I’ve never owned vinyl but whenever I hear it I love the sound. A good friend of mine who buys and sells vinyl has a huge amount of stock and he’s happy for me to borrow anything I fancy, so not having my own collection isn’t an issue here. I’ve always fancied owning my favourite albums on vinyl and I could build up a small collection over time.
However, I’m not looking to spend a huge amount of money and I really don’t want any more boxes or fuss.
Hence the Technics SL-1500 has piqued my interest as a plug and play.
Any thoughts on how one would compare with my NDS/555DR? Would it be a mis-match with my amp and speakers? Am I likely to be disappointed? Or will it allow me to capture that vinyl magic?
The NDS would remain my primary source, but I think it would be nice to spin a bit of vinyl now and again.
I thought about the Technics a few years ago. I have an olive active system with an NDS. I went to my dealer, listened to few decks and was disappointed. First, I thought I would try the technics, then I thought about a Rega, but in the end I bought a refurbished LP12.
For convenience I prefer the NDS, but for those moments of nostalgia I revisit my vinyl from the 1980’s.
@Stu299 interesting thread. I recently bought a Rega P10/Aura/HiLine/Powerline to compliment my ND555. I know what you mean re a comparison as I asked that very question. The BIG question here though is do you mean involvement or detail? If its involvement (which it was for me) I secured that. If its detail and absolute resolution no way BUT how could a £10k solution match a £50K solution. It can’t. Do I have a preference to which I listen to? Yes. That preference is based on what I fancy listening to and thats the real win for me. Irrespective of format I enjoy the music I have equally. I think this is what you are looking for? Buying you favourite music on vinyl is imo not worth it. Your digital front end will likely better it. Buy/borrow/inherit and listen to that. I got a bunch of vinyl from my Dad yesterday and one was my great aunts who had written on it the date purchased (May 1958!) thats priceless to me. Develop both side independently.
To match the Nds/555 dr you need something like Rega P8/ Aura or Superline / 1 k minimum cart. It’s my experience having the Nds and P10 today, Rp8 with Lyra Delos and around 3k phono before.
The Technics needs a good cart and phono, not those in the offered package, to compete.
I totally switched to vinyl. sometimes I think about updating to nds - currently digital source is: hdx/DAC/xps.
Analog is: phonosophie no3 with Benz and Naim PS /prefix inside/supercap.
Analog offers way more detail and is more natural.
Nds/555ps could change that … but I think the vinyl sound is special and if you like it more you will always do.
Because you have a great digital front end you will need a good investment if vinyl is to compete. I would be looking at a top Rega or mid Linn myself as minimum. The important thing is that it holds your interest against the NDS/555.
I have collected vinyl since my teen days, now four decades later I stopped counting, must be thousands.
I very seldom buy new vinyl. last year 10 LP, this year none so far.
I do buy used from good sellers, usually pickup items to be sure they are good.
Otherwise buying in thrift shops, getting a stack of say 10 or 20, some of them are scrap but all in all, sometime good purchases.
Agree, especially as i have had that exact combo as in NDS/555 & rega p8/apheta 2 and superline, very well matched. A P10/apheta 3 with a rega aura would be your go to source if you had this over a NDS/555DR and probably even if you had a nd555
Hi @Stu299 - It sounds from your question as if this you just want to give vinyl a try. On the other hand, if you didn’t appreciate high sound quality all round, you wouldn’t have your current hi-fi.
You could buy a basic plug-n-play table now. However, given the quality gap versus ND555, I am confident that it won’t show you what vinyl can do for you in a fair light. That suggests that there is a good chance that you either give up on vinyl without giving it a real chance - or buy another new turntable next year too.
You could buy a better turntable now (perhaps a Rega 6 or 8 with small PS and phono stage) to give vinyl a fair chance in your revealing setup. However, the measure of its success may still be your wanting to get rid of it in place of something that is closer in quality to the ND555. That too sounds like a recipe for losing money, though buying an ex-dem turntable may help the net cost of the experiment.
On the other hand, buying 3 large boxes and spending £10K+ is exactly what you say you don’t want to do now.
One way forward would be to a far-from-new and low-spec. LP12. It will certainly highlight how vinyl and digital differ for a plausible outlay.
If you then weaken on spending and box-count because vinyl really does it for you, you can upgrade an LP12 incrementally to whatever spec. you like, including good enough to bear comparison with your ND555 (at least to my ears). Alternatively, if the faff and clicks of vinyl annoy you too much, you can look to sell it with only a very limited loss.
Buying a second-hand turntable may sound daunting, to put it mildly. However, there are lots of good dealers who can provide something suitable.
I look forward to hearing how the experiment goes!
French, I read it in that both items polarise opinion due to their more alternative looks so by pointing the finger at the P10 (unnecessary as visual preference is subjective) the reply was akin to the saying ‘don’t throw stones in glass houses’.
In my opinion the initial comment re the P10 and the way it was phrased was unnecessary in the context of the thread. Looks are always subjective, we all know that.
Many of us are guilty of these comments,
Me to, I must apologise,
I was unkind enough to voice my opinion on Solstice aesthetics,
When what we really want is music.
Slightly off topic but if you are going to purchase a turntable the look is on a par with how it sounds……
eg we like the black boxes but do you like them in 10th Anniversary special edition grey?
I personally don’t find the P10 nice looking. More like a turning table for anniversary cakes .
Naim boxes are ok , but no more than that. My Ear 912 is even a bit ugly.
But I didn’t choosed them for the look. I have however some respect vs them because they sound great. That respect overcomes the first looking approach.
.