Vintage Vs. modern Turntables

[dakchi]

Hi,

There are a lot of beautiful and well made vintage turntables in ebay and other websites. I was wondering if they would sound better or at least same as a modern turntable?

I recently bought a Pro-ject debut carbon USB turntable and was very disapointed by the build quality. I remember the turntable (Technics) that my father had: very solid and stable. I find all modern turntables very poorly built compared with the old turntables that were beautifuly made of good quality wood and metal. That's the reason why I am thinking of buying a vintage turntable, but I don't know what to expect in terms of sound quality compared to my Pro-ject turntable

One last question that I had: my amp has no phono input and my turntable has an integrated preamp. I noticed that I have to significantly increase the volume of my amp to have the same level of volume as my other inputs. Is it normal? is it because the preamp of my turntable is not good?

Thank you

 

[Deleted member 108165]

One last question that I had: my amp has no phono input and my turntable has an integrated preamp. I noticed that I have to significantly increase the volume of my amp to have the same level of volume as my other inputs. Is it normal? is it because the preamp of my turntable is not good?

I would say that this is normal, I think it's a gain issue, I may be wrong though. My amp has an internal phono-stage and I've had the same issue with all the turntables I have owned. I fitted attenuators to my other inputs, (to fix a non-related issue), but the bonus was to that all my sources now match regarding volume position.

 

[dakchi]

No one tested a vintage turntable and can share his experience with us? *acute*

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

First and foremost...what cart is on your project...if it's a ortofon 2m red or below...then don't judge your turntable just yet....the cart quality is a huge factor in ultimate Sq.vintage turntables are just that and unless you know what your doing and looking at.....then ultimately a newer model would make more sense...newer turntables can be very sturdy and well built..you just haven't quite got there yet....I would say my own project 2 xperience classic is probably the first rung in the project ladder for a good solid turntable at around £799 on release....you pays your money!

 

[lindsayt]

dakchi, it all depends what vintage turntable you're comparing against what modern turntable.

I have an EMT 930 and a 950. They sound as good as or better than every modern and vintage turntable that I've compared them against. I paid £1900 for the 930 plus £750 for a TSD 15 cartridge to go with it. I paid £2250 for the 950, which came with a TSD15 included. Had them both for a few years now. No intention of changing them.

For a few hundred quid you can buy really genuinely good vintage turntables. Garrard 301, 401 idler drives, various Lencos, Thorens 124 are all very good. You just need a good arm, cart, phono amplification to go with them. There are loads of Japanese direct drives from the 1970's and 1980's that sound good to World Class. Avoid the lightweight plastic rubbish. Go for the heavier models with proper engineering. The ones that would have been towards the top of the model ranges when new.

When buying used classics you can cherry pick the best ones and they will have depreciated as far as they're going to. Making them highly affordable for the sound quality on offer now. Or making them a good way to convert liquid assets - cash - into non liquid assets - desirable audio equipment.

The thing with buying brand new from a dealer for a few hundred quid is that you're paying for the dealer mark-up, the manufacturer's mark-up, VAT etc etc etc which doesn't leave much for the material and manufacturing costs - in a sector with much lower sales than in 1980. This shows in the sound quality of a Rega or Pro-ject deck when compared to something like a Pioneer PL71 or Sony PSX 6750.