Much advice needed

[Matthew]

Hi all

So I am very new to the vinyl world and (unfortunately) I am young enough to have missed the entire vinyl generation...

I recently fell in love with the unique tone that you get from good old vinyl and so i have decided to start kitting myself out. Unfortunately, I am doing this on a student's budget... and a poor student at that..

I have scoured the web for information and i am just getting more and more frustrated by the vast amount of rubbish out there and conflicting information...

Basically, at the moment i am looking for a turntable with tonearm, cartridge and power supply. I have an old kenwood KA-2000 amp that will have to do for now and some mint Mordaunt-Short speakers (not sure if these were ever popular but they are pretty great!)

I am well aware that the amp is terrible but I have to do this one step at a time!

Any advice on where to look and which brands to look out for will be appreciated!

[mahleu]

Where in SA are you?

You can pick up a cheap functional turntable from lots of places and then put better cartridge on it when you can afford it.

My first turntable cost R250 plus R100 for a new stylus and it did very well.

[alternativeroute]

... I have an old kenwood KA-2000 amp that will have to do for now...

Peter from this here forum had a similar one in his shop and I thought it sounded pretty good.

Look out for old Thorens (TD150, TD125, TD160's) that might be out there. Old decks but sound good.

What is your budget?

[Matthew]

Mahleu, I live in JHB.

Lets just say that that amp is in better condition then mine! there is something dodgy going on with the left output of my KA-2000.. haven't had time to really get into it but it could just be a switch or something simple.

My budget is flexible as I am willing to wait and save up for a while. I am pretty much obsessed with sound quality and so I'm willing to spend a little extra if I can hear it is worth it. I'm hoping to stay under 10 grand although i have seriously considered the R15 500 special at listening room (http://listeningroom.co.za/SPECIALS_1.pc).

I have been rabidly searching for a Linn LP12 but i always seem to be just too late to pick one up...

[Kent Kassler.]

Give the switches and pots on that amp a good cleanup......mine went wonky as well and it was just years of gunk on the tracks in the various pots.....lovely sounding amp and nothing at all wrong with its sound and build.....phonostage sounds great and will be more than good enough i reckon....Alty can sort you out with a table i reckon.....pop him a PM

[Matthew]

Yea I cracked it open and there was years of gunk in there. i'm definitely going to do a full on restore when i get the chance. Switches and pots will be the first victims! the sound is fantastic (out the right channel that is)

Now comes the bit where i get laughed at for my ignorance: who exactly is Alty? checked the member's list but i couldn't find anybody with that name. I'm guessing it might be "alternativeroute" from below? and with that being said, i don't want to step on toes and bug people who aren't intent on selling. I've been scouring junkmail and gumtree although these probably aren't the best places to pick up something that should be cared for properly...

[alternativeroute]

Mahleu, I live in JHB.

Lets just say that that amp is in better condition then mine! there is something dodgy going on with the left output of my KA-2000.. haven't had time to really get into it but it could just be a switch or something simple.

My budget is flexible as I am willing to wait and save up for a while. I am pretty much obsessed with sound quality and so I'm willing to spend a little extra if I can hear it is worth it. I'm hoping to stay under 10 grand although i have seriously considered the R15 500 special at listening room (http://listeningroom.co.za/SPECIALS_1.pc).

I have been rabidly searching for a Linn LP12 but i always seem to be just too late to pick one up...

Eclair has a LP12 he want to move on...

Looking at the listening room website there are some great specials: http://listeningroom.co.za/Sale_17.ca

"Origin Live Aurora 2 (demo)          R 5000.00"

[Matthew]

And so another table gets thrown into the mix... i must say, it is a sexy table! How does it compare to the LP12?

[Matthew]

Does anybody have experience with Pro-Ject turntables? Any Linn I've caught onto in the past few months has either been sold or was way overpriced..

[alternativeroute]

Does anybody have experience with Pro-Ject turntables? Any Linn I've caught onto in the past few months has either been sold or was way overpriced..

A lot of people swear by the project tables... I have never had one...

[fdlsys]

...Any Linn I've caught onto in the past few months has either been sold or was way overpriced..

You haven't been watching carefully

[Matthew]

You haven't been watching carefully

It's true! The cheap ones fly out (and rightfully so!) i guess I'm just going to have to sit here and stalk the classifieds page and junkmail until something comes along!

[Matthew]

So it looks like I'm going to go for the Project Debut 3. My only concern now is that it comes with a MM cartridge. Does anybody know if this will work out with the phono stage of my KA-2000? I don't recall it having separate inputs for MM or MC... I've also seen some videos where the platter on the Debut 3 doesn't sit level and so it wobbles when it spins. Has anybody experienced this? Is it fixable?

[Ampdog]

My only concern now is that it comes with a MM cartridge. ...... I don't recall it having separate inputs for MM or MC...

Matthew,

Forget about the (often purported) difference between MM and MC for now.  (Your equipment will probably be fitted out for MM, can't quite figure out from the photo.) Get the stuff working and later you can enter the MM/MC business into the mix, if you still want to. First things first, and it is often surprising how matters then lower down on the list just fades away ... but that is another story.

[Hi-Phibian]

There will be some LP12s coming from round here. They remain great musical tables that can be taken very very far. Lots of options of different costs to move them forward. However, even a modest early Lp12 set up halfway proper will show a clear pair of heels to a debut. Just the Lp12 bearing costs more to make then a whole debut.

Origin Live stuff is a wee quirky for the money IMO.