Turntable recommendation


My wife and I are looking into getting a turntable. It would get light use as we mostly stream music via Qobuz. Current system is Bluesound Node, Yamaha CD-S303, Schiit Saga+, Schiit Vidar,  NSMT Chorus 25 speakers and NSMT EXP15 sub. We do not have a record collection as of yet. Based on current gear and the fact that it will get light use. What makes sense? The $379 Yamaha CD player gets light use as well. Seems like a reasonable place to start budget-wise unless its all junk at this price point. 

njwvista

To prove the asking prices seen, will today be difficult, as the sites used to look for this Album are not holding records of the Maximum asking prices, but only the highest prices for a completed sale.

The Performer is Lee Harvey Osmond and the Album of interest was 'Beautiful Scars', the good news is that this Album is once more available for very reasonable monies as it most likely a new batch of pressings was done.

I bought the 'Mohawk' Titled Album as soon as I had seen it released.

Albums that I own as the earliest pressings and are with other re-released versions since the earliest pressings, which as a result of previous investigation, have done well in appreciative value, are Pink Floyd 'The Pulse' ( my one is still in Cellophane ) and  Roger Water 'Amused to Death'. I have in the past seen the original release Pulse Album on Vinyl, opened and used have a £900 asking price.

My Wife spent many hours in used Vinyl Outlets when CD took the audio market by storm. She done well and owns very 'mint' early pressings of Bowie and the Rolling Stones, I assume these will be appreciative in value, as these Genre's were usually found on the £1-2 Section within a shop.

I have collected a range of Chicago Blues Artists in this same era, a friend tried to purchase one I have that has a £1 Price Label stuck on the Cover, the best he could find after a long search, was over £50 for the same EAN No' Album.  .

A friend recently visited a shop selling donated items on behalf of a Charity. A Box of Classical Albums were purchased for £25, on investigation, it was discovered one Album contained in the Box was worth twice the purchase price of the entire box.

If @njwvista get the bug, and makes time to delve through yard sales and other sources for used vinyl, they can grow a nice Album Collection, and the is nothing to say it will one that is not appreciating in value.

As an aside, there are today Artists arranging contracts with their Record Companies, where their work (Albums) 'must' achieve a pre-selected Quantity of Hard Media Sales, prior to the Work being released to Streaming Services, for the likes of Adele, it is said 100 000 Hard Media Albums 'must be sold.

For lesser Artists and those able to cut a deal, I assume the quantity will be much less, this in itself creates a rarity to the Hard Media being offered, and maybe a second pressing will be considered by the Record Company if the demand remains high.

Today a substantial quantity of Hard Media is produced by the Performers and it sold on a Merchandise Product, as the Performers are funding this themselves, the batches produced will be limited in number.

I today, have a collection of Vinyl Albums purchased as a result of supporting Crowd Funding. I see this a very helpful way to support New Upcoming Performers. This same method has also proved useful to getting access to established performers Vinyl Albums, that are not able to get the best support from the main markets.   

I hope all this hasn’t changed your mind about delving into vinyl. Personally, I have a $2800 Music Hall 9.3, a $700 phono preamp with MC loading options and about 200 Albums. My investment into enjoying LPs is fairly reasonable for what I am getting out of it. And that is pure enjoyment of the format! I love the sound and as an engineer I very much enjoy the whole process of playing albums. Everything from the turntable setup to cart selection. The audible sound difference you can get with different cart loading or small VTA adjustments. And overall I just feel more connected to the music. If I’m home, and I just want something playing in the background, I tend to stream music using Qobuz or Tidal. And yes, they sound good, but it’s a very low effort to just let them run in the background. When I want to listen to music, I play vinyl. I just enjoy it more. I compare it to people who drive there, Toyota Sequoia to work every day, but on the weekends, they drag their 66 Mustang out of the garage. That 66 Mustang doesn’t get better fuel mileage, it doesn’t stop better, it’s not as comfortable or as safe, and it certainly takes more effort to drive. But in all that, it’s a hell of a lot more fun than the Toyota sequoia! That’s vinyl for me..  

  I agree with a lot of recommendations above. The REGA P1, the Fluance RT85, the Music Hall Classic or the 3.3 is an excellent choice along with the Mani as recommended would get you going. I think a great reasonable cartridge is an Ortofon Blue. If you happen to have a red, you can update just the stylus to a blue or beyond and make it a significantly better cartridge. As far as vinyl? I pick and choose a few new albums and yes, they can be pricey. But my wife watches craigslist and Facebook and it’s not unusual to see people dumping large collections for very short money. I will usually buy a bunch of these records at 3 to 5 dollars apiece take them home and give them a good cleaning. I must be really lucky because it’s actually unusual for me to find a piece of vinyl that is unplayable. The majority the stuff I get is still like new, after cleaning that is. And for cleaning? Or use a simple $79 spin clean. It’s pretty manual but it works really good. I’ll get a bunch a Albums and I’ll just clean five or 10 of them a night until they are done. My suggestion is to use just slightly warm water. And as someone else said, you have to clean the new stuff too. I’ve had absolutely completely unplayable vinyl that was brand new. After cleaning, it was silent and played perfectly.

I hope you enjoy your new venture into a a vintage audio format as I do!

Don't forget that purchasing of used Vinyl and giving it a extended usage life, is one way of keeping out lovely little sphere of a home in better fettle.

Land Fills have plenty of boxes of Vinyl LP's buried within them, that never got to be seen by others who share an interest in them.

We just got back in to the Vinyl side of things.

Fjuance RT85 (comes with Ortofon Blue cartridge) and IfI Zen Phono Preamp.

Cost was around $800, sounds wonderful, don’t need anything more nor to spend thousands of $s to get 2% improvement in SQ.

willsenton R8 tube amp, focal Kanta 2 speakers 👍

Thank you all for the suggestions and education. I just placed an order for a Rega P1 and Pro-ject preamp. Can't wait to get started.