Very cheap record players.....

[Hifiver]

I have a friend who, to be honest, is not known for spending a penny more than he has to.

For a while, he said he was looking to find decent-ish gear to play his vinyl on, which he has had since childhood. We are talking first/original pressings from the 60's and 70's.

I showed him around a couple of hi-fi dealers and he has recently emailed me to say he bought a cheap £15 suitcase style, plastic outfit, from a house clearance shop, which on the internet would cost £30 brand new.

He is now talking about getting speakers, as cheap as poss from a charity shop.

I have advised him the cheap players may well, or will damage his vinyl.

He said he wants to play the records on that player, as he does not want to spend more than he has done and the player reminds him of one his dad had decades ago.

I have suggested saving up, buying even entryish-level seperates from a hi-fi dealer, which will give him a lifetime of joy and allow him to upgrade how, as and when he pleases.

He is not skint, he just hates spending any money.

He says only a rock star would spend money in a hi-fi dealer...Even if buying second hand.

How else can I kindly advise him he will damage his vinyl?

 

[DCarmi]

It's OK to spend 15 quid on a turntable. He won't be using it for long as the vinyl will be trashed. (Assuming the TT doesn't break first!)

Get him to trawl round the charity shops and strat replacing with CDs. You can get cheap CD players and they don't tend to mangle media.

Better still if the vinyl is still in decent condition try flogging them and use the proceeds to fund the CD replacements.

 

[Al ears]

I have a friend who, to be honest, is not known for spending a penny more than he has to.

For a while, he said he was looking to find decent-ish gear to play his vinyl on, which he has had since childhood. We are talking first/original pressings from the 60's and 70's.

I showed him around a couple of hi-fi dealers and he has recently emailed me to say he bought a cheap £15 suitcase style, plastic outfit, from a house clearance shop, which on the internet would cost £30 brand new.

He is now talking about getting speakers, as cheap as poss from a charity shop.

I have advised him the cheap players may well, or will damage his vinyl.

He said he wants to play the records on that player, as he does not want to spend more than he has done and the player reminds him of one his dad had decades ago.

I have suggested saving up, buying even entryish-level seperates from a hi-fi dealer, which will give him a lifetime of joy and allow him to upgrade how, as and when he pleases.

He is not skint, he just hates spending any money.

He says only a rock star would spend money in a hi-fi dealer...Even if buying second hand.

How else can I kindly advise him he will damage his vinyl?

Get him to have a look at eBay and don't be a skinflint if he doesn't want to trash his vinyl.

 

[WayneKerr]

A fool and his vinyl are soon parted

Try saying to him that if he wants to keep these LPs for posterity and maybe upgrade to a better turntable in the future it will be too late as they will have been trashed by the el cheapo piece of tat he's bought.

 

[DCarmi]

Another thought. If they are first pressings look on discogs.com. Could be he has one that is worth quite a bit of dosh, assuming they are in decent nick.

 

[WayneKerr]

Another thought. If they are first pressings look on discogs.com. could be he has one that is worth quite a bit of dosh, assuming they are in decent nick.

Won't be for long!

 

[matthewpianist]

All you can do is what you have done, which is to warn him. Beyond that it isn't your problem, though perhaps you could invite him to bring some of his LPs to yours for a vinyl evening so he can hear the huge difference in sound quality (obviously don't tell him that's your aim). If that doesn't do it, nothing will.

 

[Geoff P.]

It seems to me we have 2 considerations here :
1. Damage to vinyl. Tracking weight on some of these very cheap decks is 10 times that of a decent budget deck, with the resultant accelerated wear ( and this is before we examine the stylus quality ! ). Does he even care ?
2. Poor audio quality. It's a sad situation, I know, but a lot of people are quite happy to put up with with either heavily compressed or just poorly reproduced music. It's even more annoying for those of us in the know because, if his original vinyl is in good nick, that source material can sound awesome in the right situation.
As the old saying goes - you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
He's lucky to have such a good friend trying to steer him in the right direction !

 

[good_enough]

If your friend has owned these records a long time, and has always had his current mindset, then presumably they have already had all the treble ground out of them and there is nothing left to worry about? Shame and all that, but there you go.

 

[bigfish786]

Once a skinflint, always a skinflint.
Leave him to it.
Surprised he hasn’t opted for a wind up phonograph with the price of electricity.

 

[Hifiver]

He has now asked me if the charity shop I volunteer in has any speakers going spare.

As it happens, our shop has no PAT tester, so we accept no electricals.

How daft does that sound? Speakers rigged up to one of those cheap plastic turntables.

Yes, he has heard my set-up at home and still is deciding to go the way he is.

He said he has bought a record cleaning kit off A**zon and I asked him which kit he got. 'The ceapest brush and cloth kit I could find' was his reply.

There again, we are talking about a guy who never offers to pay his turn in cafes/pubs and once said to me in the best bakery in town, in front of other customers and staff 'I will have a croissant at home, you van buy supermarkey value ones which work out 25 pence each and with every 5 coffees here you could have bought 6 and one fiths at the place next door'.

He reckons as he lives in a semi-detatched house, the cheapest gear he can get away with is the best choice.

I would just like him to find pleasure in this wonderful world of hi-fi and music.

 

[Hifiver]

I have probably spent about £12k on my set-up, but have told him he needn't spend that much at all.

 

[Hifiver]

Bigfish786.....

Funny you should say that. For years, he has used a hand/wind up shredder for his documents.

I would never be finished if I used one at home.

 

[Gray]

I have probably spent about £12k on my set-up, but have told him he needn't spend that much at all.

Doubt you needed to tell him that - He probably thinks you're even more stupid than you think he is 😆

 

[bigfish786]

Bigfish786.....

Funny you should say that. For years, he has used a hand/wind up shredder for his documents.

I would never be finished if I used one at home.

That probably sounds better than the 15 quid record destroyer he’s bought 🤣🤣

 

[Geoff P.]

Hifiver,
I fear you will have to right this off as a lost cause. There are some people in this world who will not listen to reason, despite all the evidence presented to them.
Perhaps, having heard your system, he believes any rotary device with a "needle" will achieve the same results.
( At least you will have a great big "I TOLD YOU SO !" up your sleeve when the penny finally drops ).

 

[nopiano]

He says only a rock star would spend money in a hi-fi dealer...Even if buying second hand.

How else can I kindly advise him he will damage his vinyl?

Tell him only an idiot would play a LP with a turntable that’s cheaper than even the cheapest stylus anybody here would dream of using.

 

[DCarmi]

Tell him only an idiot would play a LP with a turntable that’s cheaper than even the cheapest stylus anybody here would dream of using.

To be fair, the turntable is cheaper than most new LPs!

 

[Al ears]

To be fair, the turntable is cheaper than most new LPs!

Before they are trashed....

 

[nopiano]

To be fair, the turntable is cheaper than most new LPs!

But would you drive a car that was cheaper than its tyres?

 

[Geoff P.]

Hifiver,
I fear you will have to right this off as a lost cause. There are some people in this world who will not listen to reason, despite all the evidence presented to them.
Perhaps, having heard your system, he believes any rotary device with a "needle" will achieve the same results.
( At least you will have a great big "I TOLD YOU SO !" up your sleeve when the penny finally drops ).

OOPS !
RIGHT was spelt right, but isn't right !
Must get my WRITE - ing sorted out.

 

[Hifiver]

I give up.

I have just seen a few half decent used turntables, at really good prices, locally, from both dealers and private sellers.

I showed him the adverts and he said he'd rather spend £15 on one that works than one for £250 that may pack up!

He then emailed me to say he had just bought a few LPs, in excellent condition at the car boot sale.

I replied, advising him to keep them in good nick, buy not putting them on his player.

So, far, no reply.

 

[DCarmi]

I'd give up if I were you and wait for that inevitable "Told you so" moment.

Currently, for £299 Richer Sounds have a complete system including turntable, amp and speakers. £168 pounds off of the individual component price.

 

[Gray]

I've mentioned this on here before, but it's worth repeating:

I once changed a stylus for an old biddy.
You wouldn't have given her a tenner for her record player and speakers.

But all she did was play her collection of records...every day.
The enjoyment she got was unbelievable.
I absolutely guarantee she got more from her music than many that have spent big.

Not saying your mate is doing the right thing - but I am most certainly saying that the biggest spenders don't have a monopoly on musical enjoyment.....especially if they put it all in one of the oh-so-fashionable, no-carpet echo chambers 😉

 

[Hifiver]

He asked how I know cheap players damage records, so I sent him loads of website links explaining it.

He said his player got good reviews. I then explained that a £100,000 deck will be great, but will get poorly rated if much better decks are around for the same price.