Need assistance in choosing the right turntable

C4ester

New Member
Hello All,

I am currently in the market for a turntable but I am on somewhat of a tight budget. I cannot spend more than $150 with where I stand financially at the moment, but I am not looking for anything too special. I just recently purchased a Sonos Gen 1 Play 5 for a very reasonable price and now I need a good turntable with a built in preamp to go with it. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I was recently looking at the Audio Technica AT-LP60K, but several of the reviews are kind of shaky on it so I was wondering if any of you knowledgeable folks could provide me some assistance? Thank you for your help ahead of time!
 
The market for turntables with built-in preamps seems to be divided into two camps: the inexpensive 'shaky' (to use your phrase) ones, and the ones that are fairly decent turntables that will burst your $150 budget for one that's not trashed or needing replacement stylus, cartridge and/or headshells. Not sure where you're located but if Craigslist is available for your area - start looking there. It will provide you an idea what your $$ will buy and also afford you the opportunity to ask questions of the seller and you can put your eyes on it before spending money. You'll quickly get a sense of what meets your needs and what it will cost you.
 
I’d take the 120 over the 60 as it has tracking force and anti skate adjustments. I just picked up an old Technics SL-23 for $30 on Craigslist. A little TLC and it's great. Will outperform the AT60. Just depends on budget. The AT will have a phono preamp.
 
These days $150 doesn't buy anything that isn't as you say "shaky", a polite term for POS. As already suggested your local Craigslist is what is going to bail you out, try to find a vintage original owner table that was well cared for.
 
I appreciate all the feedback. After taking what you guys have said into consideration the AT120 seems like the best bang for your buck deal. I gave craigslist a look, but there really wasn't much offered there for my region.
 
If you post your location, AKers might be able to take a look at your local Craigslist and recommend some turntables for you to look into.

If you can find a good quality used turntable, plus a Phono Preamp (like this one for $50), then you'd be right on budget!

Welcome to AK!
 
The AT-LP60 is consistently one of the best-selling turntables on the market today, and generally gets very good reviews -- but its owners don't usually seek out vinyl/audio enthusiast forums unless they're having problems with it, so that's why opinions of it skew more negative on sites like this.

Having owned the LP60 and several similar turntables myself, I can say that despite how cheap and plasticky they are, they generally sound surprisingly good, and with proper care can last a long time -- I have a virtually identical Aiwa turntable from 1999 that's still working perfectly fine. The cartridge is not designed to be replaced and the tonearm is pre-set to track at 3.5 grams (with anti-skating), so an elliptical stylus and thicker, stronger belt are the only possible upgrades for it (both of which LPGear sells bundled in an "AT-LP60 Upgrade Kit"). But the benefit for many first-time users is that it's as close to a plug-and-play turntable as you can get -- with the automatic mechanism, playing a record is as simple as pushing a button.

If you want a new turntable with a "real" tonearm that can be fully adjusted and accepts different cartridges, there's the Crosley C100. It's based on the same chassis as the very popular AT-LP120, but is belt-drive, lacks 78 RPM speed and other frills, and sells for under $150. Reviews of it are sparse but generally good.

Of course a used turntable may be able to get you more bang for your buck, but finding a good cheap used turntable isn't as easy as it used to be. At least around here, many of the sub-$150 examples that come up for sale are either broken or missing parts, and many are nondescript cheap plasticky 1980s turntables that aren't a whole lot better (if at all) than an AT-LP60.
 
As far as a new 'table goes, the U turn Orbit or AT LP120 are about as far down in the food chain as I'd go. Anything below that is pretty terrible for the most part. I agree that a used 'table gets you the most bang for your buck, though. It takes luck and patience to find a nice one at a reasonable price, but I have a number of respectable 'tables and I haven't spent over $60 on any of them.

I'd steer clear of the LP60 and all of it's variants. I had a Realistic branded version years ago, and it was a total POS. It sounded like crap, and wouldn't consistently track records that played perfectly fine on other tables. It went in the trash. I was reminded what a cheaply made toy they are when I saw an LP60 at GW recently. I also would never buy anything Crosley branded just out of principal.
 
I had the Optimus version of the AT60 years ago, I got it while I was working out of town, and got so bored with no music I picked it up at a radio shack. I liked it a lot, wore it out from so much use. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to let you get a taste of vinyl and build your record collection without having to worry about equipment.
 
Anyone with a $150 budget for a turntable better spend their precious money wisely, just about anything new in that price range is going to be one step above a toy and figure an automatic depreciation of 50% just opening the box. Get lucky on CL and you can pay a fraction for something 10X better.
 
I'd steer clear of the LP60 and all of it's variants. I had a Realistic branded version years ago, and it was a total POS.

There has never been a Realistic-branded version of the AT-LP60. The oldest variants of the LP60-style design didn't appear until years after Radio Shack had already phased out the Realistic brand in the early 1990s.

I also would never buy anything Crosley branded just out of principal.

School principals usually buy Califone record players, not Crosleys. :p But these days, Crosley sells a wide range of turntables, including several models which have Pro-Ject tonearms, and one direct-drive model (the C200) which is nearly identical to the AT-LP120.
 
I appreciate all the feedback. After taking what you guys have said into consideration the AT120 seems like the best bang for your buck deal. I gave craigslist a look, but there really wasn't much offered there for my region.

The best "bang for your buck" is going to be a 1970's or 1980's fully manual Japanese turntable. They were well built and reliable. Don't get hung up on any particular brand. Regarding craigslist, you have to be somewhat patient, you can also check ebay for listings in your area.

Pfantone, Realistic, Olson, etc. "phono pre-amps" are available on ebay for $15.00 to $25.00. If you're patient and smart, you'll be able to do this for your $150.00 budget...:thumbsup:
 
Here's my advice. If you want to get an AT-LP120, that's a pretty good choice. I recently purchased one and, out of the box, it's pretty and works well. It can be DRASTICALLY improved by throwing about another $100 to $150 at it, which you can do as money permits.

However, there is another, much less expensive alternative. Look for a Technics "P-Mount" direct drive turntable from the 80's or early 90's. Unlike many of the plastic turntables from that era, the Technics direct drive models were well built and sound very nice. You can find the models that qualify by following this link:

http://www.vintagetechnics.audio/turntables.php

Scroll down to the Direct Drive models, then look for a "P" in the 14th column (l to r) that says, 'Cartridge Mount Type, F=Fixed, R=Removable, P=PMount'

Often times these turntables can be had for $50 or less, and a new cartridge is available on Amazon for about $30.

You'll need a preamp, and there are many good budget options there, look at Behringer and ART brands, about $25 to $50.

Ask all the questions that you want to, there are no dumb ones. Good luck!

Dusty
 
If you are shopping for a new turntable, then you will have your work cut out for you. I would normally advise to wait and save more money until you have enough to shop for a good new unit.

If you have a preference for used or vintage (like I have, but turntables only), then that can open some more opportunities for you to buy one. One word of caution; You get what you pay for so shop slowly and wisely. Check out some brands that you are familiar with, and it would help your chances if you can narrow your search to a particular model or type (belt drive, direct drive, linear, etc.) of turntable that you like.
 
There has never been a Realistic-branded version of the AT-LP60. The oldest variants of the LP60-style design didn't appear until years after Radio Shack had already phased out the Realistic brand in the early 1990s.



School principals usually buy Califone record players, not Crosleys. :p But these days, Crosley sells a wide range of turntables, including several models which have Pro-Ject tonearms, and one direct-drive model (the C200) which is nearly identical to the AT-LP120.
Optimus, Realistic, Radio Shack, RCA.... Whatever name they stamped on it that week.:rolleyes: The point was that it was the same junk sold by Radio Shack.

I still wouldn't buy anything sold by Crosley. The fact is, they sell garbage for the most part, no matter how much you seem to like them and try to push people to buy them. Why would I want to keep them in business? If I wanted an AT LP120, I'd buy one. If I wanted a Pro-Ject, I'd buy a Pro-Ject and eliminate the middle man.

And the shame of it is, the new Califone record players are crap, too. The old ones were built like tanks, but the new ones are cheap plastic and use the same mechanism as the low end Crosleys.:thumbsdown:
 
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The best bang for the buck new tables I've seen so far were the Onkyo, AT 1200 knock-off, Sony's 1200 knock off, and....the pretty looking Teac table in various plinths. All of those tables, however are at or near $400, with the AT I think at $300. If it were me I'd look at Onkyo, AT and Sony.

As far as Crosley, most of the comments I would agree with, but if you were a total novice and you had less than $100 dollars to spend, you wouldn't hurt anyone by picking up a model, but I would still encourage you to have patience and save your money.

Compare with the vintage models on the market as well. There were so many vintage models which were excellent in quality, particularly from the late 70's thru 1983. You really should compare so that you can get the best quality for the money.
 
if you were a total novice and you had less than $100 dollars to spend, you wouldn't hurt anyone by picking up a model
And that's why there are so many of them cluttering up the thrift stores, CL, and the landfills. People that don't know any better see them cheap, buy them, figure out how bad they suck (or they just quit working in short order), and then they dump them. Some items just aren't worth buying no matter how low the price tag is. I've learned that the hard way with certain things.
 
U-Turn Orbit basic is $179, the Fluance RT80 is $199, the ATLP120 can be had for just under $200 open-box on amazon, other than those you're looking at used. If it were my money, I'd choose the Orbit basic, partly because they provide super customer service. No frills, just good sound and service, that's what you get with U-Turn. YMMV, but in my area, sellers long ago caught on to the "vinyl renaissance" and used, dirty, beat-up turntables ask way too much money for my tastes.

Last, I remember there is an Internet seller Horatias76 (google it) who sells what appear to be nice, refurbished turntables at good prices.

Good luck with your search!
 
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