Hello! I recently inherited a collection of records from my grandmother, and obviously I'd like to play them. A family friend gave me a Pioneer PL-112D turntable, which is functional, as far as I can tell -- but it has no speakers. My dad opins that it'll need an amp, also, but I have no idea what kind of amp or speakers to buy. Googling has been unsuccessful thus far; any advice would be appreciated.
Pioneer PL-112D -- what amp/speakers?
- Thread starter Mirk
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Eastham
More Class-A than ever!
Any amp that has a Phono stage will do a old receiver would do nicely, as for speakers just make sure you get something that won't get blown to bits by your amplifier selection. Take my system for example, my receiver is rated for 50watts per channel, my speakers are rated at 30 watts music power so I have to be a tad careful with the volume knob, don't want to blow my speakers into space! I'm sure your local thrift store like Goodwill has some old gear to get you started if not try craigslist, when all else fails turn to eBay but be warned, on eBay prices get high fast and some sellers don't always take care when shipping items. Nice turntable you got yourself there the successor to my 'table, might wanna grab a new stylus and reset the tracking force, to re set the tracking force lift the tone arm from it's rest clip, turn the counter balance counter clockwise until the arm floats level. This is called static balancing your tonearm, when it's floating nicely move the inner ring with the numbers on it to zero, then twist the whole counter balance clockwise to the desired tracking force 2 - 3g for a Shure M75-EJ which is what I think came with the PL-112D. Good luck and welcome to the wonderful sometimes maddening world of records.
Keep your eyes open and be patient, stuff shows up in many ways. As said above, check out places like Goodwill or Sal Army. Garage Sales sometimes offer deals. Got a Fisher 500T and a pr XP 55 speakers for $25. It's out there. Found a pair of Avid speakers at the dump free. Sound decent, cabinets a little rough. Just find a old receiver or amp with phono inputs. Good to go. My buddy at the local record store picks up stuff and you might check out a nearby record store.
Tucker99
Super Member
Boy, there are lots of directions you could go.
My 2¢ is that the amp (or receiver if you want the radio incorporated) must have a phono input OR you will need to buy a phono pre-amp to kick up the output from the turntable. Those are musts.
From there I think the trick is to only spend as much as you feel comfortable with and when you do that you want to get the best value possible...at least I want that for myself so I assume that you do too.
If you spend much time reading here you will hit what I call the 'main four' desirable manufacturers from the 60s and 70s Marantz, Sansui, Yamaha and Pioneer and within each brand there are some very (most) popular/desirable/TOTL pieces and many other somewhat lesser models that do their job well perfectly well for most people. I have collected a number of those very desirable pieces but they don't just fall into your lap so please don't expect that.
Then there are what I call 'under the radar' manufacturers that made some pretty decent gear. I would recommend that you keep an eye out for some of those brands. The knowledgeable members here will have their opinions an hopefully will chime in to fill out this list for you. Myself I think in terms of amps and receivers that JVC made some nice stuff in the early 70s but there are other brands that the members will name. For speakers there are quite a few and there is a great deal of personal taste involved but I think the EPI (or Epicure) brand delivers good value for the $$ and the EPI 100 bookshelf speakers seem to go for around $50-$100 and represent excellent value to my ears. Again, there are other brands and members will, I am sure, share there opinions with you.
One thing that is worth asking is of your friends but also their parents 'does anyone have an old amp or receiver with a phono input in their garage or basement?'. Same for speakers. Even an old stereo console unit will do the job although the footprint can be prohibitive if your space is limited. You would be very surprised what a lot of older folks have laying around unused. Sometimes you get a positive answer followed by 'and there's those boxes of records too if you want 'em'. People will be quite generous if they think you will value something that they once enjoyed even if they don't want it now...what they don't want is for someone to just toss their treasured old item into the rubbish.
You will enjoy the Pioneer PL-112D turntable. I have given two of those away to young students needing gear but I still have a 115D and 117D in my inventory. Yours is a perfectly serviceable turntable. One more note is that you will read here about all the TOTL turntables that we aspire to (hey, one day you might too) but before you spend money upgrading your perfectly fine turntable one thing you can to (once all your other gear is assembled) is look at upgrading your cartridge. Not sure what yo have on the turntable now but a good quality cartridge makes a world of difference as compared to a low quality or bottom rung cartridge even if the manufacturer is well recognized...each brand has low, medium and high qualities.
Good luck sourcing some gear and enjoy your vinyl....and if you have specific question always come back and ask. We all started not knowing much!
My 2¢ is that the amp (or receiver if you want the radio incorporated) must have a phono input OR you will need to buy a phono pre-amp to kick up the output from the turntable. Those are musts.
From there I think the trick is to only spend as much as you feel comfortable with and when you do that you want to get the best value possible...at least I want that for myself so I assume that you do too.
If you spend much time reading here you will hit what I call the 'main four' desirable manufacturers from the 60s and 70s Marantz, Sansui, Yamaha and Pioneer and within each brand there are some very (most) popular/desirable/TOTL pieces and many other somewhat lesser models that do their job well perfectly well for most people. I have collected a number of those very desirable pieces but they don't just fall into your lap so please don't expect that.
Then there are what I call 'under the radar' manufacturers that made some pretty decent gear. I would recommend that you keep an eye out for some of those brands. The knowledgeable members here will have their opinions an hopefully will chime in to fill out this list for you. Myself I think in terms of amps and receivers that JVC made some nice stuff in the early 70s but there are other brands that the members will name. For speakers there are quite a few and there is a great deal of personal taste involved but I think the EPI (or Epicure) brand delivers good value for the $$ and the EPI 100 bookshelf speakers seem to go for around $50-$100 and represent excellent value to my ears. Again, there are other brands and members will, I am sure, share there opinions with you.
One thing that is worth asking is of your friends but also their parents 'does anyone have an old amp or receiver with a phono input in their garage or basement?'. Same for speakers. Even an old stereo console unit will do the job although the footprint can be prohibitive if your space is limited. You would be very surprised what a lot of older folks have laying around unused. Sometimes you get a positive answer followed by 'and there's those boxes of records too if you want 'em'. People will be quite generous if they think you will value something that they once enjoyed even if they don't want it now...what they don't want is for someone to just toss their treasured old item into the rubbish.
You will enjoy the Pioneer PL-112D turntable. I have given two of those away to young students needing gear but I still have a 115D and 117D in my inventory. Yours is a perfectly serviceable turntable. One more note is that you will read here about all the TOTL turntables that we aspire to (hey, one day you might too) but before you spend money upgrading your perfectly fine turntable one thing you can to (once all your other gear is assembled) is look at upgrading your cartridge. Not sure what yo have on the turntable now but a good quality cartridge makes a world of difference as compared to a low quality or bottom rung cartridge even if the manufacturer is well recognized...each brand has low, medium and high qualities.
Good luck sourcing some gear and enjoy your vinyl....and if you have specific question always come back and ask. We all started not knowing much!