Re discovering vinyl

After not owning a TT for over 2 decades I'm thinking of getting one but not sure which direction to take.

Been following a few lp12's on ebay are these still a good buy or am I better buying something from Project? Anything I need to be aware of/look out for?

I'll need a phono stage too, is there much to choose between PROJECT PHONO BOX Mk2, NAD PP2 and CAMBRIDGE AUDIO AZUR 540 or 640P or are these not good enough?

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi. Welcome back to vinyl

The LP12 is a lovely table (cue arguments galore!). It can be a little tricky to set up and will probably need a service, however if you can pick one up with an Ittok LV11 arm for a good price then you will be delighted i am certain. There will be loads of opinions regarding TT but you really need to have a listen.

John

 

Out of the phono stages you have mentioned the cambridge audio 640p is in a different league. If you can afford a little more the Clearaudio Nano is a nice little amp

 

Agree entirely.
LP12s can sound superb and there are plenty of good ones around. A lot does depend of quality of set-up but get that right and they are still top performers.

640P is a bargain for the money.

 

I'm not so sure... I think your P9 is considerably better balanced tonal wise than the LP12's I have heard Rob. They seem a bit bum and tits, but then some people so like this 'typical vinyl' presentation.

Maybe at that sort of price range the LP12 becomes less competitive though?

 

i am now using a project debut 11 esprit red with a project phono stage via my ariand amp and tannoy's it sounds superve, i agree that when i used to sale lp 12's they do very carefull setting up avoid fitting a tranpolyn.

 

Thanks for the helpful advice guys.

There have been a few LP12's ranging from a touch under £500 up to about £700 (and obviously much higher) on ebay. Is there anything I'm missing in that price range?

 

That price range should land you a clean LP12 with Valhalla supply and a Linn LVX arm. Overal balance is strongly influenced by the cartridge so a good one will ensure a fine sound with the TT/arm combo adding some subtle warmth. The TT can have a strong effect on dynamica and stability of sound but a well set Linn is fine in that regard.

 

There's a nice 401 with 3009/2 on the 'Wam at the mo. At that price I'd say serious competition depending on your tastes.

 

Thanks for the heads up, sadly I don't think I would get the aesthetics of that past Mrs rsand who's not entirely keen on my system already and wonders why I cant have a 'nice' Panasonic sat/sub system like her brother-in-law

She seems ok with the LP12 but I guess something like a PROJECT RPM5 (£500) would probably please her more, how would this compare sound wise to the Linn?

 

I was very lucky to get a secondhand Project RPM-4 with standard tonearm earlier this year through ebay. It cost me £125 and was just thirty miles away from my home so I got to pick it up in person. I love it, ok if finances were limitless I wouldn't have one I'd probably have a Nottingham Analogue but as I am not in a position to throw ridiculous amounts of money at a hobby I shall make do with the Project. It has all of the vinyl hallmarks of an inky black background with a nice transparent clarity of what's going on in the music. So, unless I come up trumps on a scratchcard, the Project stays.

 

project are absulete great t.t.'s

 

So after looking around I can go new with the benefit of a warranty or used via ebay/forum with the associated risks.

I just wondered how something like the Pro ject rpm 5.1 at £500ish (Ortofon ALPHA fitted as standard) would compare to asimilarly priced used sondek lp12 which would probably come with valhalla/basic arm/k9 cart or similar, obviously very different technologies what are the pro's and conns?

Also is it worth spending the extra £40 for the 640p over the 540p for the addition of MC compatibility considering the 5.1 comes with a MM cart, is going MC inevitable in the future?

Thanks already for the great advice.

 

Rob, there is a large gulf between MC and MM but I personally use an Ortofon OM30 Super which is MM and quite staggering in its reproduction of vinyl. My personal opinion is that you would have to spend some serious dosh to better it with an MC cartridge and then the cost of the cartridge would far outweigh the cost of the turntable and arm.

 

The rpm5.1 deck/arm/cart package seems amazing value at £500 when the same arm (9cc) retails for £510 on its own

The cart is an obvious budget product, the alfa is a pro-ject branded ortofon 510 mkII (£60) I guess good enough to get me started? There is a purchase upgrade to an ortofon 2m red though it blows my immediate budget a bit.

Then there is the Project Xperience Basic Plus at £599.00 (richer), same 9cc tone arm but comes with project branded (and badly reviewed) ortofon MC cart

 

My personal advice would be definitely do not waste your very hard earned cash on a cheap MC. They are simply not good. Personally I would opt for a mid priced MM and a goodish phono stage which is much easier to produce than an MC phono stage. I have the best MM cartridge I could find at the price I wanted to pay and knowing that MM phono stages are simpler than MC phono stages I opted for the Musical Fidelity one. By the way, in case you are interested; I did have at one stage a Denon high output MC cartridge that rocketed in price just after I bought it. It was nowhere near as good as the OM30 so I sold it for as much as I paid for it.

 

Just show her a pic of my speakers to make her see how sane you really are.



Me - I'm a good DD man myself with arm to match nice SPU's.

 

I just hate threads like this one.There I was,just listening to records and enjoying them and now I find that I'm listening to them on a totally mis-matched incoherent crappy sounding blend of Lo-Fi. So it's out with the Thorens,SME and Denon high output and it's back to a Garrard 4SP fitted with GC2PA.I shall also get rid of the Tannoys and all my Quad rubbish,try to find a Goodmans Axiette in fair condition and make another Toby Dinsdale 10 Watt jobby to complete the set-up.

Only kidding, Have a happy listening Christmas.

 

Everyone to their own choices. Have a fab Christmas everyone.

 

Quick update, I'm afraid one disaster after another seems to block my path to rediscovering vinyl

I now need to cary out building work to my rental property caused by the awful weather, should be covered through its insurance so just the excess to pay but it is out of the TT fund.

Once I sort things out I will be revisiting this, I did manage to source a 640P for £60 so at least I have started the journey.