It was a French inventor, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, who first realized the process of recording sound back in 1857. For those in a hurry, here’s the short version:
To fully understand where the terms record player and turntable come from, we need to step back in time, back to the origins of recorded sound.įor a full history of record players and turntables, check out our previous article. A Brief History of the Record Player and Turntable
Most built-in speakers on record players sound pretty underwhelming turntables require you to have separate powered speaker systems, which means you can incrementally upgrade any part of the system as and when budget allows. Not to mention, you’re in the driving seat when it comes the rest of your system too. You can’t choose to upgrade parts of it further down the line, whereas with a turntable, you can easily swap the cartridge for something higher-end, perhaps upgrade the platter, or even (in some cases) change the whole tonearm. With an all-in-one record player you are buying convenience and a fixed product. With vinyl records, how accurately you track the record is so fundamental to the sound quality as no amount of improving on the signal from here will make up for poor quality tracking at the source. If the device isn’t precisely aligned and the stylus is tracking too heavy (or even too lightly), it will result in excessive groove wear.Įvery element of an audio system affects the final sound quality.
The more accurately you can track the record groove, the kinder the process to the record groove. These components and settings are pre-set at the factory by design and are not user-adjustable in the vast majority of cases. Most record players aren’t built with quite the same attention to detail when it comes to tonearm performance, alignment, and tracking force. They have a really appealing retro aesthetic, but most are designed for the affordable end of the market and do not have the same build or component quality as even some of the most affordable turntables. Build Qualityīrands such as Victrola, Crosley, and Steepletone design all-in-one record players. In summary, it’s all a matter of balancing convenience, price, and sound quality.Ī good quality turntable will perform better in the three core areas of build quality, record wear, and ultimately, sound quality. Like most things in Hi-Fi, the more you separate the components of a system, the better that device will perform the task. The trade-off, of course, is sound quality and performance. Most modern record players sit in the affordable category these days, so it’s a quick and affordable way to start spinning records. The answer depends on your intentions are you getting into vinyl records for the sound quality and a Hi-Fi experience, or are you starting a collection mainly for the aesthetic and a retro vibe?Īlso, what is your budget? Record players are generally a cheaper route to getting started with vinyl as they’re ready to go out-of-the-box without any additional equipment. Which is Better? Turntable or Record Player?
Some turntables have a built-in phono preamp, but most will require you to buy an external device, or plug into a phono preamp built into your receiver or amplifier.įor simplicity, if your turntable has bluetooth connectivity, you could consider a direct bluetooth connection to your bluetooth speaker or Hi-Fi system. To learn more about this process in detail, check out our article ‘why do I need a phono preamp’ A phono preamp does this by applying the industry standard RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) equalization curve. Otherwise, the music will sound tinny and very quiet. To play back a record, we need to reverse this process. This equalization helps to permit longer recording times by keeping groove dimensions small, while also increasing sound quality and decreasing record wear. Also, when a record is cut, the bass frequencies are reduced, and the high frequencies are boosted. You see, the signal produced by a record cartridge is very weak (much lower than the standard “line-level signal” produced by other consumer Hi-Fi electronics). Secondly, it will apply an equalization curve to inverse the standard frequency adjustment made during the record cutting process. Firstly, it will amplify the signal level up to a level suitable for the standard AUX input on your system. A phono preamp (or phono stage) is an audio component that performs two critical functions.