Turntables

Brian's Rant

I keep a lookout for new products that I think will appeal to our Soundring customers. But a lot of the time what is being offered is of such low quality I don't want to be involved.

This is particularly true of turntables because the cheap ones with ceramic cartridges are incapable of reproducing the full frequency range on a vinyl record, and worse than that,can actually cause damage to your precious vinyl collection.

So the minimum I look for is a moving magnet cartridge, preferably tracking at about 2g to reduce wear. You can tell a lot about a turntable by how much it weighs, and some of the cheap ones on the market are all plastic and very light.

I think that the way music is recorded on a vinyl record is miraculous. That a tiny wiggly groove in a plastic disk is capable of storing music with incredible detail and realism is awe inspiring. And that the technology was introduced more than 60 years ago and is still being used is remarkable. The dimensions involved are miniscule, and therefore the devices needed to retrieve all that musical infomation have to be well engineered. The phono cartridge must be positioned precisely by the tonearm and the platter must not vibrate. The motor must turn the platter at a constant rate and also not introduce vibrations or hum.

Most cheap turntables fail in many of those areas and the sound they produce is an insult to the quality of the music recorded. Most older turntables however were manufactured to a much higher standard of performance and represent a better option than a cheap new one.

With a new belt and new stylus many older turntables can be restored to their original performance. With this in mind we are happy to provide refurbished units that we have assessed and serviced and that meet these basic criteria. 

 

LP3XBT fully automatic turntable (black)

AUDIO TECHNICA

LP3XBT fully automatic turntable (black)

Includes VM95C cartridge, phono preamp, Bluetooth

$699.00 ATLP3XBT