Local shops that stock Turntables

BigJack said:
When you say cheap, how cheap do you mean.

Will what i am looking at sound awful. The essential 3 gets cracking reviews.
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The essential 3 is ok, you'll be fine as a starter setup and you'll be getting an acrylic platter.

The om10 stylus is average but you can update just the stylus section and you can use om10, om20, om30 etc but that's down the line

I don't think it comes with a phono stage... basically the sound a the table makes is incredibly quiet - you can even hear it slightly when it's playing. The turntable sends that over the RCA cables to the phono stage which amplifies it and applies (usually) what is called an RIAA curve to make it sound like it should

So you have some key parts to your system - turntable, cartridge/stylus, phono stage, amplifier/Hifi system and speakers

Each one of those will impact sound quality and if you get a Bobby basic element at any point then anything further down will be worse and if speakers at the end are crap then no high end turntable or cartridge will sound mega

You can't a project phono stage for £50 odd on Amazon maybe a bit less used. Honestly I would bid on an ifi zen phono though unless massively budget constrained; it would be a long time before you need more than that - they retail for £179 but are extremely well regarded holding their own against £1k phono stages

www.ebay.co.uk

IFI ZEN mm/mc phono pre/amplifier | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for IFI ZEN mm/mc phono pre/amplifier at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.
www.ebay.co.uk

Put an offer in for £90 and if declined just go for another. There are some zen phono air's for less but they're not as good but another option if budget is tight

For your om10 I would use that until it expires and then upgrade the stylus and you'll feel the benefit

Of you do go budget phono stage buy used so that you don't loose too much value if you do upgrade

Vinyl is a rewarding hobby but it's also a rabbit hole so you need to dip your toe in first. Is this from hifisounds or online? If it hifisounds I'd defo urge you to make an appt and go down at least to hear the difference between gear levels so you can see for yourself, they'll also advise you what's best in your budget. You don't have to then buy from them, but it's on your doorstep so might as well

Richer sounds usually great at audio but vinyl definitely isn't their forte
 
The phono preamp i was going to go for is the Pro-Ject Phono box E, it was recommended by the 2ndhandhifi.co.uk shop you mentioned, but i will have a look at the Zen as well now. The turntable is from them as well so will come with 3 month warranty. I didi think about asking them for a demo, but the turntable i am looking at getting is the only one in the whole shop that is within my budget, they deal in much higher end stuff, so i would have felt a bit stupid asking them go to the trouble of setting up a demo for me when it was the only one i could afford anyway. Plus it was 4.30pm on a Saturday afternoon and the guy was leaving shortly to go to the match. I didn't like to put people to too much trouble when i am not spending much.

My budget is quite small, but so is my living room, so won't take much to fill it. However i still want it to sound pretty good. The Denon speakers i am using sound fantastic in my opinion so i am not worried about them. The main thing is to get the best a i can for my budget, and get a decent preamp.

I am going in to Middlesbrough town centre today, so i am going to pop into the 2nd hand shop that is in the old Shakespeare pub, might as well see what they have.
 
BigJack said:
The phono preamp i was going to go for is the Pro-Ject Phono box E, it was recommended by the 2ndhandhifi.co.uk shop you mentioned, but i will have a look at the Zen as well now. The turntable is from them as well so will come with 3 month warranty. I didi think about asking them for a demo, but the turntable i am looking at getting is the only one in the whole shop that is within my budget, they deal in much higher end stuff, so i would have felt a bit stupid asking them go to the trouble of setting up a demo for me when it was the only one i could afford anyway. Plus it was 4.30pm on a Saturday afternoon and the guy was leaving shortly to go to the match. I didn't like to put people to too much trouble when i am not spending much.

My budget is quite small, but so is my living room, so won't take much to fill it. However i still want it to sound pretty good. The Denon speakers i am using sound fantastic in my opinion so i am not worried about them. The main thing is to get the best a i can for my budget, and get a decent preamp.

I am going in to Middlesbrough town centre today, so i am going to pop into the 2nd hand shop that is in the old Shakespeare pub, might as well see what they have.
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On eBay you can get that phono for about £25-35 based on sold prices - if they don't have it used in hifisound I'd pick one up off there and it'll do to start with and then you have a clear upgrade path later on. New on Amazon it's £45. Like I say, depends on priorities - you can spend that and have a clear upgrade with later on, or try get a zen phono and know that at least that element will not need upgrading, down to you really!

Some useful resources for you:

Http://www.reddit.com/r/vinyl - for questions / info

https://www.reddit.com/r/VinylReleases/s/x3Pux1RMDu new releases

https://www.facebook.com/CheapVinylRecordRewardDealsUK deals

Http://www.discogs.com - website (with accompanying app) which tracks value and information about your collection, useful for insurance purposes and understanding which copies of a release are worth tracking down. The all has a useful barcode scanner and also when viewing your collection you can shake the app to receive a random album suggestion
 
I have been having a read up on the Zen phono you mentioned, the reviews are fantastic. I will have to see if I can adjust my budget and get one, I will get the turntable first, then see how the funds are.

The second hand shop in the Shakespeare pub was closed when I got there, it is closed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays.
 
BigJack said:
I have been having a read up on the Zen phono you mentioned, the reviews are fantastic. I will have to see if I can adjust my budget and get one, I will get the turntable first, then see how the funds are.

The second hand shop in the Shakespeare pub was closed when I got there, it is closed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays.
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Yeah it really does punch above its weight. I used to have a lyngdorf TDAI-1120 stereo amp which had a good phono stage onboard but when I upgraded to the much more powerful TDAI-3400, it doesn't have one as I guess at that level you would want a better one, so I started off with the project phono box E but it wasnt the best - upgrading my TT and cartridge will have also had a big impact but even then it was initially with the phono box, when I got the zen phono It was night and day.

Like I said though if you start out with the phono box that's no huge loss if you can buy a used one as you can flog it on for a similar amount and then you'll feel the benefit of the upgrade
 
There is a guy selling one here if you do want one:

www.avforums.com

For Sale - iFi Audio Zen Phono Stage

iFi Audio Zen Phono Stage Bought March 2021 from Sevenoaks and in excellent condition. I cannot find the original box but if posted it will be smothered in vast quantities of bubble wrap in a generic box. £125 or make me an offer!
www.avforums.com www.avforums.com

I would offer him £85based on previous sales on that forum, and on ebay, of boxed ones selling for £90-95
 
Well spotted, i looked on there earlier to see if there was any for sale, i must have missed it.

I don't want to make an offer yet just incase i have a change of plan and end up buying a turntable with a built in phono. I know that is not what is usually recommend but if a turntable came up and it was a bargain price i could be tempted, especially if it is made by Pro-ject as i don't think they would fit a rubbish phono.

There is a Pro-ject Primary E on there for sale along with a separate Project preamp which i can get both for £150 delivered, been interest in it but ideally want something a bit better.
 
Built in phono stages are generally on the lower end of the quality scale which is why you usually only find them on entry level tables. The issue with them is it locks you into that phono, or then having useless electronics inside it that you cant sell away/upgrade if you do buy something else - so I would suggest whatever you look at either buy a used phono you can cheaply upgrade or buy the phono you want and then get the table you want. Integral ones will do a job but its generally dead money unless youre paying a really good whack for it. Likewise buying a used table isn't a huge issue as you can probably sell it for near what you paid if you do decide to want better.
 
The turntables i have been looking at with built in phonos have all had the facility to turn them off so you can use your own separate phono, so i wouldn't be to bothered about it having a built if phono.

At the moment i am edging towards getting the Pro-ject essential 3 from 2ndhanfhifi, and making a bid on the Zen phono on A V Forums. I have done most my research now with the help from you and others, i think the Essential 3 with OM10 and a Zen phono would be a good starting point for my budget. I think to get them both is going to cost me about £240. I will make a decision tomorrow, you never know what might turn up on eBay or Av Forums overnight.

The only thing putting me off slightly about the Essential 3 is that i don't know the history of it or how warn the stylus is, it would be nice if a hardly used one in mint condition came up for sale at a good price. I would like to go new, but with my small budget i am probably better of going second hand.
 
Yeah you can turn them off, but you can never sell them, so you've got money in a function that you cant recoup without selling the entire TT. With a separate phono stage and TT each individual part can be upgraded, and with the phono box for example at about £30 used, then you get £30 towards your next upgrade.

I wouldnt worry too much about stylus, you get about 1000 hours out of most good ones and if it comes with an OM10 theyre fairly inexpensive to replace. used definitely gets you more for your money
 
What do you recon to the Rega Planar 1 ECO, an eco/recycled Planar 1, it can be had for £199.

The Planar 1 gets cracking reviews, the Eco should sound just the same, seems like it might be better than the Pro-Ject turntables i have been looking at.
 
BigJack said:
Looking for a turntable with preamp to plug into my Denon HiFi system. I am only looking to pay up to about £200.

I have tried Currys at Teesside Park, but they only have one on display as they have sold the rest off as they are having a refit in February.

Tried Richer sounds but they mainly just have higher end stuff above my budget.

HMV have a decent selection, but i was just wondering if there are any more shops i have missed in the area that stock them.
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I've sent you a message re: turntable, assuming the messaging works.

You get first dibs on my free turntable.
 
Are you better having a dedicated pre-amp?

I’ve just bought a Marantz PM6007 amp (which includes its own pre-amp) and CD6007.

I guess a dedicated pre-amp isn’t an option in this set up not and hopefully not necessary anyway.

Gonna go to Richer Sounds this week to look at Bowers & Wilkins 607 S3 speakers as an upgrade to our current Edifier R1280DBs which were a bit of a stop gap.

Anyone has these? Or can recommend other speakers to compliment my Marantz set up?

Next step after that will be upgrading my turntable and maybe adding a streamer last of all.
 
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