The Best Audiophile Turntables – (At a Reasonable Price)

What Were the Considerations?

The most importent thing to consider when buying a turnable is your usecase. What are the most important factors for you? Audio quality, connectivity with your current audio setup, design, upgradability or special features such as bluetooth, usb or DJ controls.

In this case we assume since we are talking about turntables for audiophiles that audio quality is the most important to you. It actually difficult to pin down as it comes down to personal taste. But in general you want to look for a turntable that offers a dynamic sound which has wide soundscape, this means that you are able to hear each sound layer separately and in detail. Especially the tightness in the lower spectrum is an important hurdle, so look for sound with a tight bass.

The second factor is a balanced sound. you don’t want to have sound that has too much bass or is too treble heavy.  A balance sound helps accurately displaying your music and makes it suitable to play every genre. This means you can happily play classical music and heavy techno without worrying if it is accurately displayed.

Now, in order to create the best sound quality a lot of other factors come into play. We have narrowed it down three factors we special attention to while reviewing the turntables; build quality, audio components and price.

Build Quality

One of the most important aspect audiophiles look at is build quality. Not only for. better handling and endurance but also for reducing resonance.

First we looked at the materials used in the turntables. You want to avoid any plastic material or the overuse of aluminium since these materials tend to be lighter an can therefore more easily transmit resonance from the surroundings. Materials like MDF and solid wood are often a better more premium choice since these are heavier and sturdier.

Also when it comes down to handeling components like the tonearm, cartridge and platter the materials used are also very important. This most because of endurance but it can of course also influence the sound quality. Acrylic is a premium material only used in high end turntables for its platter, because of the material and its weight it reduces resonance and improves speed consistency. For the tonearm a sturdy material like carbon fibre or stainless steel is preferred. And of course for the cartridge a fully diamond needle is the only one you should consider.

A second aspect we took into consideration was if the design consisted of many parts. There is simple rule with turntables, less parts result in a lower chance of possible resonance. For example many low budget turntables have a plinth that consists of many (mostly plastic) parts molded or screwed together. Instead you preferably want have a one piece plinth in which most components are build into or mounted underneath.

Audio Components

Audiophiles know that a few components within any turntable setup influence sound quality the most.

The most important one is of course the cartridge as the stylus picks up the sound directly from the record. A great branded cartridges can make all the difference. Brands such as Rega, Audio Technica or Ortofon all have great cartridge lineups that perform well. The difference in quality mostly comes down to the material, which is always diamond in the high-end segment. The shape, mostly elliptical. And whether is an MM, MC or VM cartridge. And while sound is personal you are always better off with a decent branded cartridge such as the 2m red by Ortofon then a non branded built in one. 

Talking about the motor we looked at two important factors. Reducing resonance and speed consistency. First of all the motor should be low noise to avoid any resonance while the drive type doesn’t really matter anymore in in the modern turntable, it can be direct drive or belt drive. 

As for speed consistency it is importent to look into how consistency the turntable really is. An important specification to look at this the amount of wow and flutter, which is a term for how much distortion is hearable for the listener. Most turntables range between .10 and 20 percent but for audiophile turntables we expect even less.

The last component we looked into is the preamp as it can also have a big influence on the sound. In most cases an audiophile turntable does not come with a built in preamp so you will need to connect it to an external preamp or amplifier with phono input. However when it does come with a preamp look into if te preamp is fully adjusted for the cartridge that comes with the turntable and check if there is a bypass button present as it allows for upgrading later on.

Price

Of course the price can be a big influence on your decision. The differences within the  audiophile segment can be are enormous. It ranges from about 400 dollars to a couple of thousand. But what do you exactly get for such a high price and we do we only focus on the reasonably priced in this guide?

We feel that in general turntables costing more 2000 dollars are only interestingfor the very few. They often feature really expensive materials or features like a floating motor, which in most cases don’t really add that much more to the experience or the audio quality.

For this reason we feel that most higher-end turntables in the 400 to 1500 dollar range are sufficient for the regular audiophile. They still provide great sound coming out of a premium cartridge and they still offer amazing build quality that reduces resonance. On top of that almost all the turntables mentioned have the option to upgrade your setup later on, if you feel like getting even more serious.