kefrank

What's your budget?

Under $100, this one should be fine.

If you think you're going to try a Moving Coil cartridge down the line, consider this one instead.

Personally, I use this one.

Supermallet

Sorry, I now realize you may have meant a phono pre, which would make sense given that this is the vinyl thread. The Saga is not a phono preamp.

Ravenous

Awesome. I ordered a 50 pack of the 2.5s. Its cheaper to order from them, but the awesome thing is you can check out through amazon! Ill see how these do and than get some thicker ones for the fat boys

Supermallet

Awesome! I'm sure you'll like them. The thicker ones are about the highest quality outer sleeves you can buy, but those thinner ones are no slouch.

auto

Ha! I thought it just had a ton of bells and whistles.

Supermallet

Schiit does make a phono pre, the Mani, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Spikedragon

mphtrilogy

I just ordered the Amazon one.. my u-turn orbit is coming at the end of the week and I realized I needed a pre-amp.. so the $79 looked good and that one is also on the crutchfield website.

Dug out my old collection untouched for 30 years.. have about 25 albums as a starter set to the new/old hobby.

Went into NYC, in the village on Sunday and stumbled into a little place with a lot of mint condition, hit the $10 rack and picked up Carl Perkins, Squeeze, Chicago and Mitch Ryder.

Anxious to set up and start the new obsession. I need to control myself because I already have 2000 cds and don't need to re-buy, going to focus on it from a fun standpoint only.

Ravenous

Good luck with that man!

I was the same, but best part is the majority of my CD collection is with my sister. Luckily we like the same music! I now live in a different state but still bought CDs. When records came into the picture I just send those CDs her way. She has about 5000.

Ravenous

I am really excited for them. Once I get em, I am going to try your method of keeping the actual vinyls out of their sleeve; all held together with the outer plastic sleeve. My biggest concern is that it will just "throw them off" or something. lol

mphtrilogy

I know... I'm heading down the rabbit hole..

Mikael79

Did you rip digital files before giving them away? I love my records, but I am format agnostic, so I enjoy FLAC files as well as SACD/DVD-A, etc.

Ravenous

Oh yea, I got them all on my iTunes. And the rest that were in my sisters possession, she ripped to iTunes for our huge 20000 song ipod.

mphtrilogy

My u-turn orbit arrived, my pre-amp arrived, my vinyl brush arrived.

Oh my obsessed...

Just hit a garage sale and snagged bat out of hell, thriller and bon jovi for $2..

Here we go!

Supermallet

Enjoy! There's nothing like spinning vinyl.

auto

Have fun man!

Why So Blu?

Enjoy!

auto

Thanks for the suggestions!

Dan

What kind of slip mat do y'all use?

Supermallet

No slipmat!*






*This is per the manufacturer's recommendation. Many turntables should be used with a slipmat.

kefrank

Herbie's Way Excellent II

Dan

Speaking of which... my UTurn has an acrylic platter. I just threw the included slipmat on mine when I put it all together, but some have said to use it without one. Maybe I'll do some listening tests with and without it to see how it sounds.

Your link is broken, but I managed to figure out the site. A little pricey, but those do seem really nice. I might end up going that route. Is there a particular thickness I should be going for?

kefrank

Thanks, not sure how I managed that but I fixed the link.

In general, a slipmat is not recommended on an acrylic platter, though like many things turntable-related, you can probably find differing opinions. If I were you, I would use the acrylic platter sans mat and be done.

That said, I have the 2mm Herbie's mat for my Music Hall MMF-2.2, which is a similar turntable design to other "entry-level" belt drives like your U-Turn.

Supermallet

I picked up a used periphery ring clamp and HRX center weight for my VPI. I put my most badly warped record on and amazingly the combo of the two made the record almost completely flat while playing. The combo is also supposed to improve the sound of already flat records as they adhere the records to the platter better than the screw-on Delrin center weight that came with the table.

And with this I'm done with purchases for a while. I canceled my Beatles in Mono and Dylan Bootleg Series box orders, and I won't be ordering the Fire Walk With Me Soundtrack tomorrow. I am expecting a copy of Run The Jewels 3 to arrive later today and that's the last record I'm getting for a while. Time to enjoy what I have.

Dan

Dusty!
But seriously, that's awesome. If a company made generic rings like that, I'd buy one... although I'm not sure the tiny motor in the Uturn could handle that much extra weight.

And thanks kefrank for the follow-up. I'll try it out without the slipmat for awhile... do a few A/B tests... and see.