Advice on turtable to suit AKSA amps

bluesky · « **on:** 6 Jan 2003, 08:06 am »

Fellow Aksaphiles,

I am seeking advice on a turntable that might work synergistically with the AKSA amp, I have a 55w nirvana and TLP also nirvana which are nearly complete. I just need to hook up the power supplies and test. I am also in the process of building a suitable preamp to run a turntable, a fairly cheap kit from Jaycar which is reputed to work well.

I am looking to get a reasonable and cheap turntable so I can get used records to build my music collection. I rely on a disability pension and so I have very limited finances.

Any advice on what to look for would be greatly appreciated as I have not had any exerience with turntables before. By the way I live in Brisbane, Australia if that's any help. Thanks in advance Bluesky

Rocket · « **Reply #1 on:** 6 Jan 2003, 08:35 am »

hello bluesky,

i would have thought that any good quality turntable would be fine to use with the aksa preamp/amp.

what you should consider though is that you will need a reasonable quality phono stage, i have a nad phono which is reasonable and cost about $150au. you should consider the following budget turntables:

rega (preferably rega 3 although the rega 2 is okay)
thorens
acoustic research (pretty rare)
dual

there are a couple of used turntables on ebay at the moment the ariston q deck looks interesting and in its day was a good budget performer.

anyway i hope this helps

regards

rod

bluesky · « **Reply #2 on:** 6 Jan 2003, 10:44 am »

rod, thanks for that info. When looking at possible turntables, how do I kick the tyres, so to speak?

Any ideas on what to check when looking over a used turntable?

Has anyone any ideas on intergrating a phono stage with the TLP? At the moment I plan on using the phono preamp with the 55W power amp for the turntable and the TLP and 55w power amp with the CD player. This will require separate enclosures for each, which I don't mind but will be a bit fiddly changing around all the time.

Is anyone out there using an AKSA TLP to drive a turntable? Again, any advice would be appreciated. Of course there is always the GK-1 with the phono stage but it is beyond my resources just at the moment, but definitely on my wish list.

AKSA · « **Reply #3 on:** 6 Jan 2003, 11:32 am »

Hi Ian,

Any quality turntable will work synergistically with an AKSA/TLP. There are a few around, but I'd suggest you go to one of the many vinyl forums on the net and ask others who use one all the time and know the present market - particularly in Australia. I've been out of touch with turntables for twenty years, so I'm not much help, but the Lin Rega gets a good rap from most users.......

Four things wear on turntables. The spindle bearing, the rubber bands and pulleys which drive it, the arm gimbal, and, of utmost importance, the cartridge/stylus assembly. To be honest, look around until you find something suitable, then buy it. Fix what needs to be fixed, as it won't generally be too expensive. Nowhere in hifi does the law of maginality apply more; you can spend thousands of dollars on a turntable for marginal improvement over something which is inexpensive. Turntables and cartridges - not to mention head amps - are cult items, and people get very involved with them. This is cool, but passion costs.......

Cheers,

Hugh

Malcolm Fear · « **Reply #4 on:** 6 Jan 2003, 09:12 pm »

Hi Bluesky.

I built a TLP and added an input selector switch. I then used the phono stage from my Audiolab for vinyl. The output of the Audiolab became an auxilliary input on the TLP.
Worked fine.

mamsterla · « **Reply #5 on:** 7 Jan 2003, 06:19 pm »

You are lucky to be looking for a turntable these days as there is something of a rennaissance going on. You can buy a lot of table for a little money especially if you shop used. You need to set a budget and work within it while remembering to factor in a cartridge, arm and turntable into the total.

MMF and Pro-ject offer great packaged new tables. Spending more gets you somthing like a VPI Scout, Nottingham, Rega or any other number of tables.

Like others said, hang out in the AudioAsylum Vinyl group a little while. Do searches for starter turntables or budget turntables and glean the vast knowledge of that forum.

I faced the same issues and chose to restore a vintage Thorens TT and bring it up to close to modern standards. It does sound good.

-MA

bluesky · « **Reply #6 on:** 7 Jan 2003, 11:02 pm »

Thanks everyone for your advice, I will do just that.

I shall check out the vinyl forums for information and look at the Rega and Thorens turntables in particular.

I often frequent second hand bookshops which nearly always also have a section with second hand records which was what got me thinking after reading so many reports on the net on how good vinyl can sound.

I look forward to this next audio adventure.

PSP · « **Reply #7 on:** 8 Jan 2003, 02:53 pm »

Bluesky,
I have a Thorens TD-160 that I bought in the 70's. Now, after all these years, it has become "cool" again. The reason I'm posting is to say that the Thorens is very solidly built, and laid out in a way that makes it relatively easy to work on.

That said, I have never peered into the guts of any other turntable (with the thought in mind to work on it), so others may be as easy to work on as the Thorens. A really nice resource is:

http://www.theanalogdept.com/

Peter

elektratig · « **Reply #8 on:** 9 Jan 2003, 12:33 am »

I'd agree with others that there is not a particular turntable that's synergistic with the AKSA. I've used a Rega 3 for years and think it's great. Happy listening!

Malcolm Fear · « **Reply #9 on:** 9 Jan 2003, 01:15 am »

Have a look at Cash Converters.
Because a lot of good turntables are old, mounted in teak plinths, they go for a song.
I recently got a Dual 1214 (for 78's), for $9.00 and a Thorens TD160 for $24.00.
I usually use a Linn Sondek with Koetsu cartridge. They all sound great with the AKSA.

tg3 · « **Reply #10 on:** 9 Jan 2003, 03:45 am »

Quote from: PSP

I have a Thorens TD-160 that I bought in the 70's. Now, after all these years, it has become "cool" again. The reason I'm posting is to say that the Thorens is very solidly built, and laid out in a way that makes it relatively easy to work on.

Here's another vote for Thorens turntables. I've had my TD-145 since about 1977, and it still works great. The TD-145 is pretty rare, but there's one up on ebay now.

Oz_Audio · « **Reply #11 on:** 9 Jan 2003, 11:19 am »

Ok Ok Ok, old turtables.

When I was young, single and no kids, I bought a very expesive Hi Hi sytem. Expensive for me anyway.

Heybrook HB3 speakers, (gone long ago and I traded DCM time windows for them - silly me!) Mysical Fidelity "Synthesis" amp (still have) and a Linn LP12, Valhala, Ittok LVII, Karma.

I still have the Linn, but the Karma is u/s, Linn want 500 UK pounds to rebuild it. Absolutely stupid money.

I have also kept 400 odd vinyl records. I will build Hughs pre-pre amp and buy a Denon 160 hi output moving coil to retrieve the music from the grooves.

Turntables have and always will sound better than CD, but only the really good ones. CD took the #1 spot because cheap players sounded better than the "average" turntable, and I must admit, the recording engineers had dropped the ball in the 70's early 80"s. Most recodings from the 50's and 60's sound better than the 70's and 80's.

We can thank CD for lifting the bar on recordings, at least to the late 90's when car audio took over and ALL modern (pop) recordings are now mixed to work well in the automobile environment, but are tinkle, tinkle, boom, boom on quality home systems. Even U2's latest sound like crap!

Enter the revival of Vinyl. Those recordings that sound good have been released on vinyl for those people who pay huge amounts of money for the status of a turntable (just watch Toom Rader).

We get the benefit, because those who generally buy the mega expensive turntables buy them not for the sound they produce, but for the status that follows from them.

We get good modern recordings on vinyl and we can buy cheap second hand one from all over the place.

I agree with Malcolm, get any turntable you can and start playing, listening, modifying and generally stuffing around with the medium. You will be richly rewarded!!

Mark

aliseo · « **Reply #12 on:** 10 Jan 2003, 06:45 am »

HI,
I had the same problem some months ago and I bought a Tube Pre-Phono preamp (for MM cartridge) in kit (from Digitex in Italy, the SLT4 - PH).
When I connected it to the TLP I had the suprise to see that to listen to my vinyls I had to turn the volume pot a lot more than with CD.
This because the pre-phono I bought was realized to be used with high impedence tube line amplifier (50 K or more). I contacted the designer and he sent me a buffer circuit to add.
So the results of sonic is not so good and now I hope that using GK1 I'll be able to use my pre-phono without the buffer.
Or better maybe that Hugh will send us his solution for phono stage.
(I use a Rega 3 with Super Elys cartrdige and I am really satisfied... the sound is better than CD, but only with good recordings...)
Renzo