What do you use as phono pre amp?
Hi Peter, i mainly use my Tom Evans Audio Design Mastergroove or The Groove+ SRX. However, sometimes i try different carts and help friends with turntable setup. So for those occasions i use a Röcklinger PHA1 also, a very flexible and good sounding phono stage from Sweden.
Congratulations.
I know them! Perfect items. End game.
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VPI Classic 1 with an Ortofon 2M Black cart.
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I’m not a turntable user, in truth I’m mentally ready to sell my records but this might be of interest to folk on here.
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I had a turntable and hundreds of records. I was overjoyed when CDs arrived and can remember listening to a CD and hearing absolute silence for the first time. No boosted sound, no rumble, no cracking and popping, no constant dusting and cleaning, no stylus replacements…bliss!
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Just read through this thread. Got me wanting to get started again. But a lot of very very nice luxe gear here that maybe I’ll try in the future, but not at first as I’m returning to the format.
Does anyone have advice for a “returner to vinyl” who doesn’t want to go out and spend what is, to him, an outlandish amount of money? So for a maybe $500-$700 including phono pre-amp and any “required” isolation gear, but not interconnects, any advice?
Thanks!
If you don’t mind used and shopping a bit you can probably find a Basis 1400 for right around a grand with a Rega 250/300 arm. Killer value for the money. If it has to be under a grand I’d look at Project/Rega/Music Hall. Tons of VPI tables in all flavors and prices on the used market. I think Sota is often overlooked…nice stuff.
So like this… if I lived in DC?
Second hand technics off an auction site, last forever and give a great sound. You may have to ignore any ‘Hi-Fi’ prejudice though.
I would consider a £100 to £150 phono stage, maybe with usb too so you can digitise your vinyl. NAD, Cambridge audio in uk, I guess I should have checked where you are from!
YES! Find out if it includes the Basis Reflex Clamp (They only make one version for every table). If so get in your car and go buy it now…if not, and I’m guessing it does not, still a more than fair deal with the included cartridge. That could be a one and done lifetime table…but with this crowd we will help you double/triple your spending in 6 months or so. Seriously it is a very solid table. I’ve never understood why the resale on them is not quite a bit more.
I think Basis was a victim of their success with the 1400. It was so good as a base model many did not see the need to move up the food chain.
I’ve had a 1400 for 12+ years, probably 15. I know and listen to people with a 2100, 2500, Debut Gold (well over 5 figures). And while I’ve had different arms, cartridges, phono stages…even multiple turntables (a VPI TNT 3.5)…the 1400 has neve left my house.
IMO, to really make vinyl work given the current great state of digital you simply must have a MC not a MM cartridge…but not to get started or back into it.
At this price range, I’m a big fan of budget direct drive decks. I just don’t think the speed stability of low-end belt drives is good enough, ymmv.
My go-to recommendation if you are buying new is the AT-LP5. It has a built-in phono stage, which is easily improved upon later, and the included cartridge is also easily upgradeable in the future. You can even upgrade the arm later, although by then you’re probably looking at pricier decks.
Along similar lines, but slightly higher priced, from the venerable Technics line -
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Mofi ultradeck
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There are many vinyl subscription boxes. Wondering who has a favorite among them.
I’ve come back to vinyl in the last couple of years.
+1 for MoFi Ultradeck with Mastertracker cart running through a Rega phono amp.
I have a Rega P3 as well, but I’ve lent that to a mate as he has blown-the-dust-off his collection of about 2000 records recently and is saving-up for his dream Marantz vintage turntable.
In my teens, I had a small but nicely curated collection of blues, rock, psychedelic and indie pressings (mostly originals) spanning 60s-90s. When I was a kid, I’d save-up and go to specialist record stores in South London and would cough-up for original pressings in great condition. As I started work and traveled, I was able to indulge in crate-digging wherever I went. It was only about 100 titles, but I had some amazing items in there including a near mint Bob Ludwig hot mix of Led Zeppelin II (acquired in the US on a trip in 1989 for about USD 60), an original 1967 Cream - Disraeli Gears that I paid GBP 35 in a records shop in Croydon sometime around 1987 and a release day purchase of Nevermind that I bought when I was in NYC on another trip. There was also an array of Bowie and Queen stuff in beautiful condition too.
The tragic tale of the collection is somewhat inevitably predictable: moved-in with a girl when I was about 19, it was not the best idea I’d had, so after about a year, I decided to leave. Nobody else was involved; I tried to make it easy by packing a bag immediately and leaving, saying I would call her to arrange picking up the rest of my stuff. I tried to do everything amicably and in the most humane way I could. When I went back about 10 days later to collect everything, she was not present (at her insistence) and walked in to look upon a scene which included my 1970s Sansui turntable having been stamped on and every single record either scratched or snapped. She had also taken a Stanley knife to most of my remaining wardrobe.
Trying to recreate the collection has been made hard by fading memory and also availability (the Led Zep II Bob Ludwig hot mix would probably smash me for over USD 1k if I could even find one in NM condition - I see VGs with flaws going for 500+).
Unsurprisingly, I’ve had to compromise in many instances, however, one of the most wonderful things happened about a year ago as I started picking-up the pace of rebuilding: a very good mate of mine in Hong Kong who knew my vinyl history, dropped my wife a note to tell her he had sent a parcel for me as a surprise and told her to look out for it. I was puzzled when the parcel arrived addressed to me and post marked from the UK as I had no outstanding Discogs orders etc at that time. When I opened it, there was a beautiful original 1967 Disraeli Gears. I may have had a little bit of grit in my eye that day.
Vinyl will always be my first love. With larger scale artwork and inserts/gatefolds etc, it’s so tactile and so damn emotive.
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I still have my Yamaha PX2 turntable, bought new in 1982, connected to my second system, Denon DL103 cell and Diy transformer
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What cartridge (s) are you using?
Thank you.