Question Suggestions for foundational parts of a longer term vinyl setup

[Al ears]

I've taken a leaf out of the @The_Lecht_Rocks ' book and just ordered the Bluesound Node ICON; it arrives tomorrow.

I've also been making enquiries with Audio T and Sevenoaks about the Rega Planar 3 RS. Both say that there's a couple of weeks' lead time for them to get one into stock for a listen, but they're both offering fairly derisory trade-in prices for the Planar 1.

I'll see how keen I am to pursue that upgrade path - I can always test the water on Gumtree and eBay to see if I can get more than I've been offered and if all else fails, then it at least is the last major upgrade I'll be chasing so I can probably live with losing a few quid. In my head a conceptual 20% "discount" would be nice, but they're only just offering over 10% at the moment.

sounds about normal. No dealer wants stock back that's going to hang around for ages before they can recoup profits. I am surprised many would even consider taking this turntable back. Always best to sell on privately at a decent price if you can.
Trade in has always been a no go area for me.

 

[RTHerringbone]

I've listed it on Gumtree for £200 to see what happens - it doesn't cost anything to sell via that platform so it's worth a shot.

I've had variable success rates with selling things on there and probably shift about half of the things I list and then resort to Freecycle where there are no takers. If this gets no interest then maybe I'll consider the trade-in, or maybe I'll stop this mad spree altogether (seems unlikely!)

 

[Messiah]

It's also free to sell on eBay so worth a shot on there as well. That's where I have the most success.

 

[RTHerringbone]

Not sure if this forum allows BlueSky embeds:

https://bsky.app/profile/rtherringbone.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3ljxpgebup22e

View: https://bsky.app/profile/rtherringbone.bsky.social/post/3ljxpgebup22e

https://bsky.app/profile/rtherringbone.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3ljxphsf5ok2e

View: https://bsky.app/profile/rtherringbone.bsky.social/post/3ljxphsf5ok2e

 

[RTHerringbone]

It does!

Anyhoo - acquisition of even more components has been green-lighted by my wife. I've sold her the idea of the Planar 3 RS as a quality-of-life improvement 😉

I just happen to have luckily stumbled across a turntable by the same manufacturer with automatic tonearm return and she likes that idea, along with a power switch that isn't underneath the plinth. The cost differential wasn't even raised so I shall fully take advantage of that misplaced trust and strike while the iron is hot. I've slashed the price of the Planar 1 and still there are no bites and the reduced price isn't a million miles from what the trade-in offer was. I'll persist with this charade for a week and then get back in touch with Audio T as they reckon there's a two week lead time for them to get the RS into the store.

Meanwhile, I'm now number 22 in the queue for the new cabinet, so I'm reasonably optimistic that they'll hit their original delivery target of the 14th March, if not - shortly afterwards 😎

 

[ultraminiature]

You have several options each giving different routes in the future.

Turntable: with built in phono pre amp means you can plug into aux inputs on an amplifier for passive speakers or into most powered and active speakers with the right cable.
Turntabe with Bluetooth might sound great now but would grate when you find the limitation of Bluetooth (compressed, lossy).
In the 70s and 80s the mantra was to spend the most of your budget on the turntable or source.

Desktop or stand mount speakers are smaller, but if on stands may take up the same space as floor standing. Some stand mount speakers offer more bass than a similar priced floor standing speaker so check the specification and listen yourself.

There are wireless solutions but the turntable is likely to need wiring into a hub or amplifier (with passive speakers) or into one of the powered or active speakers (they have built in amplifiers which means the engineer designed the best match of electronics to speakers and with fewer boxes and power supplies better performance for the money).

The gadget folk like separates with rack of electronics and lots of cables. Families may prefer less boxes e.g. turntable and powered or active speakers (no rack of electronics but perhaps a phono stage pre-amp. Built in phono stage pre-amp in the turntable or powered speakers are not usually very flexible or good compared to stand alone options from Rega or Pro-ject etc. If you have separate arm, cartridge, turntable, phono-pre-amp, preamp, power amp and passive speakers you can tweak forever to get a better sound upgrade heaven or hell chasing the hi-fi dragon ...

Consider a simple set up leaving a lot of cash to buy albums.

Ruark MR1 MKII Speakers with Pro-Ject E1 Phono
​

Go upscale with powered speakers to:-
Q Acoutics M20
Triangle LN01A
Wharfedale Diamond A1
Klipsch The Fives
Triangle AIO
outside the budget when adding turntable:
SVS Prime Wireless Pro
Kef LSX II LT
DALI Oberon 1C with hub

and up the ranges of Pro-ject or Rega turntables. Rega Planar 1 perhaps?

If going the standard stereo turntable, amp and passive speakers there are thousands of more choices and a little harder in having to match the amplifier to the speaker or expect to have a nagging feeling you could have picked better. Very likely but really better starts at doubling your costs.

An Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier second hand or Cambridge Audio AXA35 with Q ACOUSTICS 3030i Pro-ject E1 or Pro-Ject T1 EVO.

Try to get a demonstration. The look (you and family have to live with it) and sound quality has to satisfy you. Try to also listen to higher quality units so you can appreciate what is possible which helps also with deciding is half your budget gets close enough for your needs.

 

[RTHerringbone]

Thanks for the input @ultraminiature but I think you must have missed a page or two.

Things moved on at a pace and are now more or less finalised. Two more things are arriving in the next fortnight or so, and then I'm done.

Well, apart from new headphones.....

 

[The_Lecht_Rocks]

Thanks for the input @ultraminiature but I think you must have missed a page or two.

Things moved on at a pace and are now more or less finalised. Two more things are arriving in the next fortnight or so, and then I'm done.

Well, apart from new headphones.....

Lagom furniture? Arrived ?

 

[Messiah]

Lagom furniture? Arrived ?

I’ve had that pop up on FB. Looks really nice.

 

[RTHerringbone]

Lagom furniture? Arrived ?

Next week - they called on Thursday to say that they're about a week behind schedule as they're still a small company and have a couple of people off sick / on holiday.

Pretty cool to get a call from one of the directors to explain and apologise, even if it is a small team. I've cleared out the non-Hi-Fi stuff from the crappy IKEA Kallax unit we're currently using, so when it does arrive, the swap-over should be a doddle.

 

[RTHerringbone]

I’ve had that pop up on FB. Looks really nice.

I had a few things show up when I started looking for a cabinet and yeah, theirs looked very good and when I emailed them, I think my email heading was something like "I probably can't afford this, but....." and actually, there was zero incremental cost to me when I asked them to bespoke one of their standard units to be exactly as I want.

It's obviously all modular and so pretty flexible and "easy" to modify, but I can imagine some places might try to add in a few quid for every change. I even messaged them after ordering to see if they thought it made sense for me to order one of their turntable plinths, and the response was "Look, they can make a difference but you've asked for a couple of isolated amp shelves so I don't think it's worth it in your case" which was also incredibly honest.

Their reviews show some awesome looking units. All much grander and in more impressive settings than mine will be and I'm sure they cherry-pick the reviews to only show favourable ones, but the standard does look good:

Reviews

lagom-studio.co.uk

 

[The_Lecht_Rocks]

Custom Designs in Newcastle also worth considering if traditional racks needed.
Their clearance section have fantastic hifi bargains.

 

[RTHerringbone]

How exactly do you choose headphones? My current (inherited) closed-back headphones are "OK" but they do squash the airiness of music.

At night I listen through headphones when everyone else is upstairs, so the noise leakage through open-backed cans is fine. I prefer over-ear rather than on-ear pads and obviously wired is the preference as I sit in a static position while listening.

Do I need to think of headphones as a complicated and sound-influencing peripheral, or do I just do a bit or a Russian-roulette at my budget (maybe up to £500)? I do listen for a good ~2+ hours, so comfort is very important. I listen to a wide variety of genres and have no real "sound" preference - if anything I like a neutral presentation so the original source can shine. I'd err towards warm rather than bright, for sure if pushed.

 

[RTHerringbone]

I've had a look at a few discounted options and I know discount ≠ "good", but Sennheiser HD 660S2 for £390 and Denon AH-D5200 at £299 are enticing (the latter being closed-back though). I'm more than happy to get older versions of models to save a few quid.

 

[RTHerringbone]

I received an email this morning to say that they've started work on my cabinet, and then received a one just now with the update below. It looks like they're going to update me with every stage of the assembly process 😁

Also: Harry (the) Carpenter