Inexpensive Turntable / Record Player?

My 18 year old has put a record player on the top of his Christmas list.  We share a Prime Music account, and he has an extremely varied taste in global music. I know nothing about Audio Equipment. He doesn't have any vinyl currently, so I'm not looking to drop a bunch of money, until I see if this new hobby sticks. He doesn't have any other audio equipment, but I've got an old receiver and Bose speakers in the shop that never get used, so I figure he can use those. He mentioned that the new ones also may include Bluetooth which I could see the value of in terms of him listening via headphones.

There are tons of cheap belt drive record players, from the usual online retailers. It looks like the cheapest direct drive units are in the $300 range.

Anything I'm missing here, or are all the cheap units pretty much the same and he'll outgrow any of them quickly? Any brands better than others?

Thanks!

There's a somewhat recent thread:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/help-me-get-started-with-vinyl/187731/page1/

I opted for a vintage Pioneer table when I gifted one to my son last year.  He already had a good Yamaha receiver and some thrift store JBL speakers. 

Be advised, the price of new vinyl is somewhat shocking to an old guy who probably never paid more than 13 bucks for a single album.

I grew up with records. I don't like them for many reasons. However, here's what I think: I think that in the order of most important to least, the speakers are the first priority in sound reproduction, next is the phono cartridge, then good sound equalization, and finally the amp. A lot of the old turntables need tender loving care including capacitors and such, It seems that Audio Technica makes respectable new turntables that would be worry free. Eventually, if and when something breaks, there aren't and technicians around anymore to fix it. 

Eventually, get a reasonable 15 channel stereo graphic EQ to boost all of the highs and lows that the sound engineers cut so as to not ruin the mid range of the record.

And wow, I guess inflation is affecting the home sound system market:

Sweetwater.com: Audio-Technica AT-LP60X Automatic Belt-Drive Turntable $149

Sweetwater.com: Behringer Ultragraph Pro FBQ1502HD 15-band Stereo Graphic Equalizer with FBQ Feedback Detection $109

Please not that the above EQ comes with its own sub woofer line output, but records don't like lots of bass coming out of a sub woofer since they cause the needle to jump around.

Go cheap until you know that this isn't just a passing fad. I moved on from scratchy records years ago and will never miss them.

1988RedT2 said:

There's a somewhat recent thread:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/help-me-get-started-with-vinyl/187731/page1/

 

I opted for a vintage Pioneer table when I gifted one to my son last year.  He already had a good Yamaha receiver and some thrift store JBL speakers. 

Be advised, the price of new vinyl is somewhat shocking to an old guy who probably never paid more than 13 bucks for a single album.

Thanks for the link to previous thread. That started a bit a rabbit hole. 
 

The "junk" AV stuff in the shop is an old Technics SA-DX930 and some Bose 201V Bookshelf speakers. I think I may still have a powered subwoofer in a closet somewhere I used with that receiver at one point. All of which is probably over 20 years old and probably weren't quality back then. 
 

The receiver does have a Phono input on the back. Does that mean by default that the turntable doesn't need a preamp?

I do agree vinyl doesn't make a lot of sense unless you have a somewhat fanatical attitude regarding the care of your record collection.  A scuffed-up record sounds like crap, and a deeply scratched one won't even play without skipping.  A record-cleaning system is a must.  And while used records sound like a good way to save some money, most of the ones I've found have been too poorly cared for to be listenable.

wake74 said:

The receiver does have a Phono input on the back. Does that mean by default that the turntable doesn't need a preamp?

That is correct.  Everybody in the 70's and 80's owned a turntable, and any receiver made around that time always had a Phono input.

Edit:  So, the SA-DX930 was made around 1999-2000, and does have a phono input, although many if not most receivers by then were losing the phono input.

HiFiEngine.com: Technics SA-DX930

Technics SA-DX930

Power output: 100 watts per channel into 6Ω (stereo)

Surround output: 100W (front), 100W (center), 100W (rear)

Frequency response: 10Hz to 40kHz

Total harmonic distortion: 1%

Damping factor: 30

100 wpc at 1% distortion looks awful (Thanks car audio for faking the power numbers) and is probably closer to 50 wpc with a low couple tenths distortion which is pretty good for that era. My son owns what looks exactly like your amp and with an equalizer sounds pretty darn good.

Try to find an old obsolete pre-HDMI Yamaha A/V receiver with a phono input. 6 or 7 separate discrete transformers, one for each channel. Cheap and built like a tank with super clean sound. I've bought something like 7 or 8 of them for myself and my kids and friends off of that bidding sight.

The Technics receiver is probably fine to get started, and the distortion at listening levels will be a fraction of that 1%. 

I would take it up a notch on the turntable to something like the Audio-Technica AT-LP70X.  In the $200 price range Crutchfield has a bunch of decent choices.  Keep in mind that with prices of records these days the investment in vinyl gets significant pretty quickly and it's worth spending a bit more on a turntable that treats it well.  I would absolutely not trust a hand-me-down turntable without replacing the cartridge.  Beware cheap "compatible" stylii that don't track well - you can buy a reasonable Audio Technica cart for about forty bucks.

Once up and running  your 18 y.o. might get into it, and the speakers/amp/etc. will probably get upgraded over time.  Or not.  One of my high school grandsons uses his vinyl a lot and has put together a killer system. The other got a decent setup at the same time and it sits unused.

Wanting to reiterate the importance of a quality cartridge.  If you're not getting a good, accurate signal off the record, it won't sound good no matter how much you spend on other parts of your system.  Also, the cartridge must be set up properly.  Not rocket science, but important to get it right.

Edit:  Rereading the thread title, I second the suggestion of a new Audio Techica table.  Probably the easiest path to good sound inexpensively.

A good cartridge/needle made a swap meet Radio Shack turntable sound fantastic back when I was briefly into sound.

I just grabbed the service manual for the receiver.   Continuous rated power, two channels driven is 80W.  THD at half power is .03%.  At 100W THD is 1% which is typical to juice the power rating a bit.  The power amps are Sanyo ICs, which again is typical for this era mass market receiver.  Sounds like a fine starter reciever.

Not intending to redirect this thread, but I have a somewhat related question. Anyone found new replacement "feet" (rubber and wound spring) for an '80's vintage Technics SL-D turntable? Recently inherited an SL-D2 that is missing a complete " foot". Looking around online, it seems they degrade over time, but I'm only seeing parts off original vintage turntables as replacements.

In reply to secretariata (Forum Supporter) :

Doesn't sound like the sort of part that could be sourced new, as such.  However, there is an entire industry that is in the business of providing vibration isolation for every conceivable bit of equipment, most of it certainly much heavier than a turntable.  
 

edit:  scratch that, lots of options out there.  Search "vibration isolators for turntable."

edit edit:  would require the removal of the other three, which are probably pretty crunchy by now anyway.