We listen to a lot of music in our house. We have a Plex media server that streams digital versions of our CD collections and like many folks we also subscribe to (a few?!) music streaming services.
With the same breath that we gave, traded or trashed our beloved CDs we also started acquiring new and old favorites on vinyl. For several years we had an all-in-one record/radio/CD/tape player made by Crosley. It was just barely okay; there was no way to connect it to external speakers and depending on who you asked, the needle was so cheap that it was likely to damage your record.
When the Crosley was near death we decided to find something a bit better. The problem is that “a bit better” can get expensive very quickly. If you’re interested in going off the deep end you should cruise over to r/vinyl
As you can see in the photo above, we settled on something that was a bit more modest. Here’s breakdown of what we have and how much it cost.
U-turn Audio turntable ($179-450) - Quite possibly the most important part of your setup. You can probably find a decent turntable for less money but we liked the minimalist vibe and the way they let you customize your turntable. [Link]
ART DJPREII Phono Preamplifier ($63) - Turntables require a preamplifier but sometimes it is built into the turntable. If you don’t know if yours has one built into it, you should look it up online and find out. [Link]
Lepy LP-2020A Power Amplifier ($25) - I did say modest, right? This is a modest little box with three knobs on it for treble, bass and volume. It also has an audio input on the back if you want to plug in your old MP3 player or something. [Link]
Edifier P12 Passive Bookshelf Speakers ($90) - It is hard to beat a nice looking pair of speakers for $90. These Edifiers sound just fine and should be a great starting point. [Link]
Extra stuff - You’ll need one or two sets of RCA cables to connect your turntable to your preamp (1) and your preamp to your amp (2).[Link] You will also need speaker wire to connect your amp to your speakers. [Link]
The above are the basics that you’ll need to start spinning some jams. You might do some math and disagree that $350 is all that modest. I don’t know your wallet - so that is fair.
The good news is that there is plenty of wiggle room to be had. Facebook marketplace is full of used turntables. And when we started out - we had some even cheaper bookshelf speakers ($50?). Feel free to go even more modest.
The bad news is that almost none of the vinyl you’ll want to listen to is free. Many artists are re-releasing their catalog on vinyl for competitive prices - but there are still plenty of releases that are expensive and very difficult to find.
Hopefully this helps.