BEGINNER'S GUIDE: TURNTABLES WITH THE BEST SOUND QUALITY, WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR & WHAT TO AVOID

and welcome to a new buyer's guide for 10 tables now recently i published a turntable buyer's guide called turntables for you and that particular turntable looked at different types of turntable technologies so you had mobile turntables and you had dance sets and all kinds of weird stuff basically it was a technology piece now at that point or rather since that time i've had several people asking me look can we just have a basic buyer's guide a bit like the one you did for amplifiers link above or even the one you did for speakers link above well i had to think about that and i thought why not so this one is a turntable for all type of buyers guide it looks at audio file turntables only so we're looking at sound quality so let's dive in now before we get to the good stuff and we look at the actual turntables themselves i want you to do me a favor pause this video if you like but go and have a quick look at your hi-fi just take a few seconds turn everything on do all that power it all off just take a few seconds and have a quick look i'll wait here until you get back hit the pause oh you're back okay right now tell me this there wasn't a great deal happening was there not a great deal of action so for example speakers are almost bovine in their ability sorry speakers are almost bovine in their ability to stand still and take root right through your carpet speakers are really good at doing nothing at all sure you might get a slight shimmer around the mid-bass cone but was that the speaker doing something or was it just a passing breeze they don't actually do much though and once installed you don't really have to touch them ever again they just are amplifiers dax they look solid enough there's a few flashing lights and the potential to be really exciting is definitely there sure there's the odd button to push and if you want a real treat you can flick the odd switch but again the novelty tends to wear off pretty quickly even the potential offered by a cd player a laser taken directly from buck rogers last trade-in spaceship and spinning discs that rotate so fast they could prompt false ufo sightings after tempting you with the disc itself teasingly showing you the reflective surface on the cd tray the machine then cruelly rips away that promise by dragging it all and hiding the whole loss inside a big box a box that offers the odd button and you guess this switch no if you really want action if you want to see a real machine something that might remind you of those highly complex victorian steam engines you see on the tv or down the museum a hi-fi component that moves here and there and every which way then you really can't beat a turntable 10 tables full of lights camera action turntables a soothing mechanical bomb for those of us who really wanted to be a train driver or an astronaut turntables they're possibly the only chance that many of us will ever get to touch interact and play with real honest-to-goodness engineering turntables are for those who received this sort of thing for christmas thought that they'd end up building one of these with it but ended up creating this instead yep that was my childhood and engineering is what a turntable is all about this is a thing that works in a state of mechanical harmony often with clockwork precision pieces of different shapes formed from fine tolerances moving in contrasting directions and from quite exotic variants of steel and aluminium and delicately crafted pieces of brass topped with exquisitely formed elements like tungsten and even precious stones like ruby that list is like a michelin star menu for robots more than any of this though turntables allow you access into the wonderful world of vinyl that's over 70 years of back catalogue plus lots of new goodies released almost every day and vinyl is short of paying oh i don't know 500 pounds a pop for a brand new reel-to-reel album the best sound source you can buy on the planet now this buyer's guide is aimed at everyone but it's mostly targeted at beginners and also those who might be returning to the fold after years away roaming perhaps the dusty digital pathways now as the video title says this guide is aimed at audio file turntables of various price points so that means turntable designs where sound quality is everything sound quality is the reason you buy sound quality is the main thing that and nothing else so i'm not interested in bonus features here not in this guide no automatic or semi-automatic functions or pitch sliders or pop-up lights or any of those things i'll get to those features in another buyer's guide in the future so hang on in there if those features float your boat this guide is for those who might want to buy a new turntable for the first time or believe that an upgrade might benefit the sound quality from their precious vinyl now before we get to the actual designs themselves as i recommend i have a few don't go those don't go there one cheapo turntables i want to quickly revisit a warning i offered in my previous turntables for you buyer's guide of course you might not have seen that one so this biz is especially for you sometimes you can get a little carried away when looking to purchase your first turntable there are pitfalls for the unwary there are 10 table designs out there that may look interesting have the aura of quality and seam reasonably priced but should in fact be treated like a rabid long toothed and particularly impolite dog i'm talking about the type of turntables that you tend to see in the color supplements the glossy lifestyle magazines and more disc uncertainty in the windows of high street music stores like hmv well in the uk at least the problem with color supplements is that everything in those publications looks sweet appealing nice cuddly and trusting the problem with music stores like hmv is that they're not what they used to be hmv used to be full of people who knew music lore and could carry on a conversation with you about 80s minimal synth bands from berlin now most of them struggle to talk about justin bieber although so do i both color supplements and high street stores on the face of it appear to be sources of trust but when turntable brands such as gpo ion steepletone one by one toki grouch denver acai lausanne and the king of this genre of record player crossley are associated with these magazines and this one's reliable music outlets you have to worry now these record players are sold often not exclusively but often as an all-in-one system that is with an amplifier and speakers built into the chassis they scream value for money but they really must either be avoided or reported to the police for potential crimes against music most of the meager build budget for these items is devoted to the plastic aesthetics and media marketing with audio priorities coming firmly in third place or even lower they offer inferior sound quality and threaten to damage your vinyl because of this poor build quality so don't go there don't go there number two dj turntables the other avoid category at least in pure audio file terms are 10 tables from dj centered manufacturers such as numark vestax re-loop well the dj line at any rate and so on now hang on well just step away from the comment section just for a bit keep those fingers where i can see them and let me explain so for example if you've got two decks if you're actually creating two turntable types and you've got exactly the same build budget to devote to each type of turn table before the audio file turntable even begins the dj-10 table has to collect a range of features a range of dj tools now those dj tools will include the pop-up lights will include the pitch slider it'll include the mechanism for the platter to swing into reverse the plinth itself will have to be far more robust than the audiophile 10 table because the dj10 table will be moved about from a to b to c to d often in quite harmful environments the sort of environments where an audiophile plinth would be knocked about and would be in bits after about five minutes the corners would be knocked off there'd be scrapes there'd be gouges a dj-10 table is far more capable of surviving club party outdoor event environments so you add all of those pieces which cost money they all cost money you add those pieces to a dj deck and then only then you look at the items designed to make music and that includes things like the quality of the motor the quality of the tone arm the cartridge type you may use and bundle with the turntable and so on and so on and so on if you look at the two types of turntables the audio file design now has far more cash it can throw at sound quality devoted parts the dj cash part is relatively speaking far smaller which is why dj 10 tables sonically are compromised and if you want to bring them up to audiophile spec you'll need to add modifications now i will repeat here i am not anti-dj turntables i happen to like them they are fun they are cool they have a great feature set they're solid they're robust and they're easy to use in fact one of them the technics sl 1200 was a star attraction in my previous turntables for you buyer's guide so again if sound quality is your priority and nothing else matters there are better value turntables out there than dj designed decks don't go there three cheap named turntables unfortunately just because something has been slapped with a japanese brand especially these days it doesn't mean that it's any good to give you one related example i know several cheapo portable cassette radio mp3 bluetooth players out there with big name brands stuck on the front that are one step away from being rated as trash principally because the name has been possibly licensed to someone in say hong kong china or indonesia so what i would advise is to be very very careful when looking at low-cost turntables from apparently trusted brands and when i say cheap i'm talking around the 100 pound or so figure give or take and they include respected japanese brands such as sony pioneer and the like some of these decks appear to be reasonable in terms of build and are quite possibly passable ish in terms of sound quality but if you can afford to buy one of these then i would encourage patients and save for longer to buy a turntable which is rather more appropriate in terms of sound quality so there's some of the 10 tables i would avoid if you're a beginner or you're getting back into vinyl or even if you're looking to upgrade from an older design or one that's maybe broken or whatever so what do i recommend well i've chosen nine different turntables now of these nine i'm giving each brand one slot so you won't see any repetition in terms of brands and because of that i might leave some of the other good turntables out of this list but i'm trying to be as fair as possible and to spread the love there are lots of other brands that i've not been able to include due to space reasons or because i want to spread out the price points as widely as possible to provide you with as much choice as i can and as ever with these buyers guides because i'm only restricting myself to nine examples i really need your help on this so i want you if you can to supply me with your favorite turntable and if possible if you've had a bit of experience in these masters your top three if you'd like to say why go for it if you just want to give me a list that's fine as well but i'd love your input on this because again it helps this buyer's guide become more of a proper resource especially in the future when other people on youtube will be looking back at this buyer's guide because i hope it's going to hang around for a bit and then the video becomes less important than the comments below because that's where the discussion comes that's where the advice is given and that's where the lists can be seen and again if you have any experience in using turntables and you see a beginner asking question then don't worry dive in by all means give them the benefit of your expertise and your experience any help that you can provide to make this guide more of an energetic resource the better so let's get to it and our first category ranges from zero to what 600 pounds my first selection is the riga planner one currently on sale at the time of this video for 248lbs arguably the best ever low end budget turntable for a host of reasons firstly it offers value for money providing a lot of performance for a relatively low price secondly riga has got the build balance right by concentrating upon the tone arm as the center of its sonic world this area is where most budget designs fall over and why many budget turntables sound so bad it's the arm the tone arm that sets this turn table apart from the immediate competition and why it remains the king of the hill in the low end budget circles do not underestimate a turntable's tonearm say that three times before you go to sleep and you'll have a happy life next up as 349 pounds is the audio technica lp5x sitting on the cusp of lifestyle ears of use and pure audiophile design this one could really go either way the 5x is a rare beast because it can assist someone looking for a combination of sound quality and convenience if you want a top class low cost quality direct drive turntable that provides excellent tonal balance with confidence base to boost then the lp5x is ideal and to complete our first trio is the latest debut carbon turntable from project this one is rated as 449 and it's called the evo the latest iteration in the carbon range at the center of the w carbon evo you will find a very nice 8.6 inch one piece carbon fiber tone arm now carbon fiber is a rarity at this price point but that's not all because you also get a pre-mounted and also fun 2m red moving magnet cartridge which in itself is valued around 100 pounds available in nine different finishes there's plenty to like from the carbon evo including a tpe damped motor suspension plate for isolation there's a two speed defaults that can be increased to three by adding a new belt for 78 play connected e phono cables and you get a dust cover thrown in for good measure the next category looks at 10 tables from 600 pounds all the way up to 2 000 pounds just squeezing into that price category at 607 pounds although you will need to buy your own cartridge with this one this is the funk firm get with an exclamation mark at the end don't forget this is the funk firm's two-speed entry level design with a dc motor external switch mode power supply and acrylic platter accompanied by the company's own f7 arm it's an aluminium thread bearing arm with an acrylic plastic head shell to lower resonance and to control any that happen to be there this deck is arguably the best sounding turntable you can buy under 1000 pounds it's that good now if you're looking for something slightly more traditional at 699 pounds we have a turntable from nad or as they like to call themselves nad but i prefer to call them nad and this one is the c58 the nad c588 is another one of nad's turntable by numbers releases as it uses a lucky bag of project parts you would think that such an approach could only lead to disaster but far from it the nad staffers know hi-fi and even when using someone else's turntable parts they have created a darn good turntable here adding a nad flavor to it that offers a basically neutral certainly balanced and well-presented turntable offering lots of clarity and oodles of detail frankly the nad c588 is a little cracker now let's zoom up to 1999 pounds and we're looking at a michelle turntable the gyro deck se this one is certainly a classic in terms of reputation if nothing else the gyro deck is a phenomenon and another deck that has gradually been improved over time with subtle but noticeable enhancements created in the early 80s the gyro deck has cheated time because it sounds better than ever there's no sense that the design is even falling behind its competitors beautifully engineered the 10 table price i quote here includes a riga rb 303 but you can also include the michelle techno arm for some extra cash now finally we're going to go over the 2 000 pounds limit we're going to head for the skies and price terms so grab a pair of shoes first up in this final category of three we're looking at a vpi turntable 2950 pounds last time i looked this one is the vpi prime scout vpi based in the usa makes a range of expensive turntables there is no doubt this is one of its lower priced models the prime scout uses the vpi jmw9 tone arm plus an external motor in a substantial housing to minimize vibration a thick and textured vinyl coating covers the mdf plinth that is bonded to a 12 gauge steel plate with an aluminium platter this is a solid turntable but it also sounds rather lovely back to the uk now and we're looking at a company which has made a range of modern classics and turntable terms this company is called avid and the ten table i've chosen is called the vulver for five and a half thousand pounds now that price is just for the turntable on its own complete with a separate power supply the vulva offers a belt drive sprung sub chassis design with a featured clamp it's interesting because this turntable has evolved from the then top rated acute turntable priced at around twelve thousand pounds for the turntable only avid simplified the accusers until the price point was lowered sufficiently hence you have the vulva hence the design is not only sound in terms of balance and efficiency but the sound qualities have an effect trickle down from the accusers if you want to add a tone on to this model sme4s would do rather well even better an arm from origin live and speaking of origin live at a grand total of 10 300 pounds including a tone arm but not including a cartridge i've selected my final turntable for this buyer's guide as the origin live sovereign mark v one of the world's great turntable packages and one of the most neglected goodness knows why origin live has a slightly different take on getting the best from the turntable as it places as much emphasis on the arm as the turntable itself hence the enterprise arm which i've included as part of the final costs is almost the same price as the turntable itself the sovereign has recently received a wide ranging series of upgrades to take it to the mark 5 standard and if you happen to own a mark iv or a mark iii i would highly recommend the upgrade and that's me done for this particular buyer's guide now if you see this buyer's guide as being a bit too general and you wanted more information about any one particular turntable type well never fear there is no such thing as one buyer's guide we all want different things from our high five we all have different needs and different requirements we all look at different price points so i will attempt to fulfill those needs and requirements by publishing a whole range of turntable bias guides in the future along with amplifiers speakers and the rest so there will be a whole heap of buyer's guides to look forward to this is just one of them it's presented to you as a sort of introductory guide as i say there'll be more specific guides to follow in the future but i'll be back next week with another video and i hope i will have your company at that time until then bye bye for now [Music] you

Channel: The Audiophile Man

Views: 259,175

Keywords: audiophile man, turntable, budget, paul rigby, buyers guide, rega, project, pro-ject, hi-fi, audio technica, buy, guide, buyer guide, funk firm, help, turntable buying guide, turntable best buy, buying turntables, buy turntable, turntable guide, hifi, turntable buy, turntable buying guide 2020, turntable to buy, michell, planar 1, rega planar 1, vpi, origin live, avid, dj, crosley, sony, nad, best buy turntable, turntable recommendations, how to buy a turntable, first turntable, advice

Id: Lgr0T51Qosc

Length: 25min 1sec (1501 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020