Record player

Alright, I want to buy a record player (for the sweet LP's I bought a week ago), but obviously have no idea what I should be looking for, so I'm going to do a running blog while I do about 30 minutes of research.

First thing I came across was this guide posted on eBay, which looks like a pretty well written article. (I will say that while I am doing this I am talking to Fake Lauren, trying to convince her that Sufjan Stevens is one of the best artists of our generation. For some reason she doesn't believe me.) I'm quickly realizing that even though this article dubs itself as a "layman friendly guide on how to select your next turntable", I'm seriously having some trouble figuring out what this all means. I just scanned it, and it doesn't get any easier to read. I'm moving on.

Article 2 has a great title - My first turntable - what should I buy? Now we are talking. But wait, what the hell is this? This guy wants to spend a grand on this thing? I'm not trying to get a bj from the machine, I just want it to spin my records around. I could get 4 iPods for that much. I finished the article, and realized it uses just as much wacky language, and the forum posters don't think you can get a record player for less than $1k that doesn't make you want to cut your ears off. Not the right stop. Again.

Third article and I'm finally getting to the good stuff: How to Decide if a Turntable is right for you. They are still talking about spending 500-600 on a table, but at least I can understand what all the words mean. I'm starting to feel like I'm going to end up finding the right thing, and I like the argument that if you are a classical or classic rock fan, due to the fact that records are so cheap you can actually save money switching to LPs.

Here we go! Subject: In need of a good turntable under $120. Now we are talking! First major question appears to be answered: buy direct drive and not belt driven. I'm pretty sure this is what Raz told me to do, but I couldn't remember. And this has what appears to be a decent recommendation: Accurian turntable from Radio Shack. I went to search for it, and the Audio-Technica AT-PL120 came up, which looks pretty good and is currently on sale at $250. Starting to look a lot better, this is definitely in the running for final purchase. It also got a great review from Crutchfield. And its down to $200 on Amazon. This might be the one, but I'll keep looking.

One of the turntables the Crutchfield article discribed was the Technics SL-1200. This looks great, but with a $519 price tag from Amazon (remember you still need to buy a needle), its just not what I'm looking for right now. I might have stumbled upon the right player already...

Alright, thats enough for tonight. If I end up picking anything up, I'll post a follow up note. And if anyone knows anything about record players, I'm all ears.

And FYI, I was able to make a convincing argument for Sufjan Stevens, after Sister Winter, The Transfiguration, and Chicago. Here's a quote from Fake Lauren (and something that a lot of people should try to remember): "Fake Lauren: I should have known better than to disagree with you."