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Help with turntable purchase

I've decided to buy a turntable to make use of a good bit of vinyl I still have.  I have a smallish budget (pregos wifey) to put something together and was hoping for some help.
I can pick up a Rotel RP 3000 with extra Shure V-15 cartridge for $300 or a new Music Hall mmf 1.5 for $321.  Any thoughts?  I picked up a pair of B&W CM2 bookshelf speaker for $100 at an estate sale but I need a recommendation for cables and amplification.   Thanks in advance for any suggestions even if that means going in a completely different direction with TT and speakers. 
shimanole
limomangus's avatar
limomangus
1,426 posts
 
Sounds good,just play it with the Shure v15 the stylist may not have to be replaced.Play and enoy.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Shure v15 the stylist may not have to be replaced.


you never know, it's better to replace the stylus than your record collection :) 
gasbose's avatar
gasbose
82 posts
 
Agree with the Rotel. I love my P3...
mcmvmx
108 posts
 
At your price level most turntables will give you the same performance be it DD or belt but stay away from built in phono stages as if it were the plague . Why ? Because the phono stage is the responsable of converting those extremely small electrical signals pickuped by the cartridge to a servicable level by the line level outputs of the preamp . 

It is also responsable for the Riaa conversion process in order to get your signal back to a flat frequency response , so you can imagine the work the phono stage has to do . The phono stage in a LP playing system is extremely important . Don't skimp on it . 

To go with a integrated amplifier instead of a reciever is excellent advice as the phono stages of most recievers are compromised . If you can swing it new you can get a Rega integrated which would cost about 500.00 . If you go used Rotel has design some excellent integrated with very good phono stages . Marantz is also a candidate .

One word of caution... if you go used , remember you might have to install sooner or latter new capacitors in the integrated unit depending on the age . 

Almost forgot...good thing about turntables is that they are highly modifiable in order to optain better sound as changing the mat , adding mass to the tonearm ( depending on cartridge ) footers , turntable mounts , etc .
cpdkee
31 posts
 
I have recently returned to my vinyl collection. I purchased a Fluance RT-85. It was $481 with a discount code. It comes with a ceramic platter and and ortofon blue cartridge. It also has the great function of turning off at the end of the record. It does not return to the start but simply turns off which I like. I was looking to spend more but after being impressed with reviews I gave it a shot and it sounds great. I had a smaller budget also.
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