Entry level turntable up to £150?

Hades

Hades

Hades

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My daughter is massively into vinyl. She has a cheapish Crossley all in one turntable which isn't great. She would like to get a better one.

Any suggestions on what would be a good model up to £150 would be aporeciated. We would obviously run it through a separate amp and speakers so it just needs to be a turntable. Thank you.
 
Will the amp have a phono stage ? Otherwise you will either need one built into the TT or a separate one.

The Main brand that does good proper TT at the lower end of the market ( they also do very high end ) is Pro-ject . But your budget is too low .
 
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The Audio Technica LP60 or Sony PS-LX300USB or Pioneer PL-990 are all a step up from the Crossley for around £120 to £130. Pros: they're fully automatic so they're very easy to use, and have built-in phono stages (will connect to any AUX/Line/CD/Tuner input on a stereo amp or active speakers), and USB outputs which means it's possible to rip vinyl to put audio on to a portable music player/phone. Cons: Built to a price and to include a lot of bells and whistles, so replay fidelity is decent for the money but can be easily outclassed. Also, there's no real path to improve the performance of any of these TTs with an outboard phono stage or better cartridge.

As @TALON1973 said, the brand to look at for entry level decks is Pro-Ject. They start at £150 for the Pro-Ject Primary E. It's very much the bare bones of whats possible with decent engineering. A smarter move would be a s/h TT along the lines of a Pro-Ject Debut. You're getting better components, a better cartridge in a higher grade of tone arm. £100-£130 is about the going rate for these in the used market. It's a much better long term purchase
 
I'm also looking for a turntable at around the £150 mark. Would any of these connect to a Pioneer VSX-323 AV receiver? It is connected to a Tannoy TFX 5.1 speaker package.
 
StartWars said:
I'm also looking for a turntable at around the £150 mark. Would any of these connect to a Pioneer VSX-323 AV receiver? It is connected to a Tannoy TFX 5.1 speaker package.
Click to expand...

Short answer:

Audio Technica LP60 or Sony PS-LX300USB or Pioneer PL-990 - YES

Pro-Ject Primary E (new @ £150) or s/h Pioneer PL12D - NO


......and with a little more in the way of an explanation...

Take a turntable such as the Pro-ject or the Pioneer, the cables with the RCA plugs will give you the raw signal direct from the cartridge. Because of the way vinyl is cut, the signal coming direct off the record groove is very quiet compared to your other audio sources, and it has very little bass. Both these things are to stop the needle (stylus) jumping out of the groove. Before reaching your Pioneer amp, the signal has to pass through a box of electronics that equalises and amplifies the sound. It reduces the treble and increases the bass, and then increases the power of the signal to roughly 60-80% of the level for a CD player or line audio source. This is called RIAA Equalisation.

The electronics could be a stand-alone box (a Phono Pre-amp), or built in to an amplifier (an amp with a dedicated Phono/TT input), or built in to the turntable. That's what the Audio Technica LP60 or Sony PS-LX300USB or Pioneer PL-990 have. They have a built-in Phono pre-amp. This means that the leads coming from the back of thse turntables could be connected to the assignable (CD) input on your 323.
 
Thanks for the explanation. I'm interested in the Pro-Ject Primary E as it seems to offer the best value for money for the quality of components. This would also be my first turntable.

If I bought a separate pre-amp, would I then be able to plug into my receiver?
 
StartWars said:
Thanks for the explanation. I'm interested in the Pro-Ject Primary E as it seems to offer the best value for money for the quality of components. This would also be my first turntable.

If I bought a separate pre-amp, would I then be able to plug into my receiver?
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Good choice. The Primary E is all about getting maximum fidelity for the budget from any vinyl recording.

Re: phono pre-amps; yes, as I explained in the previous post, once the signal has passed through one of these boxes then it will be suitable to connect to any amp with a Line Input.

In your case, the 323 has three Line Inputs on the rear panel. These are DVD, Sat/CBL and Analog In 1 (CD). What the inputs are called is kind of irrelevant; they could be called Fred, Doris and Gertrude, it wouldn't alter what signals can be connected. Your simplest connection is Analog In 1 (CD). I know the turntable isn't a CD player; that really doesn't matter. It's a stereo audio Line Level signal, and that's all that's important. When you press the CD button on the remote control then you'll hear the signal from the turntable.

For the two other inputs (Sat/CBL and DVD), they'll default to the digital signal connections - HDMI or Optical/Coax depending on the input used. This means you won't hear the TT sound unless you faff around with the signal routing options available from the Audio Select button, but unless you're confident and understand how this works then I'd leave that alone. Stick with pressing CD for the turntable audio signal.
 
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Thanks, that's a great help. I'll most likely get the Pro-Ject and then get a separate pre-amp in that case.

Do you know how long the cables would be roughly? Rather than sitting under my TV close to the AV receiver, I'm planning to put it on a cabinet that's about a meter or so away from the TV.
 
When it comes to phono pre-amps ('phono stages', same thing just a different name), you'll be presented with a bewildering choice ranging from under £20 on Ebay through to £1000 for esoteric Hi-Fi versions, but most of your attention will be focussed on the question of whether the £20 versions are good enough or if you should spend a bit more.

The cheap ones under £35 are suitable for home DJs. They're a bit noisier than the Hi-Fi versions.

Without blowing mad money, Pro-Ject's Phonobox MM at £60 is where you should be starting to look for Hi-Fi use. This will be as good as anything else you can buy up to £130.

Now, the next thing you're probably thinking is "£150 for a TT + £60 for the pre-amp = £210.....Is this my only option? " The answer to that is no. You can get the next higher model in the Pro-Ject range which has the same quality as the £60 pre-amp built-in, and it will cost you £190. Look for the Pro-Ject Elemental. You also get a USB output. This means you have the option to rip vinyl to a PC or MAC. As a standalone box, you'd need to spend £100 to get that. That makes the Elemental at £190 worth £250 if you had to buy the bits separately.

The other option open to you is a s/h phono pre-amp. Search Ebay for the Pro-Ject pre-amps, but also look at NAD and REGA. Both are very highly respected Hi-Fi brands. You can't really go wrong with them.
 
StartWars said:
Thanks, that's a great help. I'll most likely get the Pro-Ject and then get a separate pre-amp in that case.

Do you know how long the cables would be roughly? Rather than sitting under my TV close to the AV receiver, I'm planning to put it on a cabinet that's about a meter or so away from the TV.
Click to expand...

Sit the pre-amp with the TT, then use some long RCA phono cables to reach to where you want to have the amp.
 
lucid said:
When it comes to phono pre-amps ('phono stages', same thing just a different name), you'll be presented with a bewildering choice ranging from under £20 on Ebay through to £1000 for esoteric Hi-Fi versions, but most of your attention will be focussed on the question of whether the £20 versions are good enough or if you should spend a bit more.

The cheap ones under £35 are suitable for home DJs. They're a bit noisier than the Hi-Fi versions.

Without blowing mad money, Pro-Ject's Phonobox MM at £60 is where you should be starting to look for Hi-Fi use. This will be as good as anything else you can buy up to £130.

Now, the next thing you're probably thinking is "£150 for a TT + £60 for the pre-amp = £210.....Is this my only option? " The answer to that is no. You can get the next higher model in the Pro-Ject range which has the same quality as the £60 pre-amp built-in, and it will cost you £190. Look for the Pro-Ject Elemental. You also get a USB output. This means you have the option to rip vinyl to a PC or MAC. As a standalone box, you'd need to spend £100 to get that. That makes the Elemental at £190 worth £250 if you had to buy the bits separately.

The other option open to you is a s/h phono pre-amp. Search Ebay for the Pro-Ject pre-amps, but also look at NAD and REGA. Both are very highly respected Hi-Fi brands. You can't really go wrong with them.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. The Project Primary E is being bought as a gift so I'm planning to get the pre amp separately.

I've noticed there is a Project Phono Box E MM preamp which is a bit cheaper than the Phono Box MM. Is there a major difference?

Here are the links:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pro-Ject-A...roject+preamp&qid=1554048128&s=gateway&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pro-Ject-P...roject+preamp&qid=1554048198&s=gateway&sr=8-2
 
In theory it should be a decent accessory to go with any sub-£500 TT. They'e economised on the casework; it looks like plastic, so they've used metal shielding inside rather than a metal box as used with the Phono Box. There's very slightly - and I do mean slightly - more noise, but with the sort of cartridges you're likely to be using you'd be hard pushed to tell.

What's slightly concerning is the reviews regarding reliability. £20 as a percentage of the £70 is almost 30%. That's how much cheaper the E is from the regular Phono Box. But to my way of thinking, £20 itself isn't that much money - it's a couple of s/h albums - and I'd rather buy the tried and tested Phono Box, either new or go second-hand if money is tight. £20 saved isn't really a saving if it buys you a load of trouble.
 
Just to add, i spoke to Pro-ject about the difference between the Bluetooth Box E (£69) vs the Bluetooth Box S2 (£135)

The guy i spoke to said that literally the only difference was the more premium metal casing. He said that all the internals etc were identical. I presume that would be the same is true of the phono box. Project are very helpful though if you give them a call to discuss.
 
I've received the turntable and Project E MM phono box. Should either of these come with the necessary cables to connect to my AV receiver or do I need to buy them separately? The turntable only came with cables to connect to the phono box.
 
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