record player recommendations

i've got this dope pair of B&W speakers which i won in a raffle a year ago, 1400 LPs, and a cheap-ass numark record player which sounds "ok" but not great. i'm looking to spend some good $$$ on a new player, but not looking to break the bank. $200-$300, somewhere in there. any recommendations?

http://sumikoaudio.net/project/products/debut.htm

Stretch your budget a little bit. It is worth it.

welcome back omar

I'm thinking about getting a better one. Looking for a higher end model. Is the rega p1 worth spending a little extra for? Or maybe step up to the p2

i love my rega p1. it's like a hundred and fifty dollars cheaper than the p2. and the p2 can be even pricier depending on what stylus you get.

i feel like with my rega i have something i can keep for a long time. just buy a needle every now and then. they are very simple machines.

Thanks. Simple is what I like/want with a turntable. I will do a little more research etc.

Maybe this will make things easier:
less than $350 - keep saving
$350 - Project Debut III
$351 - $1100 - Rega P1, P2, P3, or Pro-Ject RM5
$1101-2,000 - VPI Scout or Marantz TT-15 (made by Clearaudio)
$2,000 - $10,000 or thereabouts - Best VPI you can afford.
$14,000+ - La Platine Verdier or BRINKMANN!

Stuff I have heard a little that might be worth loking into:
Clearudio Emotion 'table (around 2k)
Nottingham Analogue in general (2k->$$$$)

Wot, no Michell Gyro/Orbe? Kuzma Stabi/Stogi (best I've ever heard, I think - had a Lyra cart on there, running through EAR tube pre)? Townshend Rock? That £50k model I saw once that had a bloody great vacuum system keeping the vinyl on the platter...

(I think the Debut III is pretty amazing value - if the Regas are that much more expensive in the US, I wouldn't bother looking at them).

post is missing a sentence - must have deleted something accidentally.

anyways, I meant to say something to this effect: I only comment on players I have spent substantial time with. have heard great things about the Michell, about Kuzma, about Walker, about TW Akustic, and about Acoustic Solid, but haven't heard, therefore I can't comment.

that being said, i doubt anyone following the list will be dissapointed! Michael have you heard the Brinkmanns? Amazing stuff.
Have never heard a vacuum-based model, but, IIRC, they require a seperate room for the motor, which is pretty impractical!

Oh, I was only joking - I'm certainly not in a position to make a call on any of the high-end brands, I've had fairly limited exposure to them. I bought my Michell ten years ago, which was pretty much the end of my interest in high-end audio, so I couldn't tell you what's around thesedays.

Ah, I've remembered the system I was thinking of and it's not vacuum-based at all - Rockport Sirius III. I've heard it, it's very good but...there were still pops and clicks. $73k and it's only as good as what you feed it, after all...

No shout outs the the nice and relative cheap genre known as used Thorens's etc? There are pretty decent options if you're just a guy trying to spend $100 or less. I will rep for my combo of Marantz belt-drive (forget the model #) and Pioneer integrated amp (brushed aluminum era). The total cost for the two is under $200 and they sounds great!
Every city has some store somewhere with a bunch of great, nicely mainained, and beautiful second hand equipment... you can have a fantastic stereo for not-so-much money that way.

Anyway, slightly off-topic: what's everyone use for speakers?

that's what i keep thinking. that all the really high-end stuff must be SO unforgiving. no wonder so many audiophiles are kinda mad. (one reason why when i sell classical records on ebay i never call any record near mint or mint even if its never been played. i ain't getting in any stravinsky beef with some dude in japan.)

x-post

referencing my initial post re: speakers, my boss basically gave a away this set in a raffle and i took 'em after others ahead of me picked tivo boxes and laserdisc players(?)

http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/b-and-w/matrix-804/PRD_120868_1594crx.aspx

That's hilarious! You scored big there.

Thorens are pretty good - my brother had a late-'70s TD160 (I think).

Speakers: I've got Heybrook Quartets. Bought in 1996, preferred to B&W CDM1, ProAc Tablette and some Harbeth monitors in a fairly hasty hi-fi shop test while I was distracted by the Todd Martin-Mal Washington Wimbledon semi playing on the big TV in the foyer. Still love 'em but I don't treat them right any more - they're sitting on cork pads on some Ikea shelving instead of the dedicated stands I spent £££ on back in the day.

speaking of vintage, um, i guess this doesn't belong on the vinyl board, but maria brought me home one of these the other day. she got it for free. they can actually sell for hundreds of dollars. the one she got me is covered in wood. it's a beast. just like the awesome old marantz receiver she found me for free. (also wood covered)

http://audioklassiks.de/Bilder/Teac/TEAC.A-800.01.jpg

if you plug a good microphone into one of those, you can make awesome audio recordings onto tape. they sound great. i like tape.

Ah, Teac in teak (it probably isn't, but, y'know). I do love those huge hulking cassette decks with the needle VU meters; I saw a Marantz (with really lovely typeface) a few years ago in a charity shop (back when you could still get electrical goods in such places). Should've bought it really.

xpost
yes it is pragmatic to grade classical conservatively.
the nice systems can be unforgiving but the good ones are still so captivating that it doesn't always matter if the vinyl isn't perfect, at least not to me.
also anyone who can spend 73k on a record player can certainly afford http://www.keithmonks-rcm.co.uk/, which probably helps bring a lot of old records back to life.

i really want to get a very stylish, almost mid-century looking record player that is still high quality. i imagine such a player would cost a fortune, right?

what's a fortune for you? if you go vintage, you can get a really high-end vintage turntable for $200-300 and some really solid mid-tier turntables for around $100. just look around ebay. you can cross check any turntable model on the audiokarma forums so you can get a general idea of its quality. buy local on ebay or craigslist if you want to save on shipping.

Can anyone recommend a very affordable digital record player that I can use to play vinyl and will plug into my sound system?

Do you mean a USB turntable?

sure, or bluetooth, or i guess just an av cable - the affordableness is the most important quality

my daughter bought an Audio Technica USB turntable for about $225 or so, and it seems to be a pretty good. she did lots of research, reading reviews etc.

this one seems reasonably priced and has good amazon reviews -- any opinions on it?
http://www.amazon.com/Technica-AT-LP60-Automatic-Driven-Turntable/dp/B002GYTPAE/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header

i thought this article was very informative

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-turntable/

http://www.hammacher.com/Product/12223

"How Many"

"the troublesome sonic aberrations generated by common consumer models"

The thing is, a lot of the appeal of vinyl is how cool it is. Not hipster cool, really, but it feels cool to put a record on cos they sound good and look good, and for sure there's a kind of joy in participating in a ritual of aural reproduction that goes way back, and a lot of record players - vintage and modern ones alike - look great in the home and blah blah blah.

When I go to visit my mum, a pristine woman whose house looks like a mid-range hotel, I'm always shocked to visit her bathroom. She has these air fresheners set up that periodically spray their stuff, often right at me as I'm doing a piss or worse. I don't know whether they're on a timer or there is some kind of motion detection going on, but it is definitely uncool. I can't really bring it up, but I am tempted to tell her that these attempts to obliterate all that is unpleasant in life make me feel weird. I gotta take a shit, mum, and I don't like to be made to feel unwelcome while I do. Furthermore, I understand that you have to take a shit from time to time, and if you're trying to use technology to hide this fact from everyone, it's failing - I can think of little else when I'm in there. I imagine you shitting and the panic you must feel at being revealed as a person who commits these violations of familial order. What's more, I'm inclined to introduce the smelliest, most virulent and unflushable shit into your bathroom and see how your systems can deal with that. It's really a provocation.

That's how I would think of anyone who had one of these record players in their house.