Secrets Of Vinyl Playback They'll Never Tell You. 

I actually started with the 50$ table and cheap records and have been hooked ever since. Of course my settup now is almost a down payment on a house but the humble beginning was enough to get me hooked.

The biggest difference between what people hear, imo, is how well their hearing has been protected over the years against loud noises? Losing those upper frequencies, i believe, are first.

I didn’t have much luck with Pro-ject either and I owned 4 of them. All suffered from the same problems noisy and poorly isolated motors, poor tracking tonearms and weird electrical inferences with the output signal. I kept getting offered deals on turntables farther up the line so I kept upgrading and hoping that would eliminate the problems of the old turntables. Eventually I just gave up and bought a technics 1200gr and never looked back.

After years of pleasure my first "big boy" table, a Technics SL-5 with a cheap $30 cartridge (automatic, linear-tracking) bit the dust and had to replace it last month. I ended up getting a Rega P2 and had the cartridge upgraded to an Audio Technica VM540ML. I also added a Spin Clean record cleaner. I think I appreciate my modest collection (about 110 or so records) a little more now that I have to pick up the arm and position it before lowering it to the album and repeating the process at the end. They also sound better.

I love my Pro-ject E. It’s head and shoulders better than what all my non-audiophile friends have. My one audiophile friend hates on it. I don’t lose any sleep over that. The clamp vs weight discussion was very helpful. I’ve been wondering. Since I have an acrylic platter I don’t need more weight. Thanks.

I have a similar Hanpin-based turntable, the AT-LP140xp, and it also came with loose bearings. Because I had gotten the thing during lockdown and I had already sent one back to Zzounds already for a really loud hum, I decided to attempt to fix mine myself. Fortunately I had a jeweler's screwdriver set I had gotten from Micro Center, so I picked the two largest ones to loosen the outer ring. It was nowhere near a professional job, but it definitely tightened (no pun intended) up the sound. It ended up being only slightly less musical than my Music Hall mmf-2.2. It ended up being my primary vinyl ripping deck for almost a year.

I'm going to be in the opposite camp of the two by saying, I'm glad this guy is enjoying his turntable, irregardless of price. Analog takes work like anything in life that is worth having, but the rewards are so sweet. We don't listen to measurements, we listen to music and that doesn't mean that measurements can't help you solve problems but they can't replace your ears because we all hear differently and have our preferences that no measurements can account for. You don't need to spend alot in audio to get good performance, especially with the used market, but you have to be delligent. I agree with what you said about vinyl as a whole and especially about using streaming to pick out the records that I'm going to buy. I like to own as much of my music as possible because if a streaming service goes out of business you have nothing. I use the 5mm thick Achromat and I own a VPI Classic 30th Anniversary.

It was heartwarming to find a fellow music enthusiast with history back to the 90s......you had that Sonographe turntable when I had a Thorens TD 180 MK IV......now have a Technics 1200G with a Lehmann Black Cube phono pre (upgrading to the SE Power Supply soon). My stereo is 90s audiophile, and some of my favorite pressings are 90s Audiophile reissues (Classic Records/Speakers Corner). I've learned so much in the journey, and glad I have my process now :) CHEERS

i'm an old dude. got my first turntable around 1972; a BSR. i have a PLX1000. got it when they first came out. didn't have the bearing problem. very satisfying turntable. i use a Denon DL-103. for all the $5k and up turntable guys... in the real world, people can't pay $5k. also, you can buy a lot of records for the extra $4k

As someone who is looking to get into vinyl and somewhat mechanically inclined, RU-vid certified ASE mechanic here, there is a meme out there if you were in doubt of the humor. I am looking forward to a turn table build. I enjoy the challenge and savings of a giant killer type build or 95% of the quailty for half the budget build. The cartridge is great.

Thanks for the video! I dipped my toe in analog with the Audio Technica 120 with an shure 97se cart. It looked cool, like the Technics it was a copy of. After a couple of years and visits to friends houses I decided that the sound just wasn't that good (even with the onboard phono amp disconnected). After 6 months of looking I got the Rega P3 with a Schiit Mani2 phono amp. I've since fully upgraded it with pretty much all available upgrades from Tango Spinner (looking back I should have just bought the P6, but hindsight and all). I couldn't be happier with the the sound of my LPs. punchy bass and an incredibly low noise floor that I can easily hear every tiny detail from Echoes by Pink Floyd. The Audio Technica was a very noisy TT. You could easily hear the direct drive motor "chunking" between songs. That being said vinyl is a labor of love. No album hits my player without getting a bath in a vinyl styl record cleaner and then vacuumed dry, before they get new inner and outer sleeves which I now only buy from Audio storage solutions, as he's a small business with good quality products. The double pocket outer sleeves are crystal clear and I never have to touch the actual sleeve again if I don't wish to. While I do love popping on a record, CDs are still in a large rotation at my house. I think that DAC's have come a long way and "loudness wars" of the early/mid 2000's have largely disappeared. Even the newer Cds from the Metallica super deluxe box sets are actually very well done. Spin on You Crazy Diamonds.

I have a Nagaoka MP-200 amongst other cartridges and didn't realize the price discrepancy between the stylus alone. Most companies are not that generous. Thanks for pointing that out. It sits in its box in a drawer on my nightstand. It's almost too good for that Pioneer. You should hear it attached to something great.

I enjoyed your video. It’s not easy to do a video on analog without stressing folks out about their gear. I still have my Technics SL1700 Mk2, which is a semi auto variant of a SL1200. 44 years in service, still going strong. I also put a Nagaoka MP110 on it… wow! Great cart for the $! The MP200 will be next. Cheers!

I used to have Stereophile class B solid state preamp and amp. They were very good. And I switched to vacuum tube preamp and amp with specs way behind my solid state rig but the sound is better, now. Better dynamics, better resolution and better sound overall. So, specs is not everything.

A 1200 is a good entry level table to get your feet wet and learn about vinyl playback, solid and reliable ..! Regards

Thank you for the support! I should have sent you a discount code, next time for sure:)

I desperately wanted that Pioneer turntable.They were becoming difficult to find. I eventually got an Audio Technica 120, but I can't find the right cartridge yet

I was frustrated with vinyl at first but I stuck with it and now it’s my favourite way to enjoy music. The only thing that bugs me with my modest setup is I have to boost the high end slightly with the eq on my amp to get it to sound right, is that normal? I’ve got my turntable setup as perfectly as I can get it so I don’t think that’s the problem. My preamp is a cheap pro-ject one so may not be the best. Cartridge is an ortofon om10. I don’t know? It’s not a huge problem though as it sounds great I just need to eq a little bit.

I would recommend the new audiophile to consider Rega turntables. Planar 1 - 3 models are all HIGHLY accessible, take zero setup, totally modular / upgradeable, excellent price points, and even their older P1-P3 models are competitive.

Some of the older second hand TT, if one knows what to look for, may be a diamond in the rough. Both my Technics SL-5 and Denon DF-7 pulled above their weight. The RTs from Fluence are performing very well and mate well with Shure M97xe, although the stylus is now going for astronomical price. The SL-J11 have grounding issue and i haven’t find time to open it up to fix it since my regular hobby is now back on my schedule. Thinking about adding one more linear tracking to play with but otherwise I will stop my collection, maybe add a VM95ML or a MC cartridge from Denon to compare with the Shure. All and all, all the TT are very quiet in terms of grounding with one exception and the RT-80’s motor noise maybe more apparent then the others since I use it on my work desk until I switched to the Denon, which has a lot more quiet motor, but on a regular 2 channel setup, it works well.

Pull those speakers further out into the room, about 1.5 feet past that system rack.

The link for the mat doesn’t work. It says the product can’t be found.

Get the 1200gr 2

Nagaoka makes realy good cartridges .............even the basic MP110 sounds and tracks better than most ........The needle of a MP200 fits on the body of a MP110 indeed.........the difference is that that electriclacoils are more fineed on the the MP200...........BUT it sounds GOOD ...........MP110 AND MP150 share the same body .........upwards theyare different.......as the price..............the needle from a MP200 on a body of a MP100 is a good compromise and a real financial deal ..............and next you can always look out afterwards to someone selling the body nof outweared MP2OO hahaha.... I the budget permits it , the GOLDRING 1042G is also a winner , closer to the sound of a MC for witch one should pay a lot more besides the need of a very good MC transformer witch are VERY EXPENSIVE if you want quality !

You ever try a Stanton (from their ST-150) cartridge with a elliptical stylus?

Enjoyed the video, regarding the Record weight concern, by using the Michell reflex style clamp you are pushing down and twisting the collet mechanism each time you engage the clamp. This is worse than using a record weight with less than 400 grams in mass. The Record weight has other advantages over this style of clamp. A threaded spindle type clamp is superior to both IMO. Turntable bearings and motors on "most" turntables are over engineered to handle much more mass than what the platter has.

I can see that your mat, that rubber/cork thing is slightly to small in diameter. It should have been as a vinyl LP in diameter or as your platter. It´s not much but you get some vibrations on that missing 10mm.

I heard that they moved the manufacturing of the technics 1200gr to Malaysia. So try and find one of the Japanese ones before they shoot up in value.

Do you really think, that the mat do a difference ? I'm very sceptical. I have an older SL-1200 MK2 and the biggest improvement was to buy a better cart.

100% owning stuff is important.

I'm not trying to usurp your advice because I find it's spot on, but I would make the suggestion to newcomers if you're looking for a good basic turntable at a certain lower price point I cannot recommend enough the music hall MMF 1.5. it's a belt drive it's three speed and it has a technics like arm in the sense that you can swap cartridges out easily and it sounds great. It also has a built-in phono preamp so it makes it easy to hook up to basically anything but you could also defeat that and hook it up to an outboard one as well. I mean I'm not saying it's the best turntable ever made but for $400 it's got everything you need and nothing you don't and as I've already said it sounds great as well.

Analogue is not for the faint hearted thats for sure. Ive been into records since the early 80s and got my first PROPER turntable in 1991. Never looked back and never stopped buying the black stuff (and i dont mean Guinness 😂) that Nagaoka cart you're running is a really nice one. I have the MP150 and it sounds great

Hey. Andrew here from Australia. The rubber mat that comes with all Technics turntables starts out thick and gets thinner near the centre. This is because the record is only supported on the first 2 cms of it to keep the record well away from the motor as far as possible. I own an original SL1200 MK 2, brand new out of the box and fitted it with an Ortofon Black cartridge. After I dialled in the correct weight tracking angle anti-skate etc, it sounds a million bucks. I,ve been a club DJ for over 40 years as well as sound engineering and if you have to start using computers to compare one deck to another, you,ve really lost the point.

Fun video. I believe the idea behind a clamp or weight isn't to add mass to the platter, but to mate the record to the platter, effectively adding mass to the record. Between people preferring tubes and vinyl, I wonder if the human ear just isn't predisposed to liking the sound of distortion?

Sorry, but telling new vinyl users to spend $1000 on just a turntable as their first one is just.... eh. There are so many good cheap used Technics out there, like an SL-J3 if they like the buttons, or something like a Denon DP-11F or JVC QL-F320 or Pioneer PL-570, etc... All can be had for $100 in excellent condition and are great units. Especially for a new listener. Or for a new one, how about an Orbit for $250 if they want to go the "old school" route.

So true, it takes patience, and when you get that arm / cartridge right and aligned properly , with a separate Phono stage , the you will love Records much much more, does not need to be high end ... Great video, I have been into Vinyl for over 20 years ...somehow the mid base on Records sound better

Mo Fi has settled tha analog vs digital debate😊

Come on man. Get it right the first time, it’s Technics SL-1200 Mkii, if you’re going to talk about vinyls and turntables.

Or better still, no clamp

As someone with a small lp collection of about 700 and who loves analog my advice to anyone looking to start is DON'T DO IT!!! Just stick to your streaming or whatever you're doing, don't start messing with records and turntables if you want to keep your sanity.

6 minutes in i gave up ,,he just rambles on about his gear conquests ..never made it to the vinyl "secrets" part

"It sounds better than my digital setup" Weird because records have a 0.5% up to 5% harmonic distortion, mono bass below 100 Hz, limited dynamics, a high noise floor, 30 dB of channel separation at best. and speed variation all over the place. So no way in hell it sounds better than digital. My phone plugged into that stereo would sound better than that turntable.

I’m a ‘66 model, so I’m definitely analogous… but of course digitised music can be wondrous if done properly. However I totally agree, analogue has that “something” that goes all the way into your system. I’m on the pace of upgrading my turntable, the NAD 5120… 40 years in service and it has taken its last breath.. been looking at Pro-ject back and forth but recently I found a brand that is making direct drive Technics SL1200 like turntables and they really look fabulous and there are a lot of positive reviews… Reloop. It’s a German company, founded in 1996, specialising in DJ turntables, I’ve gone as far as sending an order for their Turn 5 model, direct drive but without the pitch slider. Wonder what you think.. as for the S type tone arm, I have a Denon DL110 MC pickup that I want to try on, so I ordered a second shell to replace the original. This model is here, their web site: www.reloop-hifi.com/reloop-turn-5. Great video, thanks!