Turntable

[Cadder]

Hi all,

We have been looking for a good turntable for a while and would benefit from the knowledge and experience in this forum. We want something with decent quality audio and looks good - a clean solid wood finish would be perfect. Some other notes:

• We will be listening to a range of records - Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, Taking Back Sunday, Bon Iver.
• Bluetooth would be handy. Ideally I would connect it to my 5.1 amp setup for now.
• Budget sits around £400, maxing out at £500 unless I can persuade Mrs. Cadder..

Which turntable would you recommend?

 

[Cadder]

Spoiler

In all honesty, Bluetooth has no place on any sort of analogue platform let alone Vinyl.
That said, you do have some options that don't include Bluetooth at your budget.
The first is the Project T1 Phono. At £379 it falls within your £400 budget and includes a phono stage built in and MM cartridge. I have actually heard this deck and for the money it is hard to beat. I actually think it's biggest downfall is the phono stage itself. Because the deck is built to a price point the savings have come from the phono stage.

Pro-Ject T1 Phono SB (Walnut) (1)

Shop for Project T1 Phono SB Walnut Turntable with Richer Sounds for a 6 Year Guarantee, expert advice and Lowest Prices Guaranteed

www.richersounds.com

The second would be the Rega Planar 1. A superior deck to the T1 at £329 which also come with an MM cartridge but no phono stage. But pair it with a Rega fono MK5 and it raises the whole game much higher than the T1 at a combined cost of £549.

Rega Planar 1 Turntable

The Rega Planar 1 is the new replacement for the RP1. The designers at rega have re-worked almost every detail of the best-selling turntable giving you the best entry level product they have produced by still keeping the price extremely competitive.

www.analogueseduction.net

Rega Fono Mk5 Moving Magnet Phono Stage

Rega Fono Mk5 Moving Magnet Phono Stage available now at Analogue Seduction

www.analogueseduction.net

A better choice again would be the Rega Planar 2, but with a phono stage that would move the cost up to £720.

Rega Planar 2 Turntable

Buy the Rega Planar 2 from Analogue Seduction

www.analogueseduction.net

Thank you so much for this. How do these two fit in with the list of recommendations?

TEAC TN350 - I'm leaning toward this for price and built-in phono stage.

Teac TN350 (Matte Black)

Shop for Teac TN350 Matte Black USB Turntable with Richer Sounds for expert advice and lowest prices guaranteed

www.richersounds.com

Roksan Attessa - it's on offer at nearly half the "RRP". Is it 3x better than the above TEAC unit?

Roksan Attessa Turntable (Satin Black)

Shop for Roksan Attessa Turntable (Satin Black) Turntable with Richer Sounds for expert advice and lowest prices guaranteed

www.richersounds.com

I see the general advice is not to bother with Bluetooth so I'm happy to go without. I also didn't know about the phono pre-amp so thanks all who mentioned that requirement.

 

[Cadder]

Thank you all for your help on this. I have the Onkyo HT-S3800 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver/Speaker Package. I appreciate that's low end so I take it the Roksan Attessa would be held back until I upgrade the amp?

 

[Cadder]

Spoiler

The Attessa will still do an amazing job of digging out the info from your records, but a lot of the finesse will be wasted because the amp and the speakers - especially the speakers - really aren't up to the job of relaying it to your ears.

I've been mulling over your options as I've been doing other stuff. In the normal course of events the Attessa would be £1,100 and unlikely to be on your RADAR. What throws the cat amongst the pigeons is this £599/£649 price. Bearing in mind that the Rega P1 + Fono tips in at £550-ish, the small difference in price to get the Attessa is (IMO) and absolute no brainer. You're then left with a turntable that's massively better than the amp and speakers it will be used with, but a turntable that you'll never need to upgrade.

Let's pretend money isn't a consideration. What sort of AV-cum-Hi-Fi system would someone have that could come close to tapping the Attessa's potential? This is all very subjective and there could be any number of possible systems, but to put it in perspective, a mid-range ARCAM receiver (£2.5K) with a Focal Aria 5-speaker kit + 3rd party sub such as a BK would be about the level. The total would be around the £5.5K.

With your current amp and speaker kit you could live quite happily with a Denon DP-29F or Audio Technica AT-LP60 but they're not exactly stylish. The Sony PSLX310BT at £229 would be thoroughly decent though. It's fully automatic, and includes a phono pre-amp. It even has Bluetooth. That deck would see you through to a £600~£800 AVR upgrade and £750~£1,000 speaker package.

IMO, your choices depend on where you see yourself going with the amp and speakers. If you think you'll upgrade the speakers but stick with bookshelf speakers such as the Q Acoustics 3020i then something like the Sony deck makes sense. The Pro-Ject T1 would sound better, but not twice as good. Where you can afford the Attessa though, even with your modest gear, that would be my pick.

Thanks @lucid - this advice is incredibly helpful.

With it all in perspective I think the Sony is the right choice. I can't see us spending £5.5k on a sound system so we would likely never reach the best of what the Atessa can offer.

If the Sony still has a little headroom on our current entry level Onkyo setup then it seems the best option. We'll only replace our amp/speakers if something breaks and we'll be happy with around the same.

Thanks again for your help, it is very much appreciated.

 

[Cadder]

It may be a good thing that I've still not made a purchase - the Roksan is now £499 for VIP.

Black Friday isn't far away either, I might have to hold on and see if that brings better deals.