Passive Speakers on a Budget

What's the point of having the left and right speaker cables the same length, other than just aesthetics?

 

you need a triangle, 2 corners are the speakers, the third corner is you
Then you have great stereo and a feel of sound stage
Think how to set that up, then we know the speaker cable length

a used turntable might come with attached cables, let’s see first if there is sth good
I only know that my Thorens was better than a Rega or Pro-ject when I gave up Vinyl.
And it was 28 years old ...

why is everybody so hot on vinyl nowadays. It’s so clumsy and imperfect ...

 

An equilateral triangle right? Yes, but if you propose me a vintage tt, would you please consider that maybe some things might have to be replaced?

 

If there's some issue with a vintage turntable, in most cases, it's just in need of some fresh oil/grease, readjustment of the pitch and maybe some contact cleaner spray into the switches.
Unless you go for an automatic, which contain a ton of mechanical parts (like a Dual 1225), if you're not looking for a home DIY project, I would stay away from those and get a vintage fully manual turntable.

 

What do you mean with fully manual? No speed switch of course, but I'd like the needle placer. Maybe I'd go with the new tt even if it has a little bit of issues, I really don't have the experience to make all of those subtle adjustments. Maybe I could buy a vintage tt as an upgrade in the future, but I'd need that solid base which works without me having to make any change, do you get me?

 

With fully manual I mean it doesn’t have something like automatic arm lift and return at the end of the record.
Manual means you need to operate the tonearm lift yourself.
Fully automatic turntables only require you to push a button and it moves the tonearm to the beginning of the record all by itself.
After the record ends, it automatically lifts up the tonearm, puts it back into the tonearm rest and turns off.

 

Not necessarily equilateral, the speakers should be nearer together (especially as you have smaller speakers)
Like 1.5m apart and 2.5m away the listening position

Surely I am talking about a serviced turntable, but not so much can break there
The old ones are pretty solid if the brand is right
Manual is preferred, less things can break

 

i so much agree, Dual 1225 is really a DIY project ))

 

If it were me, I too would go used to get better quality than a $120 speaker. Then when I could afford more, I'd get a Sub.

Voila!

P.S. I didn't read all 8 pages of this thread, so if you already bought speakers, then forget about it!!!

 

Not going into that here. If you don't think it is needed (for best sound) then don't buy cables of the same length.

 

I don't need something which moves the stylus. But a device which made the drop soft would be nice

 

I have a few reels of cable and various spare connectors, so I match the length to the application; makes cable management a lot easier.
The phono cable is the only prefab cable I have.

 

I actually did like that, so your solution is the best imo, thanks

 

Yes, that’s called a tonearm lift; it’s basically on every turntable, with some exceptions like the cheapest Uturn Orbit.
Electronic speed selection used to be/is standard as well, but turntables that require to place the belt on a different pulley to change speeds are becoming more common nowadays (I don’t get why though, probably to cheap things down).

 

That is exactly why, then they add on a bunch of audiophile snake oil reasoning to justify it.

 

I don't mind speed selection, generally I'm all about 33 and a third. The only thing I need is the tonearm lift, it's just a delightful add, I'd always fear to scratch something

 

Pls check out how you find these decks

Thorens TD 126 Mk3 from seller Elohim_Ravenfly
You may not know what that is - but it is THE turntable. At an unbelievable price, make an offer. 400 is very cheap!
Yes, I know, cartridge not there - buy an audio technica later or so.
Something like buying a Ferrari for a Lancia price ...

Thorens TD 146 from seller schlabuckel - I asked him if he would sell to Italy
Looks like a bargain to me

Thorens TD 180 serviced, 133 Euros from babakunghippo

Thorens TD 280 serviced from flavius53, 180 Euro or proposal (don’t worry about the looks of the mat, new ones
are very cheap

Platine Vinyl Pioneer PL 112D from seller souvienstoi59000 159.90 Euro, very clean and nice

Thorens TD 166 Spezial from seller entdeckte_schaetze, 349 Euro, quite good cartridge, will sound good

Pro-ject VT-E R for 249 Euro, have a look, that is interesting

Thorens TD 165 from milmie123, refurbished and VERY beautiful, good cartridge, 449 Euro

Dual CS 522 from mm-Trade2007 for 139 Euro

Perpetuum Ebner PE 34, completely refurbished, 299 Euro

Have a look first (fast) what is your style? A Rega2 would cost 500 Euro, a crazy price compared
what you get here

 

If you ask what i would choose

Err ... Micro Seiki BL91L with SME3012 and Ortofon Rohmann MC Cartridge lol ... okay, bit special

if I were you I would either take the Pioneer from the French seller (cheap) or the Perpetuum Ebner (rare)
Or the TD 165 from Milmie because of looks, that deck will last another 25 years I think

 

Schlabuckel meanwhile answered yes (and he speaks English)
So that TD 146 may be a really good deal.

 

About speaker cables

Do cables make really a difference? Yes, but it’s not 1000 times better when you pay 1000 bucks.
So something like silver plated 2,5 or 4 sqmm do the job nicely. You can use bare wires in your
setup then, no need for banana plugs.

you find on eBay (can check Amazon) a lot of Sommer Cable, Oehlbach or inAkustik cables by meter.
This is not bad stuff and costs from 1,76 Euros per meter. Buy one of these brands.

There are 4sqmm inAkustik cables with silver plating - that’s better. 8 Euro per meter, you will maybe
need 5 meters (measure). Don be too stingy, much too long is better than a bit too short, haha

Higher up you find Kimber 8PR, that’s a quite good cable for the price. But 25 to 30 Euro per meter
are not that friendly any more, don’t buy.

For much later: Belden makes priceworthy cables, really okay. Fantastic silver cables you get from
Cosmic Audio, also fantastic copper speaker cables. I sold my very High End Kimber KS 3033 for that,
which means a lot. Unfortunately they don’t do auctions any more ... there were bargains.

The turntables all have cables out, so no need for an RCA cable. But how will you connect your
Computer or DAC for streaming?

Don’t have? Schiit makes nice DACs for pretty low prices, look at the website.

 

I really like 70s turntables aestethics, but as long as a turntable look is wholesome I'm ok with it. I'll check those and the cables, I'll tell you tomorrow morning. Tomorrow I'm also gonna buy the Kenwood Amp.

 

I watched your suggestions, that TD 165 from Milmie at first glance looked a bit bizarre to my eye. But at second glance, and after reading about the custom work that was done, man it's so convincing. Not my aestethic, but I'd be prideful to own such a unique looking thing. It looks a bit small tho, may that be a bad thing? Isn't the platter size and isolation a thing? That Micro Seiki is crazy expensive, surely it looks like a jewel, but it is a out of my price range of about a 0

 

You should consider used direct drive DJ turntables like Pioneer PLX-1000, Reloop RP-6000/7000 or Stanton ST150.
Those are very durable, so if they’re used in either a HiFi setup or bedroom DJ, they probably are as good as new.

 

Actually, I think the 1,76€ per meter is gonna be my option right now. 40€ for a cable seems a bit exaggerated already to me. To speak the truth, I don't think I'm going to stream from my computer ever. Maybe I'll record the tracks on FLAC files to archive them one day, but today is not that day

 

I'm gonna pretty honest, I don't like those designs at all (of course it's not your fault, I can't pretend anyone to know exactly what I'd like), as I said, I'd prefer something which looks midly and performs as midly well than something that performs very good and looks very ugly, if I'm gonna make investments, they better be atleast a bit pleasing to my humble eye