Post Your "Budgetphile" Vinyl Setups!

Thanks!!!
I have no problem recommending the 8000 series, a great bang-for-the-buck amp!!! Very fluid and musical, a great all day amp! They got a lot of trickle down tech from the Reference series.
Only reason it is no longer in my main system is that the notoriously underrated 70wpc (I have read that it pushes closer to 90wpc) did not have the overhead I desired on dynamic pressings.
That was when coupled to some towers with 2-1o" per cabinet. A sub might have fixed that, but I'm not a sub guy.
It's been awhile since my vintage Marantz was in service, but aesthetics aside, I do not miss it with this amp.
Rock on,
Slick

 

All I have to say is that these setups look way better than some of the crazy expensive setups that are out there. Kudos to all.

 

This has been amongst the most enjoyable topics I've come across on the SHMF . Just saying..

This is my mancave set up. Made up from stuff I've not ever had the heart to sell on.
Ariston Audio RD40.Bought 32 years ago. £ 237.
That was quite an investment back in the day for a teenager.

Sony Ta FE370 ,maybe 12-15 years old. £110.
Sony CDP-XE370 maybe 10-15 years £115.

Mission 733. Bought 25 years ago. £300.
Bill Hutchinson speaker cable. Free.
Atlas interconnects £45. Newish.

Critics could say it lacks detail and clarity, and they'd be right, but for pleasant late night easy listening , it's just the job.


I recently had the TT refurbed at the shop where I bought it from , it came back with the suspension resprung , freshly oiled bearing and fitted with an Ortofon 2m red, very happy with that.

 

My office system:
AR 77-XB with GE VR 1000-7 cartridge
Marantz 220B receiver
AR 6 speakers

 

I've tried to focus on "bang-for-buck" with my setup. Vinyl focussed, but the odd digital file delivered via Plex.

• AT-LP5 - $450
• Ortofon 2M Blue - $230
• Rega Brio R - $920 (getting out the "budget" realm, I know, but I am using the integrated phono stage)
• Blue Jeans interconnects - $35
• Elac B6 -$220
• Speaker stands - $75
• Chromecast Audio - $35

Under $2k, and I think I have a sound that I'm pretty happy with.

 

Hey, where did you get those speaker stands from? I'm just about to get some Elac B6's and want stands exactly like those ones!

 

• Denon DP-51f turntable w/ AT440MLa (that is, until recently; this turntable has developed a problem that is apparently unfeasible to repair, so now I'm rocking my backup: a Technics SL-1400, also w/ AT440MLa) - I think I paid about $300 for the DP-51f (and at most $200 for the SL-1400)
• Marantz 2235B receiver - $325
• These old 70s custom speakers that I inherited from an ex-boyfriend of my mom's decades ago, which have always paired nicely with the various 70s-era receivers I've used - free

 

May I sak how the dentons behave relatively close to the wall? Because i am interested in them, but couldn't put them further than 30 cm from the wall in a smaller room(4m x 4m). reason i ask you, is that in the thread about these speakers you said something about their need of space.

 

To my utter surprise, they behave really well. Imaging and bass performance was not substantially degraded.

Incidentally, the amp and speakers in that space have since been replaced with a Rega Brio-R and a pair of Pioneer SP-BS22-LR's, and that pairing is also quite excellent, especially given the limitations of the placement. The speakers are maybe 8" or so inches from the wall.

 

Thanks for the answer. Do you mean you have swapped brio and pioneers in this budget-system space in the photo? i will look into these pioneer speakers also.

 

recording setup.

yamaha vsx-??? 65x65 W receiver, technics 1200 TT, BIC Venturi V-630's ?? i think.
sounds nice and rich, no glare, or annoying treble shrillness. i record my LP's to my computer with this setup, and it sounds good !

 

Hey there - I got them from Amazon. They seem to hold the speakers fairly decent - if I was in a higher traffic area with small kids, I'd be careful...but I guess you'd have to be with any speaker stands, LOL!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MCS2ZLO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Great thanks! No kids, so all good. And they are a decent, secure fit for the B6's?

 

I've had them for six months, no issues, but if I could do it again, I think I'd like some with a slightly larger base at both the floor and speaker platform. For the money and my needs, they work. And I'm loving my B6s, by the way. I'm listening to Return to Forever's Romantic Warrior with my back to the speakers as I type, and I swear they sound like they are three times their size.

 

I also have the B6s. I don't have these specific stands, but I purchased ones at a similar price point. I will echo what you said. If I could go back, I'd also spend a bit more on ones that had either a larger base or that I could weight down. I have two cats that like to pay at night. I woke up one morning and my left speaker was on the floor - I reasoned that one of the kitties jumped on the speaker and it fell. It probably scared them and they haven't down it since.

 

How do you like your AT-LP5 so far, especially with the Ortofon 2M Blue?
I have that table and Elac B6 speakers and SR4320 Marantz.

 

Really nice. There's a demonstrable difference between the Blue and the stock cartridge.

Whether it's the 'best" upgrade choice I don't know - but it is definitely much, much better. By that I mean I'm not experienced enough to know whether I would have liked the sound signature of a different cartridge - maybe the Nagaoka line for example - but I do know that there is much better clarity, a deeper, fuller bass, and tonnes more detail.

Whether it needed to break in or whether my fiddling with the alignment to get it right was the crucial thing I don't know, but one of those things needed to occur before that sound improvement was apparent.

If I'd had my time over I might have bought a couple of different cartridges lower in the line - probably an Ortofon Red and a Nagaoka 110, before then upgrading up the line in the preferred family.

But who knows, the Blue might end up being the best one for me anyway.

So a couple of things I learned:

Buy from an experienced dealer who will align it for you if you are not that confident.

Turntable being level is even more crucial the better the cartridge.

With a cartridge that extracts more detail you might learn that your records aren't as clean as you thought they were.

 

Here is my early 1980's Mitsubishi X-11 System with a pair of Behringer Truth B2030P speakers. The cartridge is a Grado Black. It's connected to an ancient Dell Optiplex 740 computer for listening to music from on-line or making an occasional needle-drop (using Windows XP and Soundforge 4.5, of all things.) It faces the recliner on the opposite side of the room. It's not only my budget setup - it's also my main rig!

 

Been watching this thread for a while, finally moved and got my budgetphile set up rockin'. Couldn't be happier!

Yamaha rx-v581
ELAC Debut B5s and C5 in front
ELAC Debut B4s in back
ELAC S10
Music Hall MMF 2.3
Ortofon 2m Red
Art DJ pre ii
Mono/Stereo switch courtesy of user xmas111
Cork/Rubber combo mat
KabelDirect interconnects
PS3 for Blu Ray
Apple TV v3

Coming Soon
Oppo 981 for DVD-A & SACD
Ortofon 2m Blue
Phono Pre Upgrade, not sure what.
Apple TV 4k
Re-purposed Yamaha satellite's from ceiling for Atmos.

 

This may be a good thread to ask for advice on Phono Pre-amp.

My set is:

Pro-ject Debut Carbon with Nagaoka MP-110,

Denon AVR-3200 integrated,

B&W CDM-1 speakers.

Do you guys think I should add a phono preamp? To add for example Musical Fidelity V90 LPS would make any difference?

 

So by chance I found a Sondex PCU1 & PA30 passive and power amp. I replaced the capacitors in the power amp and the pot and internal cable in the passive. Total cost £400.
The search stops here for me.

 

Marantz 2220B replaced with Marantz PM5005

 

My office setup, made from hand me downs when I upgraded my main system.
Rega P3-2000 with a Grado Platinum
Project MM/MC Phono Box
Pioneer DV-610AV
Jolida JD302B
Pioneer SP-BS22-LR
Polk Audio PSW10

For the most part this was my old system but I gave away my speakers to my brother. They would have been to big for my office anyway. I bought the Jolida used, so I'm claiming this is a budget system. And the speakers were $100 each for mains and sub.

 

My modest setup is pretty budget, got most of it of the local flea-bay equivalent, almost all of it Technics (though sadly not yet an SL-1210 mk5 which is coming in the new year hopefully...):



Modern (BPC not!) gear (stacked):
----------------------------
- Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB TT with Ortofon 2M Red
- Technics Su-vx920 Top Amp (supports both MM and MC)
- Technics sh-ge70 Equalizer
- Technics St-gt350 Tuner
- Technics (Panasonic) DVD-A350 DVD
- Technics SL-PD888 CD
- Technics (Panasonic) NV-HD620EA Nicam Stereo VHS (for playing my old music vids)
- Technics RS-TR355 Cassette
- Technics SA-AX720 Bottom Amp (for digital stuff over the Apple wifi thingy)



- Technics SB-A38 260w a front tower speakers (8ohm 89db 130w, 3 way 4 drvr 35hz to 35khz)
- Technics SB-A28 240w b front tower speakers (8ohm 89db 120w, 3 way 3 drvr 35hz to 35khz)


Legacy (Silver) gear (on the bubble wrapped sideboard):
-------------------------------------------------------
- Technics SA-T460 receiver (alas my SA-T670 is broke )
- Toshiba Aurex SR-Q550 (Silver TT) with the cart from the Audio Technica for now
- Akai AP-005 (Faux wooden trim TT) with original cart
- and in-between a small RCA switcher box allowing me to switch between 3 turntables



- Technics sb-1410 brown speakers on stands in the fore ground


Oh and an old full size valve radio (forget the brand but love the Art Deco look) that works fine but I'm terrified will burn the house down!)

 

"Budget" certainly is a relative term, but I've been reading Stereophile via free subscription over the last year, and based on the equipment typically covered there, I've got a bare-bones, cheap-a$$ system for sure!

Denon AVR-3801
Denon DVD-3910
Thorens Thorens TD 280 MK IV
ELAC B6 speakers





Craig.