Best working turntable under or at 250 dollars?

Hello!

I am beginning to not like my Audio Technica AT LP60 X. Any recommendations? I can go with belt drive and motor drive, and I’d like it to be new, not a used model. Thank you so much guys!

 

Try the least expensive Fluance TT. Im thinking it’s about 250

 

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Bump your budget to $300. Honestly $50 makes a difference. Your choices expand tremendously. At $250, the choices are very limited.

 

Your AT is sold for $200. I would not expect any serious improvement by adding only $50. Next step up will be in $500-700 range for turntable alone. Add cost of new cartridge and phono preamplifier (do you use one embedded in LP60 now?) to that.

 

My nephew has the Fluance RT81 and is very pleased with it.

But I do agree with @AP1, I can't see that it will be a huge improvement over the AT.

 

I like my AT LP-120.

 

Actually, I bought it off eBay for 100 bucks new.

 

Belt Drive: Realistic LAB 300 or Sanyo with wood base
Direct Drive: Technics SL-Q2, SL-1500, or SL-1600
Idler drive: ELAC/Miracord 50h and changer if you want

 

Changer? I’d love one!

 

Is the Audio Technica LPW30TK a good turntable?

 

The U-Turn Orbit gets my vote:
Turntables

 

Don't upgrade your turntable and as mentioned above the next step is around $600 even then I would not go with a belt drive turntable (I own an entry-level belt drive and have never been happy) right now on Crutchfield thare is a pretty big sale on Klipsch Reference R-15PM
In my opinion it would make a bigger difference compared to the Bose speaker you have then any turntable could

" Klipsch Reference R-15PM Powered bookshelf speakers with Bluetooth® and built-in phono preamp at Crutchfield

 

Honestly, I'd use the $250 for a used turntable. Something like an 80s Japanese brand direct drive turntable from Pioneer, Sony, JVC, Micro Seiki, Technics, or Kenwood.

 

Hard to find anything IN GOOD SHAPE for that money. Again you will need at least $500 for a well cared of vintage table.

 

I am actually selling my Red Orbit TT. It has the Ortofon 2M Blue cart. Cue lever, acrylic platter, new extra belt, PM me if you se interested. I just want it to go to good home. Purchased it in March 2018. It will be slipping out of its 3 year warranty soon. Has sat in a box for over a year when I upgraded this TT.

That's funny, when I got back into records about 6 years ago my wife bought me the AT LP60 because I kept complaining how much I missed listening to records. The next step up for me was the Orbit.

 

I apologize, I’m not ready to buy one, I just want recommendations. This turntable looks nice though!

 

What about the U Turn basic? A little more money left over for a record or two, and a cheaper stylus in case I need to get another one.

 

Users seem to like it. Ty of cnet wasn't quite so enamored in his survey.

https://www.cnet.com/news/best-record-player/breakdowns

Do you need an integral phono amp?

 

Cnet is weird. They had this software website and a lot of em were viruses.

 

I agree with the others who have recommended you save into the $500-$700 price range. The next big step up, fidelity-wise, would be something like the Rega Planar 1 (or 2).

 

It's a little more than $250, but a person in the price range should have the LP120X on the list. It wouldn't be my choice, but I get it's appeal.

This has appeal, IMO. And AA has an easy return policy. This one has a phono amp and speed box electronic speed control.

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I'd druther go $108 over budget (no integrated phono amp, however).

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I don't see why this one is worth so much less than some of the tables in that cnet survey. The tonearm seems about the same. Speed is easier to adjust than some. Leaves a little money for a better cartridge. I don't imagine the integrated phono amp is very good, but how many of the $300 ones are?

https://www.amazon.com/Crosley-2-Sp...=1614580941&sprefix=Crosley+c8,aps,200&sr=8-1

 

I can see why people started buying these cheap new turntables when vinyl made it's resurgence about 10-12 years ago. Especially those who were not familiar with the format and did not grew up with it back in the days. Others, who did, should have known better from the start. They must have been able to spot the relevant differences between a decent built table and a piece of plastic / mdf.....Now in 2021 everybody can get all he needs to know on the internet.

I f you wanna buy a table that sounds well and last more than a decade without too many flaws it does take a little more money. If you are not willing to spend at least 400 Euro for a nice maintained table from the late seventies, early eighties, forget it. A good new modern table is gonna cost a lot more.
.............If that is too much for you, go Spotify or maybe CD...........vinyl is a demanding format, it will only sound as it's supposed to sound when you put effort in it.........

 

That little cheap LP60 isn’t really bad. Pretty good specs but it looks so cheaply done. Too much plastic. But it sounds pretty good.

I think the Fluance looks very nice and the specs are very good