New to Vinyl, Best Budget Turntable?

[bjaman]

Hi

As stated in the title I'm new to Vinyl and I'm looking for a decent budget turntable. It can be new or used but my budget is around £80.

Any help would be much appreciated.

PS: I know this topic has been covered but it seems like prices have risen £20 - £40 since 2010 or so!

Also I'm a student hence the tiny budget

 

[Lost Angeles]

As a poor student I'm not sure vinyl is the way to go. None of the new stuff is cheap compared to CD etc,

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

PS: I know this topic has been covered but it seems like prices have risen £20 - £40 since 2010 or so!

They have, I bought my Pro-Ject Debut III for £130 5 years ago, and just sold it for £170 without doing a thing to it.

For your budget, you're going to struggle to get anything that won't sound awful, second hand is the best way to go, but what you'd get for your £80 I'm really not sure.

Others maybe can give you better advice than me.

 

[stevebrock]

the OP will need to double the budget and add £50 to get the budget Rega/Project decks.

Anytihng at £80 is gonna sound pretty bad IMO

 

[bjaman]

doesn't sound promising.... maybe i'll just save up for a better table

 

[Milo_Myage]

I picked up my s/h Planar 2 for £90 on eBay but they normally go for much more. I just got lucky that it was collection only and very local. Still that's over budget even without the cart and belt it needed. I'd keep saving until you can afford at least double

 

[drummerman]

Bought for £50

Regards

 

[Jim-W]

This is definitely worth a punt. It may go for more than £80 but you never know. Very decent sound on Revolver turntables.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REVOLVER-REBEL-TURNTABLE-HiFi-PLINTH-Record-Deck-VINTAGE-Audiophile-/111282342177?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Turntables&hash=item19e8f1c921

 

[bjaman]

i'll keep an eye on the revolver.

had a look at some thoren models on ebay but they seem to go for quite a lot

 

[bjaman]

i'll keep an eye on the revolver.

had a look at some thoren models on ebay but they seem to go for quite a lot

 

[Al ears]

bjaman whatever you go for I would make sure it comes with a usable cartridge as these items are not cheap.

Also agree that vinyl is no longer cheap.

 

[The_Lhc]

Also agree that vinyl is no longer cheap.

Not new sure but second hand can be, depends where you look. We went to Bideford on Saturday, there's been a second-hand record store there for years but the owner's given over the front of the shop to "retro", "vintage", "tat", so while the missus was rummaging around in there I had a look at the records in the back. My Grud, what a rip off, Queen albums, sleeves torn to shreds, disc itself filthy and scratched, 15 quid! Similar story everywhere you look. You can buy new repressings for about £18! I don't know what he thinks he's going to achieve.

Went into the charity shop next door, found Billy Idol's Whiplash Smile album, immaculate sleeve and disc (and I mean immaculate, wouldn't hesitate to list them as "mint"), 50p...

 

[stevebrock]

Also agree that vinyl is no longer cheap.

Not new sure but second hand can be, depends where you look. We went to Bideford on Saturday, there's been a second-hand record store there for years but the owner's given over the front of the shop to "retro", "vintage", "tat", so while the missus was rummaging around in there I had a look at the records in the back. My Grud, what a rip off, Queen albums, sleeves torn to shreds, disc itself filthy and scratched, 15 quid! Similar story everywhere you look. You can buy new repressings for about £18! I don't know what he thinks he's going to achieve.

Went into the charity shop next door, found Billy Idol's Whiplash Smile album, immaculate sleeve and disc (and I mean immaculate, wouldn't hesitate to list them as "mint"), 50p...

my local Oxfam had a quite ahabby copy of Eric Clapton - Boulevard 461 for £20! fooking hell £20 thats robbery imo

 

[The_Lhc]

Also agree that vinyl is no longer cheap.

Not new sure but second hand can be, depends where you look. We went to Bideford on Saturday, there's been a second-hand record store there for years but the owner's given over the front of the shop to "retro", "vintage", "tat", so while the missus was rummaging around in there I had a look at the records in the back. My Grud, what a rip off, Queen albums, sleeves torn to shreds, disc itself filthy and scratched, 15 quid! Similar story everywhere you look. You can buy new repressings for about £18! I don't know what he thinks he's going to achieve.

Went into the charity shop next door, found Billy Idol's Whiplash Smile album, immaculate sleeve and disc (and I mean immaculate, wouldn't hesitate to list them as "mint"), 50p...

my local Oxfam had a quite ahabby copy of Eric Clapton - Boulevard 461 for £20! fooking hell £20 thats robbery imo

Yeah, Oxfam claim to have an in-house vinyl valuer. I don't know where he buys his vinyl from but they're always expensive, I got stung on a 70s LP of JRR Tolkien reading his poems from Lord of the Rings a few years back, sleeve was almost in two halfs* but they still wanted over 20 quid for it. The actual record itself was fine, not perfect but playable, still felt like I was being ripped off though.

*This is a Tolkien joke...

 

[Al ears]

Haven't been to Bideford for about 20 years.

As an ex-Plymouthian it used to be a regular trip.

Nice to know it still has shops to ferret through. Not so fortunate where I am although there is a Kosher vinyl shop in Abergavenny that is good but certainly not cheap.

Most well known charity shops are pretty clued up now on vinyl and their prices have rocketed particularly over the last 4 years.

.... and we all know about prices of nice new remastered 200gm discs.

You have to be very fortunate to grab a bargain these days which is why I make a point of this to 'noobies' who want a turntable but don't yet own any vinyl.

Not wanting to put them off this wonderful format you understand, just making them aware it is not a 'cheap' way in to hifi.

(But then again what is? Have you seen the price of DSD downloads? How they can charge this when they have no printing / packaging costs I do not know!)

 

[The_Lhc]

(But then again what is? Have you seen the price of DSD downloads? How they can charge this when they have no printing / packaging costs I do not know!)

Storage and servers don't pay for themselves you know... It's the same argument with e-books, I know an author and she's told me that it actually costs more to host an e-book on a download server than it does to print it. I've no idea how true that is though.

 

[Jim-W]

The price of second-hand vinyl records has not actually risen for items such as '461 Ocean Boulevard' for which you'd expect to pay £8 tops. It's not rare at all and sold well on release. In fact, the price for these records, such as bog-standard Queen releases, Genesis, Clapton-you know, generally popular artists and hit-paraders-has fallen for all but mint copies. VG copies of these records or even excellent copies do not fetch the money that they used to command. Even genuine rarities are seeing a fall in value for all but mint copies. This is a trend that began about a year or so ago so if somebody asks you for £15-£20 for an easy to find, ex-chart item then you just refuse to pay. Most decent market traders put these out for £6 or so. Go to markets for the best value and friendly service. The overall picture is that real genuine rarities, such as say a mono Rolling Stones 'Let It Bleed' in mint with poster will cost you a lot of money( £300+) and relatively more money than it would have done 3 or 4 years ago but if you find a VG copy then you'll pay relatively less than you would have done a few years ago.

Why is this happening? Genuine copy mint originals of rare records are drying up but there's a load of chancers selling battered copies.

Record-collecting is like anything else: some people will try to rip you off and some will do you a favour, especially if you're a regular customer.

 

[The_Lhc]

This is a trend that began about a year or so ago so if somebody asks you for £15-£20 for an easy to find, ex-chart item then you just refuse to pay.

Don't worry I did!

These days I either pick up stuff dirt cheap from charity shops (they're still relatively clueless round my way) or I buy new, in which case I'm happy to pay more than a CD would cost, particularly if there's a download code for use in the car (I spend a lot of time in the car).

 

[Al ears]

Know what you mean. I once bought a box set purely for the fact that it came with a USB stick with all the albums recorded onto it.

Oh, and the music was good too.

Never did get round to playing the vinyl - must dig it out.

 

[Henley]

PS: I know this topic has been covered but it seems like prices have risen £20 - £40 since 2010 or so!

They have, I bought my Pro-Ject Debut III for £130 5 years ago, and just sold it for £170 without doing a thing to it.

For your budget, you're going to struggle to get anything that won't sound awful, second hand is the best way to go, but what you'd get for your £80 I'm really not sure.

Others maybe can give you better advice than me.

That's not a bad return. Not sure if you would have got that much if you invested in a bank :cheers:

 

[Nikphillips]

Hi,

It may be worth scouring auction sites and the classifieds for a Systemdek. Any model would do. They seem to go for a lot less than they are worth. I see them regularly go for less than £100. It's a cracking deck. Suspended sub chassis. Easy to adjust and set up.

Good luck. Hope you get sorted.

 

[DIB]

Hi,

It may be worth scouring auction sites and the classifieds for a Systemdek. Any model would do. They seem to go for a lot less than they are worth. I see them regularly go for less than £100. It's a cracking deck. Suspended sub chassis. Easy to adjust and set up.

Good luck. Hope you get sorted.

As a former Systemdek iix owner I would agree about their quality. However they are very bouncy decks and I would say a dedicated wall shelf is essential.

.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hijack this thred but I have an ancient revolver rebel turntable which I purchased new in the late 1980s and which I was always very happy with. I would now like to reinvestigate my old vinyl and was wondering how the Rebel compares to newer budget turntables such as the Project Debut Carbon.

 

[Al ears]

Sorry to hijack this thred but I have an ancient revolver rebel turntable which I purchased new in the late 1980s and which I was always very happy with. I would now like to reinvestigate my old vinyl and was wondering how the Rebel compares to newer budget turntables such as the Project Debut Carbon.

It might be better if you started a new thread as yours is a completely different subject.

 

[Al ears]

Hi,

It may be worth scouring auction sites and the classifieds for a Systemdek. Any model would do. They seem to go for a lot less than they are worth. I see them regularly go for less than £100. It's a cracking deck. Suspended sub chassis. Easy to adjust and set up.

Good luck. Hope you get sorted.

As a former Systemdek iix owner I would agree about their quality. However they are very bouncy decks and I would say a dedicated wall shelf is essential.

.

Funny that as I've found it's the ones that do not bounce that require a wall shelf.

Having said that I guess ideally all such sources would benefit from isolation of this type.