RATING
AS SOMEONE who works with turn-tables almost every day, one question I get pretty frequently is, “How much do I need to spend to get a real taste of what the buzz with vinyl is all about?” Defining the entry level for record players can be tricky. Spend too little and you’re probably going to be disappointed and lose interest pretty quickly. Spend too much and you’re likely to dismiss playing records as just another overpriced fad. With the great surge of interest in vinyl records over the last few years, there has also been a huge boom in the equipment needed to play them—from $50 suitcase players that appeal mostly to kids all the way up to rigs that can cost as much as a house.
For me, an entry level turntable has to be able to play records safely without damaging them and must sound good out of the box, while also offering some sort of an upgrade path. What I tend to think of as “real” turntables start at around $200, and include an adjustable tonearm and a replaceable phono cartridge. This allows you to dip
