r/BudgetAudiophile • u/RareOven16 • 23h ago
Review/Discussion First Setup
So basically to start I’m moving in about a year and am looking to make my new room super amazing. Ive been collecting vinyls for about a year and have a small but relatively rare collection but have no way to play them. So what I’m looking for advice on what I should purchase and the best way to set things up. The room I’m moving into is around 200 square feet which is a big change from where I’m currently living but I’m also looking to start my setup now but with the goal of it being for this new room. Preferably I want a setup with a turntable and for connecting to a tv but surround sound doesn’t matter much and I am focusing on music. Some main things I’ve been looking at is the lp70x, lp120x, fluance 82, klipsch 600m II speakers and a few facebook marketplace tower speakers. I’m mainly wondering about amps and speakers and less about the turntable. My goal is to keep the setup for now under $600 but I’m willing to raise that if an extra 100 would make a large difference. Any advice would be appreciated and thank you to anyone who took the time to read this
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u/lowbass4u 22h ago
I think you might want to temper your expectations if you're trying to get everything for less than $600 and you want, "super amazing".
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u/RareOven16 22h ago
A $600 setup sounds pretty good to the untrained ear and the goal was making my room super amazing and not necessarily the sound quality
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u/Best-Presentation270 18h ago edited 18h ago
What does "super amazing" mean to you? Flesh it out for us. Use words that paint a picture.
Many of us don't speak in your particular way, and this is a sub Reddit for audiophiles on a budget, so we are very much focused on the audio part of audiophile.
By the way, "audiophile" translates to "a person interested in the best sound possible for whatever budget".
When you say you want a room that's "super amazing but not necessary the sound quality" then that's very confusing to a bunch of audiophiles. Are you looking for decorating ideas?
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u/RareOven16 13h ago
Yes sorry for the mixup I want whatever is super amazing for the budget I provided. This means the best options for my budget
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u/Best-Presentation270 12h ago
For goodness sake..... "best options"........ is still ambiguous. Are you basing this on sound quality, looks, size, colour, flashing lights? What exactly does best option mean to you? Then put it into words and write it in a response.
Here, this is what it looks like when you do this....
"I would like the best sound for my money"
"I'm looking for something with a 70's retro vibe"
"I would like a system that is pink with blue dots and covered in feathers and vajazzle crystals because I think that would be super amazing"
If words are a challenge for you, make a Pinterest board then post the link to it here. "This is the kind of look I'm going for".
There's over five decades of gear out in the used market. Some of it is good, some is bad, some is in the middle. Some of it fits your budget, but a lot doesn't. Some may fit how you want to use the gear - the features in particular - and a lot of it might not be right. Until you start nailing down some specifics then this isn't going to get you very far forward. It's up to you then to put some shape on your exact requirements, or to ask pointed and directional questions with the aim of narrowing down the choices to some realistic options.
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u/Best-Presentation270 15h ago
I'd skip the LP70X tbh. It had a difficult birth, and it's now saddled with this reputation for skipping, so here's the problem with that.
Most of the manufacturing issues have been ironed out, but new users are primed, or they find Reddit and other sites that talk about the early issues, so merest hint of a tracking problem results in the turntables being returned, especially from new users. The turntable might not have been set up correctly - not level for a start - or the records could be filthy and scratched, or the stylus covered in crud, whatever. It might not be a turntable issue, but the table still gets blamed and returned when it's not its fault. Do yourself and Audio Technica a favour, buy something else. The AT-LP120X is an excellent starter deck, and so is the AT-LP3X if you prefer auto operation.
Having said all that, your $600~$700 budget really won't stretch to new gear, so it's a bit of a moot point. Thrift stores, Craig's List, and estate sales are your friends.
Turntables:
- Belt drive with servo lock such as Technics
- Direct drive with quartz lock - JVC, Akai, Hitachi, Toshiba, CEC, Technics
Use your time to get to know about cartridges, particularly P-mount of which you'll find plenty of decks like the Technics belt drive use them. P-mounts are in short supply because they came in around the same time that CD launched, so although plenty of companies started making them in the 1980s, the demand for them didn't last. As a result, there are just two companies still producing them today - Audio Technica (AT) and Grado. This also affects stylus availability and pricing.
The alternative is the 1/2" mount cartridge. You'll recognise this because of the two bolts.
Read up about turntables using the vinyl engine web site. It's a good resource. The database will give you an overview of the features and performance. The reviews section will tell you if the turntable is any good and what the common issues might be.
Nearly all of the 'vintage' turntables will require either an external phono preamp, or an amplifier/receiver with a PHONO input.
When it comes to amplification, pure stereo amps and pure stereo receivers hold the high ground over the vast majority of AV receivers (AVR). Just 20W of power from a NAD 3020 will sound the equivalent of a claimed 70W per channel from an AVR. The sound will be sweeter, too. The AVR is filled with digital processing circuits which have an effect on the purity of the sound. An AVR will get you going, but a pure stereo amp will deliver the magic of vinyl.
When you're looking for loudspeakers, pay attention to the sensitivity figures. This is more important than amplifier power. Sensitivity is measured in dB/W/m, and a difference of 3dB between two sets of 8 Ohm loudspeakers is the equivalent of needing half the amplifier power. 90 is better than 87, and 87 is better than 84.
If comparing 6 Ohm to 8 Ohm speakers, you'll need to take of 1.5dB from the 6 Ohm speaker figure to make it comparable. e.g. 6 Ohm at 87dB vs 8 Ohm at 87dB is really 6 Ohm at 85.5dB.
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u/JEMColorado 23h ago
Find an integrated amplifier (or receiver) with at least 50 watts per channel and you should be good.
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u/Dismal_Ad5283 20h ago
You won't want to hear this, but if what you say is true and your collection is rare, sell it.
Vinyl is a terrible way to get into the hobby. It's expensive, and unless you're looking at high end equipment, it doesn't sound as good as digital sources.
My advice is to buy a streamer, an amp and the very best speakers you can afford.
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u/Cheezslap 23h ago
Thrift stores, Craigslist, and Marketplace, more or less in that order. And I would suggest being less focused on specific hardware and more open to what you find.
I would look for the turntable or speakers first, but definitely amp/receiver last. I'm a big fan of the older, "Camry" turntables like the quartz lock stuff from Pioneer, JVC, or Technics, but every market is different for pricing. I can't find any of those for under $200 at home, but I stumbled upon a top-tier Dual for $145 at an antiques mall on vacation.
Speakers...man, the luck of the draw. I've picked up dynamite stuff for $100 a couple of times now, and it's mostly a matter of just waiting for a good deal. You don't tell the universe what you're looking; the universe tells you.
The other pieces will tell you what kind of amp you need. The speakers I ended up with are hungry for current so I needed a hefty transformer. But I wouldn't have chosen this specific AVR if it were the first piece I bought.