Need a turntable, please help!

ArielL

Hey,
I am looking to buy my boyfriend a new record player for his 20th birthday,
he's mainly into hip hop so I'm not sure if I need a certain type of one?
Also would one with built in speakers be better or one that plugs into an amp?
Id be willing to pay up to 150.. any suggestions?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

EyesClosed

ArielL wrote: »

Hey,
I am looking to buy my boyfriend a new record player for his 20th birthday,
he's mainly into hip hop so I'm not sure if I need a certain type of one?
Also would one with built in speakers be better or one that plugs into an amp?
Id be willing to pay up to 150.. any suggestions?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Personally I would get one that plugs into an amp, you can pick up a turntable fairly cheap, there are some decent USB turntables for under 30 quid, the rest of the money could be spend buying a decent sound system to attach it to

ArielL

Thanks a mill where could i get them? sorry i really havnt a clue!

EyesClosed

ArielL wrote: »

Thanks a mill where could i get them? sorry i really havnt a clue!

I bought my dad one in peats a few years ago, honestly I would avoid them, try some other electronic stores

rcaz

EyesClosed wrote: »

there are some decent USB turntables for under 30 quid, the rest of the money could be spend buying a decent sound system to attach it to

Garbage In => Garbage Out.

Nothing 'under 30 quid' will be decent, and the turntable is the most important part of the signal chain with respect to sound quality.

Think about it, if you had an amazing turntable plugged into a rubbish preamp, power amp and speakers, you'd have a fantastic signal degraded a few times until it reaches your ears. But if you had a ****ty turntable plugged into a fantastic system, that fantastic system can't improve the awful signal it gets from the turntable.

OP, I'd avoid anything with a USB socket on it, for a start. Those things are never good, ever (for people wanting to digitise their vinyl collection, there are proper ways to do it, using external D/A converters. Turntables with built in D/A converters are the worst of both worlds.

Is second hand an option? I know it's usually a little bit crap to get something second hand to give as a present, but you could probably get a much better turntable for your €150 on something like Adverts.ie or Gumtree...

ArielL

Yeah second hand is definately an option i just dont know where to look.. i found this one on amazon which is only 75 euro
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steepletone-USB-Norwich-Record-Playback/dp/B002JD2EQO/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1344549713&sr=8-8
Its probably no good at that price though is it?
Thanks for your help.

ryaner777

Speak to the lads over on the richer sounds forum, http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1105

They're experts and always available to give a great deal to bordies.

They've recently had a bit of a sale on so you might get a really good bargain.

rcaz

ArielL wrote: »

Yeah second hand is definately an option i just dont know where to look.. i found this one on amazon which is only 75 euro
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steepletone-USB-Norwich-Record-Playback/dp/B002JD2EQO/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1344549713&sr=8-8
Its probably no good at that price though is it?
Thanks for your help.

We've got a Steepltone turntable in our band's rehearsal room, they're not great but they're functional.

To be honest I think at €150 max you'll be hard pushed to get something real good. Turntables are really expensive yokes anyway, it's the nature of them. But this isn't about getting a great turntable, it's about getting your boyfriend a deadly present.

Don't know why I didn't think of this in my earlier post, if you're in Dublin go into The RAGE, it's a cool music and game shop that do some low end turntables and as far as I remember they do a deal where you get a voucher for some records with the turntable so he could go in and pick a few to get him started.

Good luck!

Mr Whirly

I have the older version of this Sony. It's grand. Its been on the go for about 7 or 8 years with no problems.

http://www.richersounds.ie/asp/product.asp?ObjectID=938&Mode=0&CategoryID=&sub=&productid=919

Ant

That's excellent advice from rcaz. He / she knows what they're talking about. I'd second adverts.ie as a good option. I got a good deal on a classic turntable (Technics SL1210 for €260). I was looking for a fair while before I saw that one but while I was looking, I saw some good turntables (mostly belt-drives which aren't for scratching but are solid hi-fi decks) go for around the €150 mark. Being time-limited by the birthday might be your biggest obstacle to getting a good second-hand deal.

Edit: Another thing to watch out for: You should also be aware that most modern amplifiers don't have a dedicated phono input for a turntable, so you'll need a separate pre-amp to boost the turntable signal before it goes into the amplifier. They're rare items to come by second-hand and it's €90 to get a good one from Richer Sounds.

Glencourt

<snip>

Please read the charter before posting, we don't allow any ads on this forum. Post your ads on Adverts.ie instead.

Having said that, Glencourt has an unreal deal here... Shame it's double the OP's budget. Don't get why you'd post that when it's obviously not going to work.

- rcaz