Getting back into vinyl
I never had nostalgia for the vinyl days. In many respects I felt that CDs were a godsend that got me out of the relatively bad sounding vinyl swamp.
So that's where i'm coming from. I recognize that the turntables I had available were all kinds of shit back then; micro stereo towers with a sad plasticky player on top. But then I also had a DJ friend with two SL-1210s from Technics.
The Technics looked really cool and sounded ok I guess, I wasn't really paying attention at the time.
So, with the resurgence of vinyl I thought I should get a turntable, I can already play compact cassettes, CD, HDCD, SACD, DVD-Audio, Blu-Ray Audio, Digital Compact Cassettes, reel-to-reel tape, MiniDisc and I have several DACs for streaming. I’m not new at this game and I really like physical media.
Choosing the right turntable
That said, it just made sense to get a turntable so I scouted around and found three I thought would serve me well. The first was the Audio-Technica AT-LP5X - a $500 turntable with great reviews, the second was the $1000 Technics SL-1500C - again great reviews and it looks stunning and lastly Cambridge Audios Alva TT v2 - a $2000 turntable that had great reviews and some additional features (MC cartridge and bluetooth) but no pedigree.
The common denominator? Direct drive, I don’t want a turntable with a belt. I definiately don’t want a turntable that needs to have the belt adjusted to change from 33 to 45 RPMs like some stone age cave man.
I went to a HiFi retailer and looked at the Audio Technica and the Technics (they also sold the Cambridge Audio but did not have it on display because it didn't sell very well according to them). Having my pre-conceived notion that Technics gear looks great and that both Audio Technicas AT-LP5X and SL-1500C are in the style of the SL-1210, sans DJ knobs and twiddles (thankfully), I found the Technics to just look and feel a little better and sturdier.
I don't DJ and I never will, losing the DJ features means literally nothing to me, and I wanted it to look less DJ-y if that makes sense. And I knew the Technics was available in white. It should look stunning placed on my white Kallax shelf so it made perfect sense to have it in a fresh coat of modern "lifestyle" white.
After buying the Technics and three accessories, a record brush, a needle cleaner and a tracking force gauge, I got it home and assembled it. It was a snap, I had already watched youtube videos on how to do it and it really is an easy procedure that should take no longer than 5 to 10 minutes - including setting the trackng force of the stylus.
Ok, it looks and feels great. How does it sound? It's a record player, it plays vinyl records with all its flaws. You can certainly do a lot worse than this turntable and by adding ever more ridiculous sums of money you can do incrementally better (I’m told). I'd like to tell you I found some warm fuzzy thing about its sound that I cherish but I found at best something that is close to CD in quality and at worst the snap, crackle and pop affair I remembered it to be. I think its as good as vinyl gets for me, I don't have golden ears, I can't really tell the difference between 320kbps MP3, FLAC and DSD when listening to it. Lets just say, if you buy this turntable, know that it will last you a lifetime and it sounds great.
In hindsight
The above was my initial though process and impressions. It’s now been roughly 18 months since I got it and I feel generally the same. I may spin a record once or twice a week, I have certainly bought nearly 400 vinyl records since I got it but I guess I like the physical format more for its tactility than the sound. But I stand by the above although I now realize I never mentioned the included cartridge, an Ortofon RED 2M. I know next to nothing abut swapping cartridges and will most likely just buy the same one when it wears out but i’ve read that if you swap it for something more expensive the record player will sound better. But getting a stylus at the price of the record player itself doesn’t appeal to me and I’m pretty sure all i’d notice would be the hole in my wallet.
Know when to stop the audiophile pursuit to preserve your sanity and your savings account!