My son needs something to listen to records on!
Discussion
Just set it up in the office
It's a bit st, think typical bedside alarm clock radio sound quality.
It does however do all the bluetooth stuff well, haven't delved in far but it's got a spotify logo on the box so maybe has wifi, CD player, radio and some other stuff, so lots of toys, just a shame the inbuilt speaker is a bit cack.
It's also not black, I thought it was but its some pastel greeny blue thing, checking the pictures online, at a glance it looks black or grey, but they are actually that colour.
So in short, it may well be going back... or I may just give it him and tell him he can polish the car a few times in the new year and I'll get him some proper separates if he's still into his vinyl.
Haven't tried with headphones yet, I'm sure that'll be fine though.
It's a bit st, think typical bedside alarm clock radio sound quality.
It does however do all the bluetooth stuff well, haven't delved in far but it's got a spotify logo on the box so maybe has wifi, CD player, radio and some other stuff, so lots of toys, just a shame the inbuilt speaker is a bit cack.
It's also not black, I thought it was but its some pastel greeny blue thing, checking the pictures online, at a glance it looks black or grey, but they are actually that colour.
So in short, it may well be going back... or I may just give it him and tell him he can polish the car a few times in the new year and I'll get him some proper separates if he's still into his vinyl.
Haven't tried with headphones yet, I'm sure that'll be fine though.
I bought a 1970s Technics deck of eBay last year for £60. Described as great condition, full working order. What arrived was a broken heap of crap, so I complained, got a full refund, and was told to keep it or bin it.
I spent about £50 getting it back into shape. I cleaned off 40 years of grime, fitted a new drive belt (the old one had melted all over the insides), used switch cleaner to fix the pitch control, polished with t-cut to make the lid see-through, fettled some aluminium bar to fix the hinge, fitted a new cartridge, and then did all of the alignment, weight and anti skate tweaking.
Luckily my ancient Yamaha amp has a phono input - whole thing sounds great now.
So be careful what you buy on ebay, unless you like tinkering!
I spent about £50 getting it back into shape. I cleaned off 40 years of grime, fitted a new drive belt (the old one had melted all over the insides), used switch cleaner to fix the pitch control, polished with t-cut to make the lid see-through, fettled some aluminium bar to fix the hinge, fitted a new cartridge, and then did all of the alignment, weight and anti skate tweaking.
Luckily my ancient Yamaha amp has a phono input - whole thing sounds great now.
So be careful what you buy on ebay, unless you like tinkering!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TELEDYNE-ACOUSTIC-RESEAR...
+ cheap amp and speakers.
Haven't checked the quality of the TT in the link but I'm currently listening to a modified one of these and it makes the hi-res digital files I use for convenience sound almost as good as a school band.
Endless upgrade possibilities but basically a very good start.
+ cheap amp and speakers.
Haven't checked the quality of the TT in the link but I'm currently listening to a modified one of these and it makes the hi-res digital files I use for convenience sound almost as good as a school band.
Endless upgrade possibilities but basically a very good start.
Should be quite easily doable within budget!
Get a direct drive deck, technics made loads of half decent models which will make a nice noise for very little money. Whatever you do I'd fit a new cartridge as this will make a bigger difference than the deck itself at this budget. The ortofon om5e can be had for £30 and is a nice cart. You should be able to pick up a nice deck and cart all in for £70 - £80
The amp is the easy part, any rotel integrated will sound good, be very reliable and have a decent phono stage included, any ax series amp is a solid choice but there's plenty other old amps about which will do a solid job - Cambridge,Sony, arcam etc are all good.
Speakers are where the real vfm is, technology hasn't really moved on much in small bookshelf / standmount speakers and there's loads of good speakers available for peanuts. eBay is crawling with nice little speakers by kef, tannoy, b&w, tdl, monitor audio etc...
Cracking present by the way!
Get a direct drive deck, technics made loads of half decent models which will make a nice noise for very little money. Whatever you do I'd fit a new cartridge as this will make a bigger difference than the deck itself at this budget. The ortofon om5e can be had for £30 and is a nice cart. You should be able to pick up a nice deck and cart all in for £70 - £80
The amp is the easy part, any rotel integrated will sound good, be very reliable and have a decent phono stage included, any ax series amp is a solid choice but there's plenty other old amps about which will do a solid job - Cambridge,Sony, arcam etc are all good.
Speakers are where the real vfm is, technology hasn't really moved on much in small bookshelf / standmount speakers and there's loads of good speakers available for peanuts. eBay is crawling with nice little speakers by kef, tannoy, b&w, tdl, monitor audio etc...
Cracking present by the way!
Secondhand is the only way to go with this if you want it to sound half decent. It is also an opportunity to show your son what real sound quality is and how much it can be better than tinny mobile phone speakers.
There are loads of old Dual turntables on Ebay and one of these with a basic amp and speakers will sound way better than anything new up to several hundreds of pounds.
Then if he doesn't like it he can always recoup the money by reselling or upgrading components as required. Turntables seem to be going up in value so it may even increase in value.
There are loads of old Dual turntables on Ebay and one of these with a basic amp and speakers will sound way better than anything new up to several hundreds of pounds.
Then if he doesn't like it he can always recoup the money by reselling or upgrading components as required. Turntables seem to be going up in value so it may even increase in value.
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