Not allowed floor-standers?

[august18]

I have put this under TTs because thats the only playback I want.

I can't be alone, but have basically lost the battle to be allowed to have floorstanders (apparently they are 'clutter'). Anyway, I have a budget of £4/5k tops - all I want to do is play vinyl to the best quality possible nothing else. Including 78s. Reviews indicate Clearaudio Concept might be a good start point for a TT but I dont have a clue really. But for speakers, I think the poor things will have to go each end of a 6 foot dresser type thing - or possibly discrete shelving at a push but that is probably a long shot. Am I wasting my time/money hoping for a really nice sound? What combo might work?

Any sympathy and advice very much welcomed in equal measure...

 

[august18]

Many thanks, I didn't realise the 78's would cause such an issue - Ive only ever played them on a Dansette!

Ok, so lets exclude the 78s and imagine its just vinyl - does that change things?

 

[chebby]

With your budget (and those 78s) I would treat myself to an Inspire Hi-fi Enigma for £2170 (basically a total rebuild of the Goldring Lenco GL 75).

Then a tonearm with easily swappable headshells so that you can have one kitted out with a cartridge/stylus optimised for 78s and another one for your LPs. (Or a fixed headshell arm with something like an Ortofon 2M cartridge where a 2M 78 stylus can be interchanged with a standard one.)

You are going to need a phono pre-amp that can switch between the usual LP optimised RIAA 'curve' and one optimised for 78s. I only know of one and that's the Graham Slee Revelation (£750).

Hopefully this leaves about £1500 for amp and speakers which should be ample given the constraints on position/placement that you described.

 

[Vladimir]

Bookshelf speakers that are closed box, not deep but wide in the cabinets have performed well on shelves IME. I've used AR6 and Heybrook HB1. You might want to consider Audio Note speakers and why not BBC LS3/5a and Harbeth P3ESR. They were intended for professional use on top of mixers, shelves and in tight spaces.

 

[The_Lhc]

Many thanks, I didn't realise the 78's would cause such an issue - Ive only ever played them on a Dansette!

Ok, so lets exclude the 78s and imagine its just vinyl - does that change things?

Not really, the 2M suggestion is a good one, the styli are easily interchangable, so even if you started with a stereo cartridge you could always get the 78 and/or mono cartridges at a later date (I think you can stick the 78 or mono cartridge onto the other cartridge bodies, not entirely sure though). The 2M range is pretty wide as well, starting with the Red for £85 all the way up to the Black for nearly £500, so there should be something to suit.

 

[Al ears]

As the-lhc says you could still play 78s if you get a turntable that will actually rotate at this speed ( new ones are limited with this facility, the Clearaudio Concept is one exception) and swap stylii as required. As far as I am aware the Inspire Enigma as suggested is also a good choice but I have not heard one.

If you get an amplifier with a decent phono stage you shouldn't need to pay out for a seperate pre-amp.

Speakers as per what Vladimir suggested.

 

[The_Lhc]

As the-lhc says you could still play 78s if you get a turntable that will actually rotate at this speed ( new ones are limited with this facility, the Clearaudio Concept is one exception) and swap stylii as required.

I think some Pro-jects will do 78 with a suitable power supply replacement.