r/vinylsetups

Hi, this is all new to me and here is how my budget audiophile journey began:

I was pretty much born with a pair of headphones and thought I had heard all that my music had to offer until the first time I heard vinyl.

I started out with the console player peeking out in the back left of the photo.

I found it at a thrift store a few months ago.

Basically for free, labelled untested.

It has a bsr c129r turntable that runs on a mechanical system that sits underneath the tray and a rubber wheel makes contact to drive the record.

When I got it home, it functioned but was far from perfect.

So I gave it a bit of elbow grease (cleaning, lubing, etc) and replaced the tonearm wires (because I broke them taking it apart.)

It was still pretty scratchy when the knobs were being used and the speakers weren't balanced.

I cleaned and crimped the speaker connections since they were relatively easy to access but I chose to just "work in" the knobs to try to grind away whatever was breaking contact.

It worked pretty well and I was happy with how everything was functioning/sounding.

I played all sorts of records on it. New, used, classic orchestra to Wu-Tang.

Then I decided to play around with the stylus since I wasn't sure the age/condition of the one it came with.

It was a Philips ST17D. I ended up breaking the headshell plastic which led to further investigation and I noticed the ceramic loop was all messed up too so I ordered a new headshell, an Arista 1669D.

The replacement st17d stylus was pretty low quality and didn't have the same fit as the stock one in the headshell and no matter what I did it sounded worse than the original unknown hour/condition one.

I tried swapping the needle and little rubber bit over to the original plastic piece, still couldn't get it to sound right.

Somehow during all of this I ended up with two new tonar tips (different plastic mount altogether). I was looking at them (they don't connect to the plastic via rubber but with metal crimps) and figured why not take one of those off and get it onto my original st17d plastic.

So, that's what I did and after a bit if trial and error things were sounding pretty awesome.

Feeling confident in my set up but still weary about the tracking weight (I was able to get it down to 4.5 grams by fiddling with the spring at the back of the tonearm) I went and bought a Kanye album.

I couldn't get half the tracks to play. But I was playing other rock/rap/hip hop/pop/heavy bass tracks without issue.

Apparently modern bass tracks are inherently incompatible with my console player's system/design. It's alleged that the tonearm/needle, if bumped/jumped even the slightest, simply causes the tone arm to shoot straight up.

Which it does in practice with hands but on heavy bass tracks it just jumps/gets bouncy and mimics skipping/skating.

I had already cut the tonearm spring down to reduce the tracking weight so even with it backed off to the max I was still only tracking at 5.5 grams. (Apparently these units are like 5-7 iirc)

So I rigged a metal cribbage peg on top of the headshell and everything weighed in at 8 grams.

I played a few tracks at that weight/with that set up.

Something about things that weren't supposed to have crossed paths, y'know?

And, the console holds up pretty good if there's no autotune.

I even grabbed a pair of Quest speakers from the thrift store to pair with the console.

Now it's 4 speakers with the Quests perpendicular and about 4ft higher than the console speakers.

It really opens the stage and compliments the high end.

But I wanted a dedicated set up that wouldn't be gauging my growing collection.

I ended up piecing together a traditional 2.1 set up with a thorens td160 mkii (VMs 20e), Kenwood 3090 (a bit underpowered but good for my space) and celestion Ditton 33s.

When I finally got it all going I thought "holy crap, this is amazing."

I used this system steady for a few weeks, across the same range as the console player.

Then I decided to give the console player another listen. I thought "holy crap, this is amazing." Especially with the quests.

I compared tracks system to system and even from my laptop through the Kenwood via DAC and via laptop to aux.

Then I listened to a record with headphones.

I came to the conclusion that headphones are best, any good tuned system is 2nd, audio through DAC is 3rd and straight aux/streaming is last. In terms of straight sound quality/detail. I have no experience in streaming FLAC or anything.

But a 2.1 system wins the overall best experience. To me, so far.

What I found interesting was that I didn't detect any audio loss when a record was played on the heavy bsr then on the lighter thorens.

And the bass from the celestions was just mind blowing to me initially.

They are my first pair of actual speakers.

And I don't mean the big boomies but even the low level listening bass.

Then my brother and I started piecing together a system for him.

We ended up with a pioneer pl500, a JVC r-x300 and mission 731 speakers.

I'm waiting for a needle for the pl500 and the JVC hasn't shown up yet but I picked up the mission 731s the other day.

I rigged them up to channel B on the 3090 and got to comparing them to my celestions.

Vinyl and through DAC.

When I first heard the 731s I thought "holy crap, this is amazing."

The 731s, the old British 6x9ish speakers in the console player and the celestions all sound different, yes, but at the same time, all amazing.

This has me wondering if my ears are just not made for this? Or maybe the best system is the one we don't always listen to? Or they're all good and like anything else we could go forever chasing perfection?

I'm looking forward to side by siding the pioneer-jvc-mission system with the thorens-kenwood-celestions and doing some mix and matching.

And I have a few things I'm considering doing to my two existing systems:

1. upgrading the speakers in the cabinet, doing some dyno mat/polyfill and potentially putting a ported bottom on the cabinet (right now it's just an open bottom)

2. checking more into the capacitors and stuff on the celestions to see if I'm leaving any sound "on the table"

3. replacing/upgrading the VMs 20e. Do I stay original or try out a modern replacement? I've heard it said changing the stylus alone is 80% of a cartridge swap. I've also heard that getting into the super fine needles kinda creates more problems than they're worth.

Other than that, it's a pretty sweet hobby and it got me more interested in music but I can't find a reason to get more equipment over more records.

TL;Dr: guy "discovers" vinyl, gets old shitty record player, abuses precious vinyl, upgrades to avoid PAMV (People Against the Mistreatment of Vinyl) lawsuits, becomes content through content.

PS: I do have beef with modern artists skimping out on tracks.

PPS: like most Internet posts this is a pointless product of boredom but I do hope someone gets something out of this. My takeaways are: records aren't as delicate as they're made out to be and almost anything can be made to sound good, if not, good enough.

First picture, April 2023.

Second picture, July 2026.

I bought my first vinyl record in 2002 and the second one in 2005 with no real intentions of ever playing them, they were from my favorite band and more for collecting.
But then, about 20 years later, I started buying more and now I've got 116 in my collection with at least four more incoming in July and August.

I'm very pleased with my setup and they way it has grown from the two old apple picking boxes flipped on their side. I don't think they would have held 100+ records very well... 😄

Far from optimal, but functional.

Have to share the living room with my girl, so this what I came up with.

If I was living alone I would have a proper room with proper acoustic configuration.

I’m running the Audio Technica LP60X turntable with upgraded stylus through the Fosi Audio X5 phono preamp, to the KEF Koda W’s and KEF Kube 10 inch sub.

It sounds amazing at decent DBs.

Next upgrade is for sure a new turntable, looking at the Pro-ject EVO 2.

What do you think?

Which type of tonearm do you prefer? And why?

I’m still undecided so I got both…

Been collecting for years and still can’t tell if a record weight does anything or if I just like how it looks sitting heavy on the platter 😅. I finally grabbed the pro-ject classic puck and i really like the aesthetics.

If you use one, what do you run and does it actually help with anything (warps, speed, noise)? And is there anything that you miss or learnings from products you had in the past?

A friend gifted these to me today. Klipsch Heresy II, tag on the back says 1985. I need to clean them up a little more, but they work just fine. I had heard they can be a little light on the bottom end, but so far I have no complaints. They sound great! Now I just have to find some place to put the Polk Monitor 10s I was using. Talk about first world problems...

what the titles says, that's my idea of decorating my living room, due to limited space, anyone seen or done this?
Looking for inspiration...
Thanks!

Technics SL-120: SME 3009 II tonearm + Nagaoka MP-110

Technics SL-DL1+ Technics PL23 cartridge.

Project Phono Box DS2 (SL-120)

Project Phono Box MM (SL-DL1)

NAD 310 + Mission 701 speakers.

I didn't intend to keep the SL-DL1 linear; my intention was to to clean it up and sell it on. Turned out I didn't want to let it go and it found a home next to my SL-120. I intend to upgrade the cartridge/stylus and phono stage for this turntable, however there is no rush at present.

Any advice on improvements is always welcome.

Hello! I wasn’t quite sure where to post this at, so I hope this is alright! I picked up this 50th anniversary Preservation Hall record player (excuse the dust) from a Goodwill for like $20 a few years ago. I haven’t been able to find another one online. I’m wondering if it’s worth anything or just a cool find. Thanks!

On the platter? Cornelius - Ripple Waves.

Been collecting for almost 20 years

Siamese Dream (greatest album of all time) and dog not included, I bought the setup for $100 with some records thrown in. The originals owners grandchildren wanted me to think of their Grandpa Pete while she plays. Thanks Grandpa Pete!