Test a craigslist turntable before buying?

[HarrisM]

Hi, I'm looking at a turntable on CL, and the seller says he no longer has a stereo he can connect it to. I know this could be the old standard ebay language, but it also seems credible. It isn't a high end TT, and assuming he replaced his old receiver his new one wouldn't have a phono stage. Short of buying a preamp or taking a receiver with me (neither of which is probably worth the trouble) is there a way that I can check to be sure the TT actually gets signal into the phono plugs? I'm mentally trying to rig some sort of contraption to run from TT to headphones, but I don't know enough about this stuff. Is it possible, is it easy?

[jeffrey88]

From what I know you can buy cheap phono preamps from The Source (Radioshack) for around $30. That would be the best way, because then you can at least listen to it fully. Through headphones I'm not sure how much detail you would actually get.

Might not be a bad idea to find a pair of "garage" speakers just to hook it up. With turntables, I would always say best bet is to do it right. It's up to you if you want to take a gamble, but of course the seller could easily take you for a ride as well.

[pogo]

A "not high end" TT on craigslist should be priced $30 or less, so spending $30 to test it doesn't pass the "makes sense" test unless you've been wanting to buy a phono stage anyway. I've bought six turntables on craigslist, only two of which I heard play music before I bought. Three of them I never even saw the table turn, one of which I knew to be broken when I bought it (paid $5). I take the seller is saying that it worked last he used it. If you think he's honest then plug it in and make sure the platter spins and any automatic functions work. (Bring an LP you don't care about with you.) If you're still concerned then if you can get access to an ohmeter it's pretty easy to check continuity of the tonearm wires (what you really care about -- the sound produced will be more a check of the cartridge than the TT.) If the price is more than $30 then maybe you should pass. (you didn't say what turntable this is. I interpreted "not high end" to mean "low end mass market")

[nat]

Seems to me that if you plug it in and it works mechanically, you're pretty much there. If you have to replace the cartridge, no big deal, and if you have to rewire the arm, that's manageable, taking into account the deal you should be getting if you are buying off of CL.

[megatrends]

It's hard to say with "garage sale" turntable whether it be the internet garage sales like Craigslist or what have you.

Portable speakers and a small 10 or 15 watt preamp are all I can think of for testing it when you look at it. Just make sure you ground the ground wire if it has one for the turntable so it doesn't hum loudly and you think something is wrong with it when it isn't. if you can't at least check how it operates with power at their house when you look at it. Check to see if everything functions and if the turntable speed is accurate if it has a little clear "thing" to look at to tell you if the turntable is off like all turntables have. basically though I got lucky with mine but I doubt I would ever do it again without it being hooked up so I can see how it plays. My main point was if you were looking at a good quality turntable chances are someone who knew what they doing would be selling it and would know how it worked and would explain it. The quality you mention it could be a crapshoot, most people with mediocre junk are not going to know out of ignorance if there were anything wrong with it that would subtle. Since they have no way to test it they never used it and probably got it from a relative or in the trash for all you know.

I answered an ad in the local newspaper before the internet was widely available in the 1980s and bought my turntable that I still use today for about $50 used. It is a technics SL-Q300 which sold for maybe $150.00 new then and I am still using it and have never had to have it repaired.