• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Powered speakers for turntable - where to start?

suburbanbeat

suburbanbeat

New Member
Hi all. Long time lurker here, and I'm happy to finally be posting.

I have my primary audio set up in the living room of my home. It's a traditional turntable/receiver/passive speaker set up. This weekend I picked up a new-vintage turntable (a Technics SL-BD2, for free!) and I'm excited to get it set up in my bedroom.

Space is tight, however, and since I don't have an old receiver or quality pair of passive speakers already lying around, I figured I'd look into active speakers as a solution. So my question is this - what active/powered speakers can I pick up for less than $150 (new or used) that would be well-suited for vinyl? People on Amazon seem to love these $100 Edifier R1280T, and I'd be curious to know what y'all think of those. Obviously at this price point, I'm not looking for anything mind-blowing!

Bonus points if they are easy to pick up secondhand. I am a true cheap-o and die a little bit every time I pay full retail price for something.
 
Register to hide this ad
Whatever powered speakers you get you'll need a phono preamp as well. If it was me I'd find a vintage receiver and a small pair of passive speakers.
 
Yup....you'll need a phono preamp. You should be able to find a nice vintage receiver within your budget plus a pair of speakers.
 
Crap, yes, I had assumed that the Edifiers didn't require a phono pre-amp, but they do. Unless, of course, I had a TT with a built-in pre-amp, which isn't the case. So I take it then that there are few to no active speakers which would not require me to get a phono pre=amp? I wouldn't want to skip on the pre-amp, so I can see this getting expensive pretty quickly.

I did want to eliminate the bulky receiver, but it looks like that having one will be the more cost-effective, higher-quality option in the case.
 
You could just get a basic phono preamp from the likes of Cambridge or Pro-ject and pipe it directly into the powered speakers. However, in the long run, you'll be much better off with a receiver because it will be more flexible and less limiting if/when you add more sources.
 
Both the micro-system and basic pre-amp are good solutions, but I agree that receiver is the way to go here for the reason Techguy mentioned. Actually, since posting, I already found a good deal ($40) on CL for a Mitsubishi DA-R8 receiver. Looks plenty pretty enough that I won't mind having it in my bedroom.

mitsubishi_da-r8_am-fm_stereo_receiver.jpg


Thanks for the advice. I'm glad I ran this one by y'all before getting the Edifiers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom