Complete set for new kid on the block

[mickb69]

The ebay auction on the Pioneer PL112D went through the roof so need to look for something else - could I ask for further recommendations please?
As for the speakers I think I will pop in to Richer Sounds and get the Walfedare ones.

What did the pioneer pl12 go for in the end?

[Technik]

The Pioneer went for £62 + £15 postage. A bit too much for me at the moment.

Satanfriendly I really appreciate your input, it means a lot to me. I will try to find something on my own and ask here for advice.

I've found a couple nice ones so if anyone sees that these aren't worth much please let me know:
Pioneer PL112D - my favourite
Pioneer PL6
Garrard GT255p

Thanks again

[13oots2]

No real information available on that amp when I did a search on Google. Probably run of the mill midfi with quite a low output only 27W. The NAD manages nearly double that even though it is very conservative about it's true specs. Not a great fan of the NAD either and would think the Rotel to be pick of the bunch.

[mickb69]

The Pioneer went for £62 + £15 postage. A bit too much for me at the moment.

Satanfriendly I really appreciate your input, it means a lot to me. I will try to find something on my own and ask here for advice.

I've found a couple nice ones so if anyone sees that these aren't worth much please let me know:
Pioneer PL112D - my favourite
Pioneer PL6
Garrard GT255p

Thanks again

Wow, that's quite expensive, I once saw a pl12 go for under 50 quid, it had been stripped down completely and h cleaned and had parts replaced, it was immaculate, but no entirely original. I would have bid on it but the guy selling it seemed to be a bit of a complete arse.

That Garrard looks nice, but I can't see it going cheap, might be worth a punt though,
The pl6 looks a bit cheap and not so cheerful, if you can get it for peanuts though, it will do the job well until you get saved up for what you really want.
And as for the pl12, stick to your limits, they're always coming and going and another one will come.along

[Technik]

Thanks mick.

I bought the earlier recommended Warfedale Diamond 9.0 from Richer Sounds and am watching a couple NAD amps and the above decks on ebay, fingers crossed.

[mickb69]

Gold luck mate, I hope it turns out well

[Technik]

Thanks.

Will post back as soon as I have everything at home and report how it all sounds. Thanks everyone for the input.

On the side subject, I went to see a friend of mine and she has a beautiful Marantz set up. It's probably out of my price range at the moment but once I get into it I will get something nicer.

[satanfriendly]

Other than the Diamonds, what else did you end up buying? Just curious.

[Technik]

Intending to get the Nad 3020, just waiting for the auctions to end and I've got a couple decks on my watch list. If all else fails I will pop in to 2 of my local hifi shops that sell used equipment and see what they've got but that's after my holiday, in 2 weeks time.

One more thing. I bought some Technics seperates - a tuner and a cd player but no cables/leads. How can I find out what cables would I need to connect them with the amp, turntable and speakers?

[mickb69]

To connect the CD player and tuner to the amp you just need the red and white jacked hi fi audio cables, available in any pound shop, buy a few, that's all I'm using, you can always upgrade them at anytime later.
Doing it this way you won't have to spend your budget and take away funds from your important stuff.
Same with speaker cable, you can buy a reel of good thick cable from a cheap store that will.cost you about the same as 1 metre of the type of cable from richer sounds for example.

Also, if you get a cable that has the red and white "phono plugs" on one end, and a small headphone jack on the other, that will come in handy, for running MP3 through your amp, for running your records into your pc for recording, running pc sound through your amp etc.

I have rarely seen a nad 3020 go cheap, if this venture fails, take a look at arcam alpha, mk 1 to 5, they're really good, and models of that age usually are really cheap, but well looked after

[Technik]

Thanks for all the info mick.

So far all the auctions that I've watched for NADs would finish around £60-70 + postage BUT I was lucky and got one for £40 + £20 postage and then I was lucky again and got the Garrard GT255p for £40 + £9 postage.... Success!

So my set: Garrard GT255p turntable + NAD 3020 amp + Warfedale Diamond 9.0 speakers. The total is bang on £150 with postage. Happy days. I got some cable and banana plugs from RS so that's an extra £20, I could've done with something cheaper like mick suggested but it's not that much more so I'm very happy. To finish off the set up I just need some more cables to connect it all and I'm done. I'm sure it won't end there and soon I will look at upgrades

Thanks everyone involved in this topic - it's a great forum!

[PeterW.]

[quote="Technik"]Hi everyone

As you can see from the post count I'm new here. I'm also new to vinyl - I remember my parents listening to these but my generation were CDs and now it's all mp3 and similar, sadly. I absolutely LOVE! the sound of vinyls, the warmth and depth, it's magic.

Sadly, you appear to be in GB - which is a (relative) wasteland when it comes to cheap-but-decent equipment. Were you on this side of the pond I would suggest as follows:

AR4x or Dynaco A25 speakers
Dynaco SCA80 integrated amp (has a decent phono pre-amp)
Any of several Pioneer or Kenwood vintage TTs, or if you are extremely luck, an AR XA TT.

Were you at the Kutztown Antique Radio Swap in May, for US$200 you could have gotten all that + a decent FM tuner and tested it in place before paying.

I just snagged a very restorable Rabco ST7 on eBay for less than US$70 - needs a belt and some cleaning, and a couple of lamps only. By the way to you HK-vintage RABCO owners, those red, green, blue lamps are standard #47 lamps with translucent enamel coatings (read Nail Polish). Don't waste your cash on anything more expensive than that. And on the ST6/7 the end-of-record trip is also a #47, and easily replaced with a masked LED per the later ST8.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[mickb69]

nice one, glad it turned out, you'll have to stick some pic's on when you get it all up and running, i can't find hardly anything on the garrard.
it's a great set up that you have there, don't worry about forking out on expensive interconnects and speaker cables, at the level that we are working with it does't affect things as much.

have you thought about replacement cartridge and stylus?
i was wanting an ortofon 2m red (£80 cart & stylus to buy on it's own) with the rega RP1 or project genie i was aiming for originally, but i ended up bidding on a thorens TD166 that a local guy had,
it went for way more than i expected and i fought hard and dumped all of my remaining budget on it and just won it buy the skin of my teeth, if the auction had gone on a second longer i would have lost it. my wife still does'nt know how much it cost. when i got it and realised that the stylus was knackered i got an audio technica AT-95 cartridge & stylus (about £40 or so)

just a thought, something i've found is, i have sometimes listened to my stereo and found it lacking in quality where it was lush before, and it's when i'm playing it quietly, like evenings when it's late for example,
it's as if it needs to be driven a bit to push the sound into the room around you and then the sound imaging is spread about better and the sounds cut through,
so when you play it quietly, you don't get the quality you crave.
so if you find this is a problem for you, i'd recommend some big (but not too expensive) full size headphones, with a long lead so you can chill out and you can crank it up a little and let the sound out

[Technik]

I don't know anything about cartridges but I'm sure I will want to get a decent one soon. I'll play and fiddle with what I got first and then come back asking.
As for the headphones I've got some old full size ones which are pretty good (with a very long cable cheewed up by my rats )
I bought all the cables yesterday - the 2 rca to 2 rca, 2 rca to 3.5mm jack and more banana plugs for the speaker wire. My next challenge is to build a decent shelving unit for the set up and vinyls collection, any tips what should I consider in the design are most welcome. I will start with a basic design and then add any extras as I go along. I will have a week off so should finish it then.
As soon as it's finished I will share the pictures