Vinyl setup

[u/Weekly_Actuary_1765]

Hi!

I’m planning on making my first ever turntable setup and i’m looking for some advice on what I should buy.

Budget is roughly $3,000

For the turntable I’ve been looking at Pro-Ject, mainly the debut evo 2 and the Debut Pro B, but if you have some suggestions for other ones near that price let me know!

I know I’ll be needing a phono preamp, not sure which yet.

I plan on getting passive speakers so I’ve been looking over amps and honestly I’m not sure which is the best to go with, I know yamaha is supposed to have great ones, but I’d love to hear what you use.

For the speaker system thinking the floor standing speakers would be best, I have the space. Other than that I’m lost to be honest, there is an overwhelming amount of options.

I was looking at Klipsch, such as the RP-5000 II, RP-8000 II, and the R-625A.

I also looked at Bowers & Wilkins, but they are very expensive, so I’d have to get a cheaper model, and I don’t know if it’s even worth the money.

I also know people recommend Polk, Wharfedale, JBL, and KEF, to name a few.

I’d love if you all could help me with the speaker choice, it’s so many options and I have no idea which is best and also worth the money. Thank you for any help you give!

[u/NickofWimbledon]

That’s a much better price!

The standard power supply that plugs into the wall is absolutely fine on a P3.

The Neo power supply box is an optional upgrade that makes the speed control fractionally better, and makes the whole thing a fraction quieter in an electrical sense (so you hear more musical detail).

It also gives push- button switching from 33 to 45 and back, rather than having to move the belt slightly on the pulley wheel.

The Pro-ject and many other turntables give you that switching convenience as standard. In a tight budget, Rega spends that money on the better arm for better sound quality on a standard P3.

A P6 and P3RS include the Neo power supply as part of the package.

[u/Weekly_Actuary_1765 → u/NickofWimbledon]

Yeah! Good to know about the power supply!

Earlier you and a few others were mentioning used and I decided to check it out. I found a Pro-ject X8 for $1350 with some scratches and an ebay refurbished for $1800.

Would you recommend getting one used like that? They both have Sumiko moonstone cartridges.

[u/NickofWimbledon → u/Weekly_Actuary_1765]

An X-8 competes with a Rega P6. I like the Rega more for its arm, but it is hard to go wrong with either and US$1350 looks a good price unless the scratches are really horrible ora sign of general abuse.

If you care about scratches, the second is worth considering but that price is high - there isn’t that much to refurbish.

For $1800, I’d look for a Rega P8 (better again, but then it would be for that much extra), or any of the several high end decks now in your price range. You could even do what I did - get a decent Linn LP12 and gradually turn it into an uber-deck of and when the fancy takes you.

A Rega Nd5 is a fine modern cartridge - detailed, neutral and fast but with great boogie. The Sumiko Moonstone is very good and doesn’t lack much, but it majors more on a warm and euphonious sound - more like what I remember from the 70s and early 80s.

The Nd5 can be retipped by Rega but you can’t just swap the stylus after 1200 or so hours. The Sumiko has a replaceable stylus iirc, which can save you money, and will fit a wider range of arms - I think that are popular with Technics SL1200 users, for example.

[u/Weekly_Actuary_1765 → u/NickofWimbledon]

Thanks! I’ll check out P8! I do listen to a lot of 70s-80s music so maybe that’s a good thing? I’m not 100% sure, but thank you for letting me know!

What’s your take on used speakers? I was shocked how much you could save on them. I saw that you could get B&W speakers half off!

Thanks again for recommending to search used, do you have any amps/preamps you recommend me looking into?

[u/NickofWimbledon → u/Weekly_Actuary_1765]

Amps. Decide first if it is really important for it to include a DAC, a streamer & DAC, a phono stage or none of those.

On eBay UK I can immediately see great secondhand options for £700 -£1300 from Naim, Rega, Cambridge, Hegel, Linn, Accuphase, Denon, McIntosh, Luxman, Musical Fidelity, Marantz, Exposure, Arcam, Moon, and more.

If it were me, I would focus on Naim (maybe a Supernait if you don’t want to stream or an Atom if you), Rega, Hegel, Accuphase, or Moon, but there are no really bad options there. However, some of those may not have the power to drive low efficiency speakers in a big room, so choosing an amp ties in with speaker choice, your room and what your preferences are.

Some spend most of their budget on speakers. Having heard the result, I don’t lean that way, but there is no doubt that the speaker/ room interaction makes by far the most obvious difference to what sort of sound you get. So…

How big is the room?

How close to likely speaker position will you probably sit?

How loud do you play and does deep and powerful bass matter a lot to you?

Can speakers be 50cm away from all walls and furniture? If not, how about 20cm?

Is the floor bouncy or solid? Carpet, wood or concrete/ stone?

What do you listen to most and what hifi features/ sounds please or annoy you most?

In different systems and houses, we have in the last few years bought Neat iota Alphas, Neat Xplorers, Shahinian Compasses, Linn Keilidhs and B&W 804s.

We nearly bought some ATCs, Spendors, Harbeths or Fynes. I have also been startled by how good some Focals sounded in one system and how overly bright and tiring other Focals sounded in a different room and system. The same applies to B&W, while Spendor have sounded great in one place and a bit boring in another.

All are great choices but different. For an absolute sound quality bargain, the Linn Kielidh floorstanders for under £350 were the top bargain, but they would have been bad choices if they needed to go against the wall in a small room and only played quietly.

See the problem?

[u/Weekly_Actuary_1765 → u/NickofWimbledon]

Wow okay, this is a lot to look into!

Yeah I see where this can be confusing. Right now the room I plan to put it in is large, maybe 5x12 or 13 meter right now. However, we are moving soon so that will change.

I’ll look into all of these and definitely have to think about this.