette, and to vinyl unless you spend quite a lot on equipment, and less prone to damage. And you can buy a nice tiny system that sounds far better than any turntable you could afford.

It's what I'd do if I was starting from scratch, especially if I didn't have wads of cash to burn.

Good luck making a decision, anyway.

 

[knaithrover]

Get a Sonos Play 1. Takes up no space sounds great

 

[Comstock]

The Sonos is far too sensible a choice for me I'm afraid.

As for CDs they were for yuppies. There was something almost political about my dislike of them and Im still not keen.

Although I finally relented in the late 90s and got a mini system with CD I never used that part of the system much. I have got a cd player in the car admittedly but that was in when I got it.

 

[MajorFubar]

Unless you want to intentionally invest in a crap format (which cassette is

Don't blame the format. Feel free to blame naff pre-recorded duplication on bad tape stock, and cheap under-engineered decks. But not the format. A top-flight cassette deck replaying a first-rate recording on decent tape will lay to waste any turntable you care to present for anihilation, with better stereo separation, higher signal to noise ratio, better frequency response and less distortion. This is especially true on 'end of side' songs where 33rpm records unavoidably sound worse than the start or middle because the linear velocity is decimated the closer the stylus gets to the centre.

In fact it's a huge irony that by the time metal tapes came along circa 1980, the serious home recordist had now been provided with two formats (the other being 1/4" open reel) which outperformed the quality of any turntable he could record from.

 

[thescarletpronster]

Don't blame the format.

Point taken. But I was talking about 'pre-recorded duplication' – the releases you could buy on cassette, which I don't think ever matched record or CD in quality. The OP was talking about buying pre-recorded music, not home-taping from another format.

 

[MajorFubar]

Don't blame the format.

Point taken. But I was talking about 'pre-recorded duplication' – the releases you could buy on cassette, which I don't think ever matched record or CD in quality. The OP was talking about buying pre-recorded music, not home-taping from another format.

It was a real shame. I have a small handful of pre-recorded tapes that IMO showcase what they had the potential to sound like, one of which is a real-time-duped demo cassette distributed by WHF some 25+ years ago on TDK SA tape. But I cannot deny, the majority were barely better than mediocre.