Adding a turntable to a fairly high end HiFi system: Help me

[TorqueDirty]

Hi Folks,

Lately I have been wondering about the value of adding a turntable to my Hi-Fi system.

I'm intrigued about the relative merits of Vinly vs CDs and having never owned a turntable I am rather tempted to get one. Of course I have no LPs either so this will be an expensive foray in to an older but I gather potentially more rewarding music format.

I'm a bit pissed off with CDs at the moment to be honest. My current HiFi set up is pretty good (IMHO), and more often than not it simply shows up how badly mastered most CDs are.

To really explore the pros and cons of vinyl I suspect I might need to buy something other than a budget deck but I really don’t want to spend silly money on what is essentially an experiment.

I regularly lust after such things as the Michell Orb and SE decks, along with the iconic Linn Sondek LP12s etc but I really can’t justify the expenditure.

Current main Hi Fi set up:

Musical Fidelity A308 Pre and Power Amp (with the full component upgrade recently done on the power amp)
Musical Fidelity A308 CD
Monitor Audio Studio Gold SE speakers
Good quality interconnects and speaker cable (£500 for the speaker cables sent a few shudders through the bank balance I can tell you)

So, is it worth adding a turntable to my system and if so what second hand deck do you folks recommend? I’d love to think I can spend under £300 and still get something that will tell me if Vinyl is worth exploring further.

Cheers
TD

[TorqueDirty]

Thanks for the useful info guys.

Sounds like an ebay punt on one of the above mentioned turntables might be in order.

Thanks also for adding to my audiophile vocabulary - wky wires was not one I had come across before (excuse the pun). I'm actually very attached to my wires - they are very very good - but I will concede that they have yet to be the cause of any wking so perhaps I overpaid!

Edited by TorqueDirty on Tuesday 5th May 09:15

[TorqueDirty]

Thanks for the excellent responses folks!

Very useful to know that the mastering on LPs is often equally poor, in addition to vinyl clearly being harder to get hold of.

I do love the idea of having a beautiful looking turntable to complement the rest of the system, but I'm pretty sure that it would not get a great deal of use - hence the relatively sensible budget.

However, you lot have definitely piqued my interest in the whole streaming thing as well. I had always discounted it on the assumption that the sound quality would be crap but I suspect things have moved on a lot recently.

Are there really systems out the now that would offer me the same quality as a really well mastered and recorded CD? If so then this is certainly something I'd like to explore, particularly since I'd like to expand on the variety of stuff I listen to. What sort of money are we talking about for the kit and a subscription?

TD

[TorqueDirty]

Rick101 said:

OP, I had a similar thought a few weeks ago. Also have a few grand in a Hi-Fi system but my only knowledge of vinyl was my Dad's old system as a kid.

Managed to get a used Rega RP2 from a dealer with a few nice upgrades. Saved quite a bit over buying new. Dealer serviced and ready to go. Purchased a new Phono amp of similar quality to my other gear. Spent what I'd saved on buying some records.

Really enjoy it. It's wonderful to see a physical, analogue disc in perfect motion translating to a fantastic sound coming from your speakers. The extra work in using a record player makes the reward of listening that much sweeter, wish I'd done it years ago. Def my favorite bit of kit despite only having a small collection of records.

Good to hear this.

Yes, I do like the rather ceremonial aspect of using Vinyl along with it being a much more sensorily rewarding process. I'm a sucker for a nice bit of design and elegant engineering so the visual reward of watching a beautiful deck spinning away on top of a lovely hi-fi rack does definitely appeal.

Anyone got any thoughts on this one foe sale on Ebay. Looks great but who knows if the prototype plinth is actually any good. Thoughts very welcome.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rega-Planar-3-with-Upgra...

Cheers
TD

[TorqueDirty]

Thanks again guys.

This is very much turning in to a heart vs head thing. Head says I'd be mad to go down the vinly route and should look at a decent streaming solution.

Heart says - I want on of these in my life:-

http://www.acoustic-solid.com/english/solid_111_me...

Pretty impressive for abut £1500 with arm and cartridge. And it also doubles up as art / mechanical sculpture!

Mind you, points also taken about looking after vinyl and about setting up a deck. I am not expert in either, although I do have direct experience of how to totally fk up a good LP whilst trying to clean it - brother's favourite album that I was trying to listen to on his starter system way back when)

Lots to ponder but did fall off my chair when I saw the price of FLAC album downloads, but maybe I don't know where to look - or even what to look for to be honest.

TD

[TorqueDirty]

deeen said:

Bit of budget creep there ?!?!

I know!! Completely unjustifiable - I could buy a reasonably decent project motorbike for that, or a smoker barge (which I have always wanted to try my luck at). Tis a lovely looking thing though.

TD

[TorqueDirty]

RichB said:

What music are you into?

Pretty eclectic really. Collection goes all the way from Vivaldi to Van Halen, but I find myself listening to more delicate acoustic stuff with great vocals more than anything else. I also find that the quality of the recording / mastering determines which CD I put on much of the time. I have music that I really like but that is badly mastered and it never gets played as it just winds me up.

TD