Beginner’s guide to the perfect turntable setup: 4 essentials

The vinyl revival is officially here and in full swing. Vinyl sales in the United States have grown year over year for the 17th consecutive year and show no signs of slowing. In 2022, Taylor Swift’s Grammy-award winning album ‘Midnights’ sold 945,000 copies on vinyl, which was almost double the next best-selling vinyl from Harry Styles. If you’re trying to jump on the bandwagon and begin enjoying high-fidelity music in its old school analog form, there are a few things you’ll need to get started. As a vinyl enthusiast myself, I’ve put together a great beginners set-up to get you started down the Hi-Fi rabbit hole.

1 An affordable and upgradeable turntable

A quality, but entry-level deck

Author’s AT-LP120XBT-USB turntable 

Rega Planar 1 Dedicated Turntable

Recommended

The first thing in your beginner vinyl set-up you’ll need is a good turntable, and choosing your first table can be a daunting task. We can help cut through the noise a bit here as we’ve already put together a list of our favorite turntables of the year as well. We found the Rega Planar 1 to be an excellent table for beginners. Every penny spent on this table goes towards sound quality as this is truly a purists’ turntable.

The Planar 1 has no Bluetooth, no wireless connectivity, and no USB output. For beginners wanting to take their step down the deep rabbit hole of analog sound, and high-fidelity bells and whistles will only serve as distractions. The Planar 1 focuses your resources on its primary task, and does a great job at it.

Related

4 tips for keeping your vinyls sounding and looking great

Luckily, keeping your vinyls in good condition doesn’t require too much maintenance, but here are the top ways to care for your collection.

In this context, I actually consider the lack of a built-in phono stage as a positive. A built-in phono preamp makes it a lot easier to just plug your turntable into a set of speakers without much care for what is happening to the analog signal on its journey from the tonearm to the speakers’ drivers, but if you’re coming over to the world of analog, then you’ll quickly learn you want to control every step that signal takes before it reaches your ears. Not having a built-in preamp means this table can grow with you as you go from entry level dedicated preamps to more high-end ones later in your audiophile pilgrimage.

2 Phono preamp

An accessory for a comprehensive sound stage

Rega

The next most important purchase you will make for your new setup is your dedicated phono preamp. This is the box of circuitry, or on the old-school higher-end physical tubes, responsible for taking the low-level signal that comes out of your turntable and amplifying it into the line-level signal that can be interpreted by your amplifier, which in turn drives the signal to your speakers.

Your preamp is immensely responsible for the type of “sound” your vinyl setup has. When you hear people describe the sound of vinyl as “warm,” or “rich,” they are describing the soothing sound of a good preamp. While many vinyl purists would prefer to keep things analog all the way, true analog preamps that use vacuum tubes are a bit more involved and perhaps best kept for further in your discovery.

3 An accessory to amplify sound

Excellent sound with a simple setup

Author’s Rega Fono MM MK5 

Once you are ready for a more complicated (and expensive) setup, you can dive into the world of dedicated amplifiers, equalizers, receivers, and more. For now, you’ll just want something that does it all-in-one without interfering with your analog signal and delivers it with sufficient power to drive your speakers. We recommend a stereo receiver with a built-in amplifier and the Sony STR-DH190 fits the bill perfectly.

The Sony STR-DH190 offers support for only the two stereo channels A and B, but that’s all you’ll need, as vinyl is meant to be played in stereo after all, if not mono, depending on the album. The STR-DH190 even features a phono input for plugging your turntables preamp directly into the receiver without the signal passing through unnecessary circuitry in the receiver. Sony thought through this one step further by offering a “Pure Direct” listening mode that drives the signal to the speakers without passing through any EQ circuit boards in the receiver at all, offering the purest possible travel for your analog signal from tone-arm to speaker.

4 A bookshelf accessory

An excellent first step in stereo speakers

Triangle Borea BR03 Hi-Fi Bookshelf Speakers

Do even cursory research on high fidelity stereo speakers, and you’ll start to find speakers that cost as much as a sports car. The world of speakers is vast, from smaller desktop speakers to the gorgeous sound of tower speakers. Bookshelf stereo speakers typically reside at the entry level to real stereo sound for your vinyl setup, but even these can exceed $1,000 per speaker and much more. Stereo speakers are an essential component in your setup and serve as the final destination of all your hard work and investment.

You won’t want to build an enviable setup only for it to play through bad speakers. The Borea line of speakers from Triangle Hi-Fi provides an excellent first step to quality sound. Like other bookshelf speakers, they are large enough to take a prominent spot in your living room or listening room but small enough to be easily moved and used in smaller spaces.

FAQ

Q: Should I buy my own cartridge?

Buying your own cartridge could be a huge step up from what comes in then box, and is one of the advantages of a turntable that allows these sorts of upgrades. Personally, I opted for the AT-VM540ML from Audio Technica, which offers superior tracking, nuanced audio reproduction, and captures more intricate details than the standard AT-VM95E cartridge that comes standard on the AT-LP120X. It’s higher frequency response translates to a more dynamic and “crisper” sound than the standard cartridge.

Q: Should I start a vinyl set-up?

If you have a tendency to get somewhat obsessed with your hobbies, or would describe yourself as a perfectionist, then buyer beware. You can spend a lifetime chasing the perfect vinyl sound, and there are setups that cost as much as a family home. The ritual of thumbing through dusty records at your local store, finding that special one you’ve been searching for, and taking it home to put needle to record is absolutely intoxicating.

Listening to a full album, eyes closed, centered between your speakers, can be a transcendent experience. If you are a music lover, you should absolutely give it a go. Just be careful you don’t fall all the way down and blow your entire paycheck in wonderland.

Q: What products are best for a mid-range vinyl set up?

As a vinyl enthusiast deeper into my Hi-Fi journey, my chosen pre-amp is the Rega Fono MM MK5. This solid-state pre-amp is the big sibling to the beginner-friendly Rega Fono Mini A2D MKII and full-size solid-state, providing a new level of rich, dynamic sound. Additionally, I’ve tested a good number of bookshelf speakers over the years, but the Bowers & Wilkins 706 S3 are above the rest.

These speakers boast an impressive bass frequency response for their size when properly placed, though they support split high-low frequency inputs via speaker wire, should you want to connect a subwoofer to your system and feed only the higher frequencies to each 706 S3. Its crystal clear highs are projected through a decoupled carbon dome tweeter in each speaker, and the 6.5-inch mid-range cone packs an impressive bass-y punch, making them ideal for Hi-Fi listening, as well as the explosive sound of modern movies.