Turntables: What should you buy?

Turntables What Should You Buy

If you are on a quest to get a good turntable, read on! I have listed a detailed, but layman friendly guide on how to select your next turntable that I hope you will find useful in your decision process. If you are more interested in simply playing records you should also check out Buying a turntable: If you just want to play records.... There is good solid advice to be had from this guide.

A brief forward: After many years of being both an audiophile and a mastering engineer,(and I am still active as both), when the time came for what will most likely be my last turntable, I had to do a bit of real soul searching. The one thing that drove me nuts were some of my peers in the local audiophile community. My experience with some audiophiles is that they tend to be elitist know-it-alls, that will not give you any solid advice other than to spend lots of money like they did. Beware of these types!

You don't need to have deep pockets. I'm of the opinion that you can have great music reproduction on a minimal budget if you zero in on a turntable that will meet your needs and ear. You can find a good 'classic' table from 20.00 to 100.00 in many cases, or get a really great table for 200.00 to 500.00 or so, here on eBay.

Your turntable choice should hinge on what kind of music you listen to, the intended use for the turntable, (archiving to digital, archiving to tape, casual / general listening, or serious listening), how critical your ear is, and to the features you can't live without. For example, someone that collects bootlegs will need a table with variable pitch, as many of these records are mastered a... ...read the full guide >>>