It's the time of the season, end of year gifts and cool gadgets, what about a pair of gloves or a new turntable? The design goes back to the early sixties.
From Crosley's website: " Join Crosley's mission to bring analog music to the masses with the Voyager three-speed turntable. The clean, vintage-inspired aesthetic fits into any space, while the lightweight design allows this record player to travel “further than anyone, or anything in history.”
That look a lovely piece of equipment. Unfortunately, I bought OH last Christmas a record player as he'd been on about having one for years to play all his vinyl. I bought him a Rega Planar and he's over the moon with it. Someone on the forum not sure it was this forum recommended it. So if you are on this forum then ta very muchly.
With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never be empty, for I will be your wine. With this candle, I will light your way into darkness. With this ring, I ask you to be mine.........The Corpse Bride
@ Sparkle, a Rega Planar turntable is not a gadget, it's something serious for The Audiophile Man. Shame on me: my once daily companion, a Thorens TD 165, is now collecting dust in a corner on top of two Bowers & Wilkins DM14 speakers.
On that The Audiophile Man page are the comments:
"you will be familiar with a range of turntables that sit under brand names such as Crosley, Steepletone, ION, GPO and so on. These companies tend to spend more money on marketing than investing in product quality"
"These poorly built, poorly designed, poorly implemented disasters waiting to happen are put together in such a way as to look great, reel you in, take your money and let you struggle with the aftermath. Not only do they offer poor performance they, more importantly, threaten to damage your precious vinyl, partly because how they are put together more than anything else"
There is a shop in Lausanne that specialises in all this kit - still in business so there must be a demand.
ION - they make/made USB turntables that Maplins used to sell - I had a discussion with Andrew Rose about how to transfer vinyl to computer and he did NOT recommend them.
The "Rega Planar" looks nice, reasonable price, I assume the same company that makes Amps? if so I know their Amps are very good as I have one, coupled with some floor standing "Q acoustics" speakers.
Do not, I repeat do not ever buy a Crosley product. Or if someone buys one for you do not place any record on it. Venture on to any audiophile or record collector site and see what they think about Crosley players, and in fact anything that even looks similar recently emanating from China. These devices will destroy your records. The come with their cartridge misaligned from the factory so will never sound right, and the tracking force is excessive causing the nasty ceramic stylus to scrape off precious vinyl every revolution of the platter. Totally non adjustable. One enthusiast, as a challenge, actually tried to upgrade this box of junk to see what it would take to get it to do a good job. It soon became clear that the cost of doing so would have cost roughly the same as a new Rega as mentioned above.
Don't get me started.
On my headstone it will say: Please switch off mobile phones. I'm trying to get some sleep.
Wasn't Andrew Rose some high fi expert when it came to transferring whatever to whatever, so supposedly his expectations to sound reproduction would be far advanced than the likes of me would expect. I have a very old, Pioneer stacking system that has a linear tracking turntable, I think I bought it when CD's were just taking of. Over and above that also a separate Numark TT USB, which I have played the odd bit of vinyl on, mainly Tomita, hope that won't damage my vinyl, wish I could get a dust cover for it, but never used it for Vinyl - CD. Elsie mentioned Steepletone, they were the right cheep end of the market when we were retailing
There is no getting around it, if you want your vinyl collection (and I loathe the recent trend to call records "vinyls") to sound their best without damage, you need to spend some serious money. After largely abandoning the medium the industry has now noticed a resurgence of interest and there are very competent new models being marketed once again. But they are expensive. There is very little to be had between the €50 Crosley muck and what can be considered a good performer starting at about €200. Such is the shortage of affordable turntables that many have been turning to the secondhand market. Names such as Rega, Thorens, Technics, Linn, etc. are highly sought after and consequently s/h prices have shot up. Certain highly regarded models are fetching many times more than when new. And if you haven't noticed, the records themselves are now beginning to fetch crazy prices if in the right condition.
On my headstone it will say: Please switch off mobile phones. I'm trying to get some sleep.
Grab a chair, kick off your shoes, chill and chat.
recommended it. So if you are on this forum then ta very muchly.
