A turntable, & some records, please

I’ve always toyed with the idea of owning a record player, those that uses needles and looks like a gramophone, and plays vinyl tracks, and we can use terms like layering, spindles, grooves, records. Really cool.

I imagined I’d have a room with a single light bulb on top, with low wattage of course, and I’d come in here to play old Frank Sinatra classics on my record player, and dust off dusty sleeve jackets and pull out a treasured and scratched copy of the old classics, perhaps something by the Beatles, or Cream, or Dire Straits. Just for that old, classic quality.

So, now that I’m no longer a dirt poor student trawling the junk markets of Fremantle and Camberwell looking at and letting go of dusty old LP jackets that have ]loads and loads of extra information about the artistes included], I might consider buying one here. Just did some research, and here’s a bit of info I will store here and perhaps print out when I go a-hunting for one.

Records
Always try to buy a record of an artiste from the artiste’s country of origin. This is because the artiste’s label will have access to the first generation master copy, from which other LPs are cut.
Look at the spindle marks (the hole at the centre of a record) and condition of the record. Scratched records and ones with numerous spindle marks will indicate how frequently they have been played.
Go for widely spaced grooves on records (which means records with minimal playing time per side). Widely spaced grooves sound better.

Turntables
Choose a belt-drive turntable over a direct-drive as it sounds better.
The turntable’s tone arm should have anti-skating compensation device to reduce tracking error.
Get an MM (moving magnet) cartridge, as it is easier to achieve good sound because it is more forgiving compared to an MC (moving coil) cartridge.
Opt for a turntable with 33 1/3 and 45rpm playback capability.