Beginner’s Guide to the Perfect Turntable Setup: 4 Key Points

The vinyl record renaissance is officially here and in full swing. Vinyl record sales in the United States have increased year over year for the 17th consecutive year and show no signs of slowing down. Taylor Swift’s Grammy Award-winning album “Midnights” sold 945,000 vinyl copies in 2022, nearly twice as many as the second-best-selling Harry Styles vinyl. If you want to jump on the bandwagon and start enjoying high-fidelity music in old-school analog form, there’s a few things you need to do first. As a vinyl enthusiast, I’ve put together a great beginner’s setup to help you get started down the Hi-Fi rabbit hole.

If you want to jump on the bandwagon and start enjoying high-fidelity music in old-school analog form, there’s a few things you need to do first.

1 Affordable and Upgradeable Turntable

Excellent but entry-level deck

The first thing you need in your beginner vinyl setup is a good turntable, and choosing your first turntable can be a daunting task. We can help cut through some of the noise here, because we’ve also put together a list of our favorite turntables this year. We found the Rega Planar 1 to be an excellent table for beginners. Every penny spent on this table is spent on sound quality, as this is truly a purist’s turntable.

The Planar 1 lacks Bluetooth, wireless connectivity, and USB output. For beginners who want to dive deeper into analog sound, hi-fi bells and whistles will only be distracting. Planar 1 focuses your resources on its primary mission, and does it extremely well.

In this case, I actually consider the lack of a built-in phono stage to be a positive. A built-in phono preamp makes it easier to plug your turntable into a set of speakers without caring too much about what happens to the analog signal on its journey from the tonearm to the speaker driver, but if you’re coming to the analog world, then you’re quickly You’ll know you want to control every step the signal takes before it reaches your ears. The lack of a built-in preamp means the table can grow with you as you move from entry-level dedicated preamps to higher-end preamps on your audiophile pilgrimage.

2 phono preamplifier

Comprehensive sound field accessories

The next most important item you buy for your new setup is a dedicated phono preamplifier. This is the circuit box, or on older high-end physical tubes, responsible for taking the low-level signal coming from the turntable and amplifying it into a line-level signal that the amplifier can interpret, which in turn drives the signal to your speakers .

Your preamp is extremely responsible for the type of “sound” your vinyl setup has. When you hear people describe the sound of vinyl records as “warm” or “rich,” they are describing the soothing sound of a good preamp. While many vinyl purists prefer to stay analog all the way, a true analog preamp using vacuum tubes is much more involved and perhaps best left for your further discovery.

3 Accessories that amplify sound

Get great sound quality with simple setup

Once you’re ready for a more complex (and expensive) setup, you can dive into the world of dedicated amplifiers, equalizers, receivers, and more. For now, you just need a device that can bring it all together without interfering with your analog signal and provide enough power to drive your speakers. We recommend a stereo receiver with a built-in amplifier, and the Sony STR-DH190 fits the bill perfectly.

The Sony STR-DH190 only supports two stereo channels, A and B, but that’s all you need since vinyl records are meant to be played in stereo after all, if not mono depending on the album. The STR-DH190 even features a phono input, allowing you to plug your turntable preamp directly into the receiver without the signal going through unnecessary circuitry in the receiver. Sony has taken this a step further and offers a “Pure Direct” listening mode that drives the signal to the speaker without going through any EQ circuit board in the receiver at all, providing the purest possible transmission of analog signals from the tonearm to the speaker. transmission. speaker.

4 bookshelf accessories

A great first step for stereo speakers

Do even a cursory research on high-fidelity stereo speakers and you’ll start to see that speakers cost as much as a sports car. The world of speakers is vast, from smaller desktop speakers to the gorgeous sound of tower speakers. Bookshelf stereo speakers typically sit at the entry level of true stereo in a vinyl setup, but even these can cost upwards of $1,000 or more per speaker. Stereo speakers are an important part of your setup and the final destination for all your hard work and investment.

You don’t want to build an enviable setup only to play it through crappy speakers. Triangle Hi-Fi’s Borea range of speakers is an excellent first step towards high-quality sound. Like other bookshelf speakers, they’re large enough to take pride of place in a living room or listening room, yet small enough to be easily moved and used in smaller spaces.

FAQ

Q: Should I buy my own cartridges?

Buying your own turntable can be a huge improvement over the one that came in the box, which is one of the advantages of a turntable that allows for this type of upgrade. Personally, I chose Audio Technica’s AT-VM540ML, which offers superior tracking, nuanced audio reproduction, and captures more intricate detail than the standard AT-VM95E cartridge that comes standard with the AT-LP120X. It has a higher frequency response than a standard cartridge, producing a more dynamic and “crisp” sound.

Q: Should I start a vinyl record setup?

If you tend to indulge in your hobbies, or describe yourself as a perfectionist, buyer beware. You can spend a lifetime chasing the perfect sound from your vinyl records, and some setups cost as much as a family home. The ritual of digging through dusty records at the local store, finding that special one you’ve been looking for, and then taking it home to record with a needle is absolutely intoxicating.

It can be a transcendent experience to close your eyes and listen to the entire album centered on the speakers. If you are a music lover, you should definitely give it a try. Just be careful not to fall all the way and spend your entire paycheck in Wonderland.

Q: Which products are best for a mid-range vinyl setup?

As a vinyl record enthusiast who is deeply involved in the Hi-Fi journey, my preamplifier of choice is the Rega Fono MM MK5. A sister to the beginner-friendly Rega Fono Mini A2D MKII and full-size solid-state preamps, this solid-state preamp delivers new levels of rich, dynamic sound. Additionally, I’ve tested many bookshelf speakers over the years, but the Bowers & Wilkins 706 S3 outperformed the others.

These speakers have impressive bass frequency response for their size when placed correctly, although they support splitting the high and low frequency inputs via speaker wire (if you want to connect a subwoofer to the system and just feed each 706 S3 high frequency). Its crystal-clear highs are projected through decoupled carbon dome tweeters in each speaker, and the 6.5-inch midrange cone packs impressive bass punch, making it ideal for Hi-Fi listening as well as modern explosive sounds. Ideal. Movie.