I have a cheap turntable, am I missing out? Options

[yamfox]

I bought a Pioneer PL-600 in like new condition for $20. If you aren't aware, this is a turntable from the 70's. It sounds great to me, but is it worth getting a modern turntable? I don't know, it just makes me feel odd that I spent more on the preamp than I did on the player <_<

10-17-09 Satuday Vinyl Run:
Where the Wild Things Are Soundtrack by Karen-O and the Kids
Automatic for the People by R.E.M.
Oh, Inverted World by The Shins
Human by The Killers
OK Computer by Radiohead
Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement

[Dima]

If you invest your money in a Technics then you are set for life

[yamfox]

If only I had the money...
I actually do own a pair of Technics speakers, found the pair for $30 at a goodwill.

[luckburz]

Technics SL1210 maybe reference, but only for DJing... ;-) It´s not audiophile standard, but a very good table.

So if you don´t plan to spend thousands of bucks you don´t really need a modern table. Much more important is the cartridge or better the combination of the cartridge and your system. So never forget the the turntable itself is "known technique". There is no development in the basics anymore, so if you would find a perfect condition vintage table it will not be bader then a new one. Especially NEVER ever buy some table with USB *LOL*.

I own myself a vintage system and it sounds like magic in it´s combination.

Dual CS 505-3 "audiophile concept" -> 70s
Kenwood C1 Basic preamp -> 80s

I´m running this with an Audio Technica AT120E Cartridge. It´s some kind of perfect in it´s price and sound - for me.

What i read quickly about your table sounded good. Only bad thing is that it´s a direct drive. Maybe get it overworked in a special HiFi store... New cables, cleaning, set-up of tonearm and cartridge. Although you say in "like new" condition you should definetely change the cartridge or at least the needle (if you know which cartridge is set-up). If you are unexperienced with that let a specialist do it.

You can check the AT120E or the ORTOFON Vinyl Master Red. Both are around 100 Bucks - but it´s an investment that is really paying. You can check out some of my vinyl rips if you want to know how the AT sounds - and in the future please deliver rips of the fine vinyls you mentioned above... ;-)

[winki]

Agreed with luckburz.

Oh and hey, btw, yamfox.. Do you happen to have some kind of connection or set up that allows you to record to flac from your turntable?
If so, I'd love the Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack...been looking for that in lossless quality for quite some time now.

If not, that's ok lol,

But yes, Technics are g.o.o.d. I listened to one not long ago...it's good stuff =P

[joffa]

Technics SL1210 maybe reference, but only for DJing... ;-) It´s not audiophile standard, but a very good table.

So if you don´t plan to spend thousands of bucks you don´t really need a modern table. Much more important is the cartridge or better the combination of the cartridge and your system. So never forget the the turntable itself is "known technique". There is no development in the basics anymore, so if you would find a perfect condition vintage table it will not be bader then a new one. Especially NEVER ever buy some table with USB *LOL*.

I own myself a vintage system and it sounds like magic in it´s combination.

Dual CS 505-3 "audiophile concept" -> 70s
Kenwood C1 Basic preamp -> 80s

I´m running this with an Audio Technica AT120E Cartridge. It´s some kind of perfect in it´s price and sound - for me.

What i read quickly about your table sounded good. Only bad thing is that it´s a direct drive. Maybe get it overworked in a special HiFi store... New cables, cleaning, set-up of tonearm and cartridge. Although you say in "like new" condition you should definetely change the cartridge or at least the needle (if you know which cartridge is set-up). If you are unexperienced with that let a specialist do it.

You can check the AT120E or the ORTOFON Vinyl Master Red. Both are around 100 Bucks - but it´s an investment that is really paying. You can check out some of my vinyl rips if you want to know how the AT sounds - and in the future please deliver rips of the fine vinyls you mentioned above... ;-)

I agree with luckburz as he has pretty well nailed it but if you are going to get a better cartridge then shell out an extra couple of bucks for a setup and tracking protractor as a correctly aligned cartridge (side to side) in the correct position in the headshell (front to back) makes for equal levels in the right and left channel outputs so that you get proper stereo. Also some arms have a small weight or spring setup for bias and this is for centring the stylus in the groove especially towards the centre of the record. This needs to be checked as per the cartridge makers specification. All I have to add about setup.

@luckburz
you and me both have antique setups but you might pip me for older as I traded my Dual in for a Rega about 25 years ago hehehe
My setup is a Rega Planar type 3 turntable with Rega arm and Ortofon MC 10 Super cartridge with elliptical stylus all hooked into an old Black series Marantz PM-80 LDPS Audiophile amp with moving coil phono input. This feeds into my PC via an ASUS Xonar D2X 24bit 192kHz sound card which has got excellent Burr Brown D to A converters but pity it only has Cirrus Logic A to D converters but I am presently investigating if it is easy to change the A to D to Burr Brown chips as well.
Anyway luckburz I haven't heard any affordable newer system that sounds significantly better so like you I keep the old and faithful setup and I reckon it still has many years of life left lol


Good luck with your turntable yamfox and if you can't find a setup protractor pm me and I will send you a hi res scanned image of my Ortofon one which you could print out and carefully glue onto some thin but stiff cardboard then accurately cut out with a very sharp craft knife or scalpel.
Cheers
joffa

[luckburz]

Do you mean this with "setup protector"? http://www.mofi.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd...mp;idproduct=20

[joffa]

No you have a rolls royce model there and they used to cost about AU$90 when you could get them years ago but they were rare as rocking horse shit coz not too many ppl wanted to spend the bucks when you can get others (albeit not as good) for less than AU$20. The one I have is a plastic card and they used to be sold by Ortofon dealers for about AU$5 to AU$10 from memory. You sit it on the turntable spindle and it has some self explanatory markings on it that you make sure the cartridge and stylus line up with while the mounting screws are almost tight. Works for most two and four screw mounts but not so good for cheap plug into a socket type cartridges although you can use it to line up the whole tonearm for those types if you like stuffing around.

I will scan it in hi res black and white as it has some fine lines on it and then I will up it to RS. I will also add a readme file with a drawing showing the exact dimensions so you know the scaling factor on the printout is correct as this is very important.
I like tiff files so are you happy with tiff files? They're lossless hehehe otherwise can do jpg or png.
laterz
joffa

[luckburz]

Sounds very interesting and i really appreciate this - and tiff is quite fine for me as well! Thanks in advance!

[joffa]

The dl is about 6Mb and the readme.doc has all relevant information

Files in the fs_ortofon.rar archive are:-
ortofon.tif
readme.doc

CODE

http://rapidshare.com/files/301493042/fs_ortofon.rar

CODE

RAR Password: FLACShare.net

I hope you find it useful
Cheers
joffa B)

[luckburz]

Wow. Thanks for this prompt service! Dl tonight, test tomorrow!

[winki]

NICE advice there joffa. I'm from down under too!

[joffa]

NICE advice there joffa. I'm from down under too! :)

Thanks winki
BTW I'm from Victoria and have only recently joined FS.
I like it here
Cheers
joffa

[winki]

Thanks winki
BTW I'm from Victoria and have only recently joined FS.
I like it here
Cheers
joffa

NICE! I used to live in Victoria too!
That was yonks ago though haha.
FS rules, you'll love it here.

[yamfox]

Thanks all of you. I have however decided that I would rather buy a new turntable then spend $100 to upgrade this old junker. Yeah I do have a setup to record from my turntable, so if you want a vinyl rip of any album, I'll try looking for it. I'm trying to build up my collection, 200 LPs and 400 singles ain't nothing, lol. Also, will recording at 24 bit and converting to 16 bit give me better sound then just recording at 16?