turntable help

well if it matters, supposedly the ones with the switch have *slightly* worse sound quality since there are more moving parts, that's the logic of the manual belt. I have a manual one (Music Hall MMF-5) and switching has never bothered me, I play a fair amount of 45 rpm stuff too

in my exciting TT news, my Music Hall has developed a ground hum that I can't get rid of. Good times. my next step is gonna be an old electrician trick of using a 3-prong plug that has hot and neutral stripped, so just a ground plug, and running the ground directly to that. But my fear is that it's in the cartridge somehow (already tried swapping needles). It's 16 years old and has seen tons of use, so...

Ta, sleeve.

I have a Rega and at some point I won't. It isn't the quietest turntable and has intermittent hum issues - probably because they don't use a ground wire like every other turntable in the world.

Ah, the Rega Planar 1 was the other one I had pondered.

I have no idea what can just be connected to my amp or whether I'd need a pre-amp??

Does your amp have a “phono” input? If not you’d be looking for “built in preamp” or “line level output”on the specs of the TT. Otherwise it’s preamp time.
By the way you can use a secondhand amp with a phono input and e.g. tape output as an inexpensive pre.

if you don't know whether you need a phono preamp or not, i'd get either the A1 or the E1 with phono preamp, seems like best bang for the buck. you probably don't need to worry about the T1.

Thanks - yes, it does have a phono input.

I've had a Rega p1 for years, I have not personally had any hum or ground issues, been a champ

if you have a phono input on your amp then i’d go for the cheapest unless you think you’d benefit from the automatic features of the a1

all five 1200s i’ve owned were bought used and then internally grounded as part of the initial service appointment. i don’t know how much it would cost to have the internal grounding done by itself but these guys took the whole thing apart, cleaned all the gears and bearings, replaced all the belts, tuned it up and internally grounded for about $100 each. no hum at all

of course 1200s are built on a big metal frame. not familiar enough with rega or project turntables to know if internal grounding is possible. if it is, i recommend it! very nice not to have to screw around with a ground wire

i had a line on a used rp-1 for $250. regret passing on it, what made me skip it - aside from needing to buy a preamp, since the stereo i wanted to connect it to only had an aux input, not phono - was not wanting to deal with having to switch a belt to play 45s!

Do you listen to your 45s or do you like to think about listening to your 45s? Cuz I'm in the latter camp and I think most are

I have a few recent punk lps that play at 45, (granted they are only 10-15 minutes per side)

I mean sure I have 45rpm albums

Oh but wait late great might have a lot of dance stuff

well i am in that camp too. house, disco, techno tends to be on 12” not 7”. the one genre that sticks to 7” 45* is funk edits, and i guess funk and soul singles also tend to be easier to find on 7”. i only have a few dozen, and since 7”s don’t fit in the kallax with the non-dance records, or in the kallax-sized fiberglass ikea bins on the floor with the dance records, i put them in a cardboard longbox. the longbox is ugly and fits nicely in a closet, so it lives there, and it never occurs to me to grab them. somewhat related i had a copy of “funkier than a mosquito’s tweeter” on 7” with me at my thing last week, and it would have slayed, but i totally forgot about it because it got buried deep in the bag between the 12”s

* = i have not yet descended into the madness that is reggae 45s

Can't work out the most current turntable thread.

Anyway, anyone fancy explaining the difference between the various Pro-Ject turntables currently on sale at Richer Sounds.

E1 - £249
E1 Phono £249
T1 - £299
E1 BT - £369
T1 Phono SB - £379
Debut Carbon EVO - £399

BT = Bluetooth. Can't quite decide whether that is going to matter/future proof a bit?
The EVO comes with a £100 needle, apparently. And is £100 off. And comes in fancy colours.

If it helps, I have an ONKYO a-9010 amp. Don't have a pre-amp or anything like that.

This is partly a "plagued by indecision" sort of question (being meaning to replace a broken record player for years but failed).

Would I regret buying the cheapest rather than the fanciest (don't want to go over £400)?

The E line are the budget/entry-level models; the most lightweight material (in theory the lighter the plinth and platter, the more susceptible to vibration and therefore distortion). The T line uses better/heavier material and (I believe) a better tonearm so supposed to be less prone to vibration etc. I believe that both the E and T lines have a fixed anti-skate setting, meaning you’d probably be best sticking with the same or similar Ortofon cartridge down the line as they’ve been optimized to work with that one.

The Debut line uses better material still, has the motor suspended from the plinth to reduce vibration even more, comes with better cart, and has adjustable anti-skate which will give you more options for future cartridge upgrades.

The ones with Phono in the name include a phone pre-amp. I’d skip that personally; the one in your Onkyo should be fine. BT includes Bluetooth and phono pre-amp; I’d skip that too unless you know you need it now; if you ever need it in the future you can add a transmitter. One thing to pay attention to if it matters to you is which models come with a speed selector switch. With the non-phono/non-Bluetooth models you often need to manually move the belt with a little tool to select 33/45 RPM (I’ve been doing that for close to 30 years with my Pro-Ject and it doesn’t bother me but some people find it annoying).

I’d probably skip the E line; if you’re just looking to be able to play your existing collection and aren’t doing critical listening you’ll probably be fine with the T; if you’re still collecting records, have time to sit and listen to music without doing other stuff, like the idea of trying out different carts/needles eventually, I’d go with the Debut.

I have a carbon debut and it has always had some motor rumble. If you have any place near you that sells refurbishment turntables, I’d get a classic older model instead of any pro-ject.

Also, having to buy an additional component to easily change from 33 to 45 = duuuuud

Thanks both.

I have $1k to spend on a turntable, amp and speakers. What would you all recommend ?

If I was doing it from scratch I'd get...

NAD C316BEE V2 - $400
Elac Debut 2.0 bookshelf speakers - $230

Take your pick of turntables. I might get something like the Denon DP-300F - $329

i'd go so far as to say that setup would be "tite"

Sweet! Thanks buddy

You can check out the cheap audio man's recommendations.
Randy doesn't have great taste in music, but I like his videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOYicgCSPA8

Here's a couple of receivers that have caught my eye recently:

Refurbished Marantz PM6007

Dayton Audio HTA200

speakers as the cheapest part, really?

never built an all new system. watching with interest.

The Elacs sound amazing but yeah there are a million right answers here

you may wanna check out Facebook marketplace, sometimes you can get high end stuff for cheap because people just really want it out of their house

one nice thing about audio equipment is it lasts forever. my receiver is like 35 years old. speakers probably 25. the turntable I bought 2 decades ago still works as good as it did when I bought it. so buying used is a pretty good option I think.

for me the biggest audio upgrade was going to a microline stylus, the AT-VM95ML if you're curious. it was $150 for the cart (if you have an AT turntable you already have the headshell) and not only did the records sound better but it basically eliminated inner groove distortion. plus they last like 2-3x as long as regular carts.

yup I switched to the AT-VM95ML and huge improvement over I think an Ortofon Red

speakers as the cheapest part, really?

If I were starting over and buying new I’d probably go with something like:

Integrated amp: Yamaha A-S301 - $350 (sometimes available as a refurb for $300)
Speakers: Triangle BR03 - nice sale at Adorama right now, $230-$290 depending on finish
Turntable: U-Turn - best one I could get depending on how much I paid for the amp and speakers

calstars in nyc iirc, which is a really competitive and expensive market for used gear

And yeah, I actually switched to an AT-VM95ML a couple of months ago, inner groove distortion disappeared!

is it easy to fit an AT to a rega planar

apparently it’s a skoosh

when I put on the new cart I used one of those print-out protractors to align it, turned out to be a waste of time because if you're using the AT headshell it's already aligned properly.

Microline stylii absolutely changed my life. No inner groove distortion ever again. It was incredible to realize that the final song on every side of every record didn't have to sound distorted.

I can highly recommend the AT-VM95ML. I've also had great results with the AT440MLb.

I splurged a bit last year and got my first moving coil type stylus and it is a revelation. AT-OC9XML, also by Audio Technica.

for me the biggest audio upgrade was going to a microline stylus, the AT-VM95ML if you're curious. it was $150 for the cart (if you have an AT turntable you already have the headshell) and not only did the records sound better but it basically eliminated inner groove distortion. plus they last like 2-3x as long as regular carts.

I want to fourth this recommendation. Only problem is they spoil you for normal stylii and when it's time to replace they're obvs a fair bit more spendy than straight ellipticals (but totally worth it)

I found out about it via the Steve Hoffman forums, I hate to say it but if you have serious audio questions you may want to ask those folks. they're obnoxious but they know their shit.

I had that same Denon model before my dad gave me his Pro-Ject debut, it was a solid deck!!! I did have to get under there and blindly twist a tiny screw to adjust the speed at one point.

and yeah I have that same at stylus too! wow, inner groove distortion just melts away

Buying used basically doubles your spending power.