Starting Out with Vinyl
If you are looking to get back into listening to vinyl or are pondering a first foray into the world of records, it can be hard to know where to start.
There is a plethora of turntables on the market with prices ranging from less than £100 to several thousand. The cheap option may seem attractive with turntables promising conveniences such as Bluetooth, USB and even built in speakers.
In our experience, the reality is you won’t find a turntable worth buying for less than about £300. Anything which falls into the lower price range will typically be flimsy, poorly engineered and will do more harm than good to your precious record collection.
At James-Morrow, we have been recommending the Rega brand for many years. If you’ve not heard of them, Rega are a British brand which was established in 1973. With a proud history of designing and building their products here in the UK, Rega products offer outstanding performance at affordable prices.
A logical starting point for most people is the Planar 1 turntable. Priced at just £299, the Planar 1 is a multi award winning record deck, which is designed to be very simple to set up and ready to enjoy in a few minutes. It features a handmade tonearm, a factory fitted Rega Carbon cartridge and delivers incredible performance, well beyond its price point.
There is also an alternative version - the P1 Plus (£385) - which includes an in-built phono pre- amp, which allows it to be connected quickly and easily into any audio system or speaker which has an aux / line in.
Rega offer a range of 6 turntables, which you can see here. Please feel free to get in touch with us directly, if you would like further information on any Rega product, to check availability or to arrange a demonstration.
Of course, every audio system requires speakers. if you don’t have any suitable, existing audio equipment, you are going to need something to connect your turntable to before you can start enjoying your favourite LPs.
For those just starting out, in search of something simple, we often recommend the Ruark MR1 MkII speaker system. These gorgeous desktop speakers are just £349, require no external amplifier and were awarded a 5 star rating by What Hi-Fi, who wrote they were “wonderfully musical”.
Very simple to set up and compact in size, the MR1s make a great choice for a simple, stylish and compact hi-fi system. The MR1s have an optical input for connecting a TV, an aux line in and also Bluetooth for connecting smartphones or tablets.
You can buy the MR1s in a bundle with a Rega Planar 1 Plus here for just £695 and save over £50 on the separate selling price.
James-Morrow offer also a wide range of hi-fi separates, so if you would like some help to find your perfect hi-fi system, please get in touch.
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