The price of turntables can be off putting to people wanting to get in to the vinyl scene. Having heard vinyl for the first time and loving the unique sound, people begin looking for their first turntable.
Comparing the price of turntables at the cheaper end of the market
Some people jump straight in and buy a sub-par plastic turntable. Sold for cheap, these turntables have lots of bells and whistles that might attract an unknowing buyer. Realistically, these turntables mostly provide equal sound quality to a decent CD player. The price just doesn’t add up though. The price of turntables, being niche music players, is much higher in this price range than mass produced CD players. Due to the high level of competition in the CD player market, the competition for a superior product in the ‘affordable’ price range is substantial, whereas record players in the few hundred dollar range are generally novelty items.
The Few Hundred Dollar Range: The Ultimate Value forMoney
Turntables really start to become better value for money around the $300 plus mark. Even budget audiophile turntables like those produced by Rega, Music Hall and Pro-ject produce superior sound to expensive CD players. Many people say that the equivalent sound can only be achieved by paying around $1000 for a CD player. Turntables in this price range start to develop character as well, which is something digital goods will always lack.
Extra things that money can’t buy are the feeling that you get when using your beautiful minimalistic record player. Cueing up the arm on a vinyl record feels so much better than pressing the close button on a CD player.
The Cheap Price of Turntables is a Great Way to Supplement An Existing Hi-Fi System
The real and seemingly obvious answer is that both CD players and turntables can co-exist in peace and harmony. Serious collectors of music often have the two side by side. Vinyl inherently comes with added noises, but generally better sound quality, whereas CD will always be clear and crisp. As compact disk remains the mainstream source of music, availability of CDs will continue to be superior and people with inclinations towards certain genres, particularly classical music, will need CD players to be satisfied. For serious collectors though the price of turntables is easily worth the money since CD players with comparable sound will cost significantly more. The warmth and depth of sound provided by a turntable easily justifies the price of turntables compared to CD players.
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