Turntable speaker help ?
- Thread starter baz178
- Start date
All you really need is a pair of active speakers. They're the ones such as the Edifers that OCUK sells. They have an amplifier built in to them. All that is required is a twin phono cable (red and white on each end) to connect the Ion to the speakers. Then use the volume and tone controls on the master speaker to change the sound.
If you want to do the proper Hi-Fi thing then you can spend anything from £150 to an utterly obscene amount on an amplifier and a pair of speakers if you wish. For a turntable such ss the Ion then either a Cambridge Audio Topaz AM5 or a Pioneer A10 amp would be a good match and a solid start for a really nice quality first Hi-Fi system. Each of those amps is £120. You would then add speakers. Wharf edale Diamond 9.0 are the usual go-to budget choice at this level. They're £60 a pair. Personally though I would spend a little extra and go for the Q Acoustic 2010 at £99. There's more bass and a sweeter tone which means they far more likely to satisfy you for longer before you have to scratch the upgrade itch.
Cheaper alternatives to both the amp and speakers exist. However, IMO they're very heavily compromised due to cost cutting so I don't believe they represent good value. The old saying "Buy cheap. Buy twice" applies accurately here. It's better to spend £60 on some decent active speakers than waste £80-£100 on a crappy amp and naff speakers that you then end up replacing after a year because you realise they're not that good even for cheap gear.
If you want to do the proper Hi-Fi thing then you can spend anything from £150 to an utterly obscene amount on an amplifier and a pair of speakers if you wish. For a turntable such ss the Ion then either a Cambridge Audio Topaz AM5 or a Pioneer A10 amp would be a good match and a solid start for a really nice quality first Hi-Fi system. Each of those amps is £120. You would then add speakers. Wharf edale Diamond 9.0 are the usual go-to budget choice at this level. They're £60 a pair. Personally though I would spend a little extra and go for the Q Acoustic 2010 at £99. There's more bass and a sweeter tone which means they far more likely to satisfy you for longer before you have to scratch the upgrade itch.
Cheaper alternatives to both the amp and speakers exist. However, IMO they're very heavily compromised due to cost cutting so I don't believe they represent good value. The old saying "Buy cheap. Buy twice" applies accurately here. It's better to spend £60 on some decent active speakers than waste £80-£100 on a crappy amp and naff speakers that you then end up replacing after a year because you realise they're not that good even for cheap gear.
Thank you very much for replying. I want to do a proper hifi thing, could you please list the things I would need to do this properly please ? New to all this thing and just need a little help.
You haven't yet specified a total budget. So unless you're willing to spend quite a bit more then at this stage my amp and speaker recommendations stand. You can't really go wrong with Cambridge Audio amps. The only one that I would avoid is the very basic AM1 (£79) simply because it doesn't have tone controls and I think there might be times when they come in useful with vinyl on an entry level system.
The other bits you will need are some cables to link the turntable to the amp, and then some speaker wire. The turntable connection leads are the phono to phono cables I mentioned on the previous post. The free ones supplied with some bits of audio gear are pretty crap. You're looking for something shielded as a better choice. In the absence of any real solid technical info to the contrary then these are probably just as good as anything a Hi-Fi dealer might try to flog you for £10-£25.
Speaker wire, a budget all-copper cable of a cross sectional area 1.5 square millimetres is adequate so long as you're not running more than 10 metres per side. Look for a 42 strand cable rather than something with hundreds of strands. Hundreds of very thin stands makes the sound worse rather than better. 42 strand is optimum for cables between 1mm and 1.5mm cross section. 79 strand is best for cables at 2.5mm cross section area. Here's something very good value in that size.
The above covers the basics which will get you going. There are some extras that are very useful, and other things that make life easier or keep things neat.
The first is a record cleaning brush. Personally this is something that as a vinyl user myself I'd class as an essential. When the needle travels over a dusty record some of that dust gets embedded in to the grooves. That's what you hear as crackle. Using a brush won't remove crackle from dust already embedded, but it will help slow down the build up of new dust and so keep your records sounding better for longer. The design I have been using for 30+ years has a felt pad flanked either side by carbon fibre bristles. Google "Super Exstatic Carbon Fibre Vinyl Record Cleaning Brush". The same design is sold in Hi-Fi stores for £24+
The second thing is banana plugs. These are ends for bare speaker cable that make plugging in easier. You don't 'need' then as the speakers and amps all have connecting posts that will take bare wire. It's just a bit of a faff, especially if you're not used to wiring up speaker cable connections. Ebay is fine for these things. You don't need that many, four for that cables at the amp end and four for the cables at the speakers ends; so that's 8 in total.
Good luck
The other bits you will need are some cables to link the turntable to the amp, and then some speaker wire. The turntable connection leads are the phono to phono cables I mentioned on the previous post. The free ones supplied with some bits of audio gear are pretty crap. You're looking for something shielded as a better choice. In the absence of any real solid technical info to the contrary then these are probably just as good as anything a Hi-Fi dealer might try to flog you for £10-£25.
Speaker wire, a budget all-copper cable of a cross sectional area 1.5 square millimetres is adequate so long as you're not running more than 10 metres per side. Look for a 42 strand cable rather than something with hundreds of strands. Hundreds of very thin stands makes the sound worse rather than better. 42 strand is optimum for cables between 1mm and 1.5mm cross section. 79 strand is best for cables at 2.5mm cross section area. Here's something very good value in that size.
The above covers the basics which will get you going. There are some extras that are very useful, and other things that make life easier or keep things neat.
The first is a record cleaning brush. Personally this is something that as a vinyl user myself I'd class as an essential. When the needle travels over a dusty record some of that dust gets embedded in to the grooves. That's what you hear as crackle. Using a brush won't remove crackle from dust already embedded, but it will help slow down the build up of new dust and so keep your records sounding better for longer. The design I have been using for 30+ years has a felt pad flanked either side by carbon fibre bristles. Google "Super Exstatic Carbon Fibre Vinyl Record Cleaning Brush". The same design is sold in Hi-Fi stores for £24+
The second thing is banana plugs. These are ends for bare speaker cable that make plugging in easier. You don't 'need' then as the speakers and amps all have connecting posts that will take bare wire. It's just a bit of a faff, especially if you're not used to wiring up speaker cable connections. Ebay is fine for these things. You don't need that many, four for that cables at the amp end and four for the cables at the speakers ends; so that's 8 in total.
Good luck
Last edited: