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My 13-year-old daughter bought and received her first vinyl purchase today (the sickness starts in a new generation!). Her birthday is in a few months, and I'm thinking of getting her a starter turntable. I wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions. She doesn't have a receiver or speakers, so I'm thinking one of those all-in-one units, but I've never heard good things about them. I do have small, old Cambridge Soundworks speakers and a subwoofer that plug into a computer with a line-in jack; if the turntable has one, I could plug the speakers into them (or she could use headphones).

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks!

If you wanna go with new stuff a U-Turn Orbit Basic, a cheap phono stage, and some powered speakers would be a great starter setup.

I agree with @static. Mackie powered speakers are relatively cheap and sound pretty good for their price. I've heard nothing but positive things about U-Turn Orbit turntables. I bought my sister a Audio Technica AT-LP60 for her bday a few months ago and my brother bought himself one as well. It's often cited as the best intro turntable and while their price is very inexpensive they both have had issues with them. My sisters was slightly slow and my brothers was a little too fast. There is an adjustment on the bottom of them to get them to rotate correctly but it's not something that a person who's new to the hobby should be trying to figure out themselves.

I like the idea of a U-Turn Basic; I have a U-Turn Select hooked up to the house stereo. The only thing I'm not sure about, though, is if she is going to see this as the start of a new hobby or something where she dabbles for a couple of months and then moves on to something else, leaving it to gather dust. The Basic is $200, plus I'd want to get a dust cover and cue lever, then the pre-amp, then speakers, and I'm suddenly a few hundred dollars in and keeping my fingers crossed.

I need her to sign a contract ...

@redeye

what about the Fluance RT80, not sure if its in your budget but it has a built in pre-amp and for its price I've heard very good things.

https://www.fluance.com/rt80-high-fidel ... ond-needle


anyone else have an opinion on these?

If I read your requirements and understood your price range desire correctly @red, surely one of the budget all-in-one systems would be the best bet for both her and your pocket? No fussing, all you need in one purchase, and if we can all put our 'Crossley' based prejudices aside somewhat, Im sure most of us would agree we would be happy with one of these to actually spin our shiny trophies on as a teen? (I myself had hand me down systems from my dad for years growing up, most of them quite worn and tatty and with issues but they did the job ;)

I personally like the sound of this one, for about £120 all in brand new, but there are many others out there. Customer reviews are generally good though some complain of bass lacking/tinny sound:

https://electromarket.co.uk/fenton-rp16 ... yWEALw_wcB

For about £50 more, this all in one gets pretty glowing reviews:

https://esonline.co.uk/product/134268?g ... IpEALw_wcB

The biggest issue with those Crosley all in ones, aside from the sound quality, is that they have major issues with tracking, they skip a lot on records. There's no tone arm adjustment and most peoples solution to this is to tape a penny to the top of the stylus...


That second option that @scojo recommended actually looks half way decent. Seems kind of like a bundle than an all in one.

Thank you for the extra suggestions! I'm going take some time to review them and try to suss out her overall interest. Hopefully soon I'll be able to tell her to turn down that racket so I can listen to my own racket.