What are some good starter turntables?

Depends how far you go with step ups, cartridges, tone arms.

I went about 40 years straight with my TT in a closet or other room, with no dust cover on it. I was pretty much always at near SOTA.

By about '77 I just couldn’t listen to regular vinyl set-ups. It took until '14 when I found a DAC that really seemed to transmit musical truth that I decided to step away. I have a lot of solid and insightful music from my DAC, but the magic isn’t at all there anymore, but vinyl the way I did it is very taxing and also its hard to put a $3k cartridge down on a piece of questionable vinyl - I don’t miss that,

I guess I just have so much music and it’s all been ripped to pc so I don’t really want to set up a vinyl setup

You have to be a madman to get into it now. New vinyl is very pricey. Older great/good vinyl is very pricey too. Plus storage… and cartridge replacement… nope, stay away.

Ah, and I plan to get into reel to reel with a Studer A80 RC MK II lol

Awesome sonics. Real subculture to get ones hands onto recordings…

I agree it’s a total money pit, and the differences are readily audible so the pressure to step up to the next level is always there.

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I’m probably going to end up pulling the trigger on the Rega Planar 2 here soon as my first “real” turntable… that I want to hold on to for some years. and I realize I can upgrade it over time as well. Anything more expensive would be pushing my budget a bit too much for me personally… but wanted to check in and make sure there aren’t better choices before I do. If anybody has any thoughts, let me know. =)

https://www.amazon.com/Planar-Turntable-Tonearm-Carbon-Cartridge/dp/B072QF528T?pf_rd_p=dd4f5b57-ba5b-418b-a348-64ec62df14cc&pd_rd_wg=cPEdq&pf_rd_r=657TD8DDMSRGD1VSE8Q1&ref_=pd_gw_cr_simh&pd_rd_w=kNzST&pd_rd_r=2d8e03db-10a4-4975-8493-d54185d7fef5

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great choice!
Best new Turntable by far in this Pricerange.
Have fun and post some nice pics.

I’m having some fun playing with entry level cartridges… no match for my Hana but still a lot of vinyl fun. But Grado ist not for everyone… I’m not really convinced.
The Grado red is very warm and nice, a good choice for old vinyl. But it dosn´t track very good and needs 1.9g tracking force to work well and about 1.5g antiscating on my SL-Q.
I think the Grado Prestige Silver2 is a better choice, because it can show a lot more details.

Edit… just buy Goldring, Nagaoka or Ortofon on a budget. The stock rega carbon is very nice too …

How about this entry level turntable. Lol

@M0N probably has one…

No way I can afford that lol. Also only digital for me, don’t have enough of a vinyl collection to justify a turntable at all

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well, now you have something to demo and report back on :wink:

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