3k budget for Turntable and Phono Noob- do I need external power supplies?


Good Day All,

Trying to put together a vinyl rig for the first time, the local shops all have Rega and Project so will likely land there however open to suggestions

Is it worth adding a $500 Sbooster or IFI Elite to either the TT or phono or both?

or should I up budget to 4k without them?

I was thinking either Rega P3 Special edition with their Aria phono or Project X1B with their balanced phono

thanks in advance

 

audiocanada

Save some money for the record collection. You can only listen to DSOTM a certain number of times before your friends stop coming by, your significant other  finds some other place to be significant, your family will shun you, the dog will run away, the house plants will die, and the fish will drown themselves.

Got a couple questions for you. 

1. Have you done vinyl before? 

2. Do you have any vinyl now?

3. Do you want to get involved in a fully analog laborious process?

4. Do you have storage/space for records?

5. Have you thought about all the ancillaries, vinyl needs?

6. Do you like to constantly fiddle with things? 

Records are very time consuming, and all manual. Even taking the record out of the sleeve can be a patience sucking maneuver. 

If you go in with eye wide open, enjoy, it's also a lot of fun, and very satisfying. Plus records sound great!!!

That all being said, I have a Pro-Ject X2, works great for me, easy to setup, easy to maintain, sounds great. But it's big, and heavy. Also the stock Suikmo cart sounds wonderful. 

My advice, get a TT that is easy to use, easy to setup, and does not require a lot of maintenance. Use it, learn all the ins and outs. Wait till you destroy a needle to upgrade the cart. With the TT, buy a carbon brush, needle brush, and a basic record cleaning kit. Learn how to use all of it, then start the upgrade path.

Buying records is very addictive. Also they all cost more then you think.  It feels like every trip to the record store is a $300 experience. 

Excellent advice from @vettegood 

And the Vincent 701 has its own external linear power supply.

But to answer your original question, generally speaking you can spend $500 on a SBooster power supply or $75 on the AliExpress version. The difference between the two is that the latter will leave you with $425 to buy LPs with 🙂

Don't rush in, get started and ascertain if you will stick with Vinyl before spending real money.

I advise picking a Quartz Locked Direct Drive TT model with a tonearm with removable headshell type. I had one of these for years, a great start IMO

AT120 has optional phono EQ, has AT95 Cartridge Body

You simply upgrade to a different Stylus, no re-alignment needed

Change Stylus to Shibata Shape

 

Once you find you will stick with it, and begin a collection, learning along the way, you will have a much better ability to sort choices.

you can easily try a better cartridge in it's own headshell, eventually have a small collection, pre-mounted/aligned ready to play.

I did a big upgrade beginning in 2019, during Covid stay home years, a mixture of used, NOS, new, and took a risk on a few used ones, ass well as had a few re-built.

My favorite cartridge is a used one I just bought, price was low enough to risk, got lucky.

Better to start with an advanced stylus shape properly aligned, far more difference in sound than a power supply change.

You don't have to buy Soundsmith, but they have good information

https://www.sound-smith.com/articles/stylus-shape-information