Hi, I hope this is the right thread for this. Recently I was housesitting for my mother and aunt when they went on a cruise. For some reason I forgot how many records they had. I mean TONS of them. Anyway I thought a nice present for them would be a record player so they can enjoy their collection.

I am not savy when it comes to these things, and they are even less so. My Mom is 78 and my aunt must be 75 so I basically just want something basic they can plug in a wall. I see some so many different ones on Amazon. Does anyone have any advice on which brands are best? Should I consider getting a turntable and some speakers...or would any "all in one" be better?

I'm assuming they're not really audiophiles and don't take meticulous care of their records. If that assumption is correct and you just want to get them something that will make it easy to play the records they have, I'd suggest an all-in-one system. Crosley makes a bunch of turntables with a built in speaker. Here's a page with all of them:
http://www.crosleyradio.com/Turntables.aspx

Pick the one that you think would be most aesthetically pleasing to them and go for it. Hope that helps!

You can't just buy a turntable and speakers. You need an amplifier or receiver between them.

For older folks I'd just get them one of these vintage looking models with a CD/radio and cassette in it.



http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PTCDS2UI-...time+turntable

Thanks kefrank,
Their records are actually in pretty good shape. They are very neat and they have kept them in a cool dry place. There is barely any dust on them. A lot of Broadway Musicals...even some JFK and FDR on record giving speechs. Should be a blast for all of us to listen to. Thanks for the advice.

That's a good idea Cungar, I was looking at that one on Amazon. It looks "old fashioned" which I thought they would like. People either seem to love or hate this type of players and I trust that I can get better advice from you all.

All those crosley players get pretty mediocre reviews. I would try ebay. They bought all those records, they must have listened to them when they were younger therefore they must know how to work a turntable. If you buy an old turntable from the 60s or 70s they would be able to operate it I imagine.

The problem with buying an older standalone turntable is that then you still need a phono pre-amp, amplifier, and speakers. If you buy one of those Crosley all-in-ones, you don't have to worry about any of the other stuff.