I've got a decent collection of vinyl recordings, and I want to get the best quality I can out of them

I'm looking for a high quality turntable, soundwise, I'm not a DJ, I just want to listen to my music in as good as quality as possible

Now I have a cheap Panasonic bookshelf stereo from 1992 that has a turntable, but quality is far from stellar and it's not compatible with my reciever

I'm not that knowledgeable about this kinda stuff, so any advice about what kind/brand needles i should buy or anything to that extent....let me know your reccomendations

I want to keep this as affordable as possible too

Take a look at this thread. I'm sure there are others if you search. Probably best to look for a package deal that includes turntable and pre-mounted cartridge (needle).

You may need an external phono pre-amp if your receiver lacks dedicated "Phono" inputs.

Good luck.

Turntables are primarily mechanical devices. They have not benefitted from the improvements in cost/quality ratio that we've seen in electronics over the years. Hence, high quality and affordable are pretty much mutually exclusive.

Avoid turntables with lots of extra features (especially DJ type decks). Ideally go for a purely manual deck.

You'd be best off looking for a secondhand turntable to maximise quality for the budget. Keep an eye out for brands such as Rega, Dual, Thorens. If you must have a new one, ProJect make some fairly cheap turntables that are reasonable.

If you need a phono preamp, don't skimp on quality. For example, Radio Shack make a cheap phono preamp that should be avoided. The NAD PP-2 is pretty decent, and the ProJect Phonobox also has a good reputation.

thanks for the replies so far

my Pioneer VSX-9900S reciever has a built in phone pre-amp...so I won't be needing one

I'm going to look around today an find something in my price range, then maybe post it here and see what you guys think

You'll find that there is virtuall nothing left at the cheap end of the market. You basically have a choice of a Project Debut or a Thorens TD170.


Despite what others have said the Technics SL1210 which is the standard DJ deck is also good, however it's about twice the price of a belt drive Hi-Fi turntable. The main difference is that DJ decks tend to be direct drive for scratching purposes.

found some good used Dual turntables

but question on the cartridges

1 of them has an Audio Technica cartridge, the other 2 Ortofon

any reccomendations on those?

Ortofon are a specialist cartridge maker where as Audio Technica are a general all round company. However turntable cartridges do wear out and can get damaged by dropping them, it's going to be pot luck as to the state of the cartridge on a used deck.

well the seller claims the cartridge is brand new on the one I'm most interested in.

It's an Ortofon FF15XE MKII, which I've searched around and found it's a pretty cheap cartridge, so I'm still a bit undecided if I should pick it up

However owing to drops in demand over the years you can get some great deals on used turntables.

rudefyet, I would look on audiogon. You will find a lot of turntables there.

The FF15 is not a current Ortofon model, so I can't see how it can be "brand new", unless he's had it lying about unused for some years. I don't know when the last FF15 model was phased out, but I can tell you that the *first* FF15E was introduced back in the 1970s. It was in fact a pretty good cartridge for the price. I recall that the HiFi press at the time waxed lyrical about it. I even bought one myself.

BTW: although Audio Technica are not a purely specialist cartridge company, their cartridges are generally pretty good, so there is no reason to avoid them.

Reminds me...I need to get some new needles for my Technics turntable.

Model SL-1200...and yes it is older than me. (I am only 25.)

My sizeable LP collection is just collecting dust...