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Help with a christmas present Turntable and speakers….?

January 29th, 2010 by admin

Hey.

I am hoping to buy my girlfriend a turntable, speakers etc for playing her vinyls on. Literally just for her to listen to her music on, i was going to get her one of them ones with built in speakers but they just don’t look as good (or probably don’t sound as good as well)…

So i found this turntable …
http://www.amazon.com/Stanton-T-60-Turntable-With-Cartridge/dp/B0007ZGNJK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258923795&sr=1-1

which you can get for about £70 now I have about £120 left for whatever else i need to get.

I know I need speakers, (these don’t have to be mind blowing but have a good sound) and a receiver.

Can anybody point me in the right direction for getting the right ones to go with my turntable? I may be able to stretch my budget a little bit,,

I don’t understand what goes with what, I want it to be as simple a set up as can be as I am no good with wires and such.

Best answer gets rewarded! Thanks for your help anyone!

I may not be that helpful because I’m in the USA and I’m not too sure what’s available where you are or how the prices run. But, I’ll try…

That turntable probably isn’t the best choice for just listening to music. It has that short, straight tonearm that’s good for DJ tricks and "scratching" with a conical stylus. These arms have more tracking error and aren’t as good for sound quality in the long run or for use with better stylus shapes often used for hi-fi listening. An S-shaped tonearm or a longer straight tonearm with an angled headshell would be better for hi-fi use.

A similar table that has an S-shaped tonearm and is more popular with people who just want to listen to records is the Audio-Technica AT-PL120. Not sure if that’s easy to find where you are or if the price is comparable to what you were looking at. This table has a built-in phono preamp in case you end up with a receiver having no special input marked "phono". Some have a phono input and some don’t. Wouldn’t matter with this table. This table also comes with a cartridge having an elliptical stylus shape. This would give you better detail and tracking than the conical stylus on the other table you were looking at. Better frequency extension and cleaner sound. I’ve also seen tables from Numark that look very similar to what you were looking at, but with an S-shaped tonearm.

As far as a receiver and speakers… I really don’t know what’s available in Europe. Sounds like you’d be interested in a basic stereo receiver instead of a home-theater receiver with more channels for surround sound with movies, etc… Speakers would less of an expense if you only needed 2… Several brands are still making 2-channel stereo receivers and the prices shouldn’t be too high. You should be able to choose something…

The Sony SS series of speakers aren’t too bad on a budget and they’re about as cheap as speakers get. The only major faults I find are that they won’t play quite as loud as many speakers on the same power input (lowish efficiency). And the various models seem a little bass shy for their size due to very simple crossovers. For that reason, I think the dual-woofer floorstanding models sound the best if there’s room and they’re still not expensive. They have a reasonably revealing, yet smooth sound to them that is hard to believe for the price. I definitely prefer the larger models over any tiny speaker from a better brand name you might be able to find for the same price. I think the Sony speakers are a very good value. Wharfedale has also been known to offer some nice sounding speakers at low prices. These may be even less expensive or more available on your side of the pond….

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One Response to “Help with a christmas present Turntable and speakers….?”

  1. #1
    shidhet
    January 29th, 2010 3:20 pm

    I may not be that helpful because I’m in the USA and I’m not too sure what’s available where you are or how the prices run. But, I’ll try…

    That turntable probably isn’t the best choice for just listening to music. It has that short, straight tonearm that’s good for DJ tricks and "scratching" with a conical stylus. These arms have more tracking error and aren’t as good for sound quality in the long run or for use with better stylus shapes often used for hi-fi listening. An S-shaped tonearm or a longer straight tonearm with an angled headshell would be better for hi-fi use.

    A similar table that has an S-shaped tonearm and is more popular with people who just want to listen to records is the Audio-Technica AT-PL120. Not sure if that’s easy to find where you are or if the price is comparable to what you were looking at. This table has a built-in phono preamp in case you end up with a receiver having no special input marked "phono". Some have a phono input and some don’t. Wouldn’t matter with this table. This table also comes with a cartridge having an elliptical stylus shape. This would give you better detail and tracking than the conical stylus on the other table you were looking at. Better frequency extension and cleaner sound. I’ve also seen tables from Numark that look very similar to what you were looking at, but with an S-shaped tonearm.

    As far as a receiver and speakers… I really don’t know what’s available in Europe. Sounds like you’d be interested in a basic stereo receiver instead of a home-theater receiver with more channels for surround sound with movies, etc… Speakers would less of an expense if you only needed 2… Several brands are still making 2-channel stereo receivers and the prices shouldn’t be too high. You should be able to choose something…

    The Sony SS series of speakers aren’t too bad on a budget and they’re about as cheap as speakers get. The only major faults I find are that they won’t play quite as loud as many speakers on the same power input (lowish efficiency). And the various models seem a little bass shy for their size due to very simple crossovers. For that reason, I think the dual-woofer floorstanding models sound the best if there’s room and they’re still not expensive. They have a reasonably revealing, yet smooth sound to them that is hard to believe for the price. I definitely prefer the larger models over any tiny speaker from a better brand name you might be able to find for the same price. I think the Sony speakers are a very good value. Wharfedale has also been known to offer some nice sounding speakers at low prices. These may be even less expensive or more available on your side of the pond….
    References :

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