Back to basics


With children educated, married, etc. ... I want to return to vinyl. Having thousands of excellent graded lp's not played in years, I'm looking to purchase a good 'starter' turntable, that is something not from Best Buy so to speak.

Where do I start? As a retiree the budget is somewhat limited. What can I expect with a purchase? With/without cartridge, base, arm etc...

Thanks. Richard
earthquake
Richard, You haven't really given us a budget to hit. Without that and your current system, it's hard to work.

That said, I've always thought the VPI HW-19 III an underrated table. Teamed up with a nice Jelco-based arm and "better" Audio Technica cartridge (system dependent), it can be a very good performer.
The budget is the main consideration. The suggested Rega or Project turntables come completely set up with cartridge for 3 to 5 Hundred dollars and are excellent
Alan
Islandmandan is right. Don´t waste your time & money on suspended decks (maybe except Oracle but it´s quite difficult to finetune). I wasted nearly thirty years with floating decks (lol).
Worth trying is a vintage Japanese direct drive but not the cheapest models Denon, JVC, Luxman, Technics, SONY etc (off eBay). Place the table on spikes and a heavy platform like stone.
For cartridge very compliant SHURE, Stanton, Audio-Technica but not the cheapest models. Try to find NOS AT-160 ML cartridge. The SME III is the perfect match to high compliant cartridges.

Best of Luck !
Depends on budget -but probably can't go wrong with a VPI Traveler and Ortofon 2Mred cartridge.
1. VPI HW19 series. Provides value wayyyyyy beyond its price tag. Excellent turntables. Will smoke out just about anything in its used price range.

2.Technics 1200 if you are willing to do a little mod work.