Refurb old budget turntable or buy new?

[cwis]

After years of gritting my teeth and listening to music through smart speakers and the like, I've decided to dip a very tiny toe back into the HiFi pool...

I went up my parents loft over the weekend and retrieved my NAD 5120 turntable (tubular arm model). It's been up there maybe 30 years?

The good news:
Motor spins silently, likewise platter. I had a new drive belt ready but the old one looked ok actually. The whole unit is in good condition apart from..

The bad news:
The stylus appears to be broken - the needle is at a jaunty angle. It's a Goldring G1012 cartridge. I think I know where all my money went when I was a student...

I looked up getting a replacement and good news - Goldring do a compatible replacement D12GX stylus that would cost me 175 quid. I'll also need a pre amp as my weeny Tangent amp doesn't have a phono stage. Let's say 75 quid?

So - is it worth it? Or I would I be better off buying a new budget deck for say 250 quid?

[mac96]

If you are sure that the table itself and the arm are OK, I would get a new stylus or cartridge for it. I doubt that a new deck for £250 including stylus would be an improvement in sound quality.

In any case styli wear out, you wouldn't buy a new car because it needed new brakes!

[Dragster]

mac96 said:

If you are sure that the table itself and the arm are OK, I would get a new stylus or cartridge for it. I doubt that a new deck for £250 including stylus would be an improvement in sound quality.

In any case styli wear out, you wouldn't buy a new car because it needed new brakes!

/\ This. 5120 was a decent deck.

I'm surprised the belt is good after all this time..........might be a little egg shaped. I don't think the 5120 had a very heavy platter and a below par belt might cause some pitch instability.

Anyway.........new stylus first. Hope it works out well.

[Lucid_AV]

cwis said:

After years of gritting my teeth and listening to music through smart speakers and the like, I've decided to dip a very tiny toe back into the HiFi pool...

I went up my parents loft over the weekend and retrieved my NAD 5120 turntable (tubular arm model). It's been up there maybe 30 years?

The good news:
Motor spins silently, likewise platter. I had a new drive belt ready but the old one looked ok actually. The whole unit is in good condition apart from..

The bad news:
The stylus appears to be broken - the needle is at a jaunty angle. It's a Goldring G1012 cartridge. I think I know where all my money went when I was a student...

I looked up getting a replacement and good news - Goldring do a compatible replacement D12GX stylus that would cost me 175 quid. I'll also need a pre amp as my weeny Tangent amp doesn't have a phono stage. Let's say 75 quid?

So - is it worth it? Or I would I be better off buying a new budget deck for say 250 quid?

£250 in a new budget deck won't come anywhere near the performance of the NAD.

Phono preamps: Have a look at the Art Precision Pro at £80. It has excellent headroom which means it won't emphasise pops and clicks from records like some of the more popular choices might. It also has a rumble filter (low cut) which can be switched in or out. Good little unit.

[cwis]

Dragster said:

/\ This. 5120 was a decent deck.

I'm surprised the belt is good after all this time..........might be a little egg shaped. I don't think the 5120 had a very heavy platter and a below par belt might cause some pitch instability.

Anyway.........new stylus first. Hope it works out well.

I will be chucking the old belt. I was just a bit surprised it hadn't turned into dust!

[cwis]

Thanks all for the replies - I had no idea the 5120 was still so well regarded!

it looks like the arm is fine (damper is dry of oil however so I'll need to refil that) and even the motor is rebuildable and replacable so it looks like a refurb is the way forwards.

I'll check out the phono amp suggestion - many thanks for that - I was looking at a valve phono amp just because I liked the way it looked, to be honest:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fosi-Audio-Preamplifier-P...

Maybe I should concentrate more on function rather than form...

[Panamax]

cwis said:

Maybe I should concentrate more on function rather than form...

What are you going to play on it?
Phono amps cover a huge price range; I'm not sure you'll get a lot for £75 (the other turntable thread shows an £8,000 one).

Against this background your function vs form point is IMO a point well made. If you've already got a vinyl collection then fettling the old turntable and adding a modest pre-amp looks like a good starting point. Here's a handy link to an up-to-date review of budget models which might be worth a look,
https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/accessories/bes...

[Panamax]

To add, Richer Sounds have phono pre-amps from £69 in their Black Friday sale if you want a cheap start. Or they'll sell you a well regarded budget one for £169,
https://www.richersounds.com/cambridge-audio-solo-...

[cwis]

Panamax said:

cwis said:

Maybe I should concentrate more on function rather than form...

What are you going to play on it?
Phono amps cover a huge price range; I'm not sure you'll get a lot for £75 (the other turntable thread shows an £8,000 one).

Against this background your function vs form point is IMO a point well made. If you've already got a vinyl collection then fettling the old turntable and adding a modest pre-amp looks like a good starting point. Here's a handy link to an up-to-date review of budget models which might be worth a look,
https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/accessories/bes...

I had a modest vinyl collection before my brother nicked it (and gave me some nicely sampled flacs to be fair!) a while ago. I'll probably have that back and also borrow some more off him - it'll mostly be fairly elderly originally analog mastered music.

Thanks for the link! I'm aware that this can be an expensive hobby, but I'm also aware that the cash/performance ratio starts off fairly steep.

I'll be setting this up in a small room, with a cheap amp and speakers so the quality of sound will be primarily be constrained by the rest of the kit and the environment - as long as the £80 pre amp works properly I don't think I'll notice the difference between a £80 and an £800 one because the rest of the system is so compromised...

[Lucid_AV]

Panamax said:

To add, Richer Sounds have phono pre-amps from £69 in their Black Friday sale if you want a cheap start. Or they'll sell you a well regarded budget one for £169,
https://www.richersounds.com/cambridge-audio-solo-...

The Cambridge Audio Duo is the one to have, but it's a lot pricier due to the MC input. For MM, good headroom, accurate RIAA implementation, low distortion in general, and excellent flat frequency response. The only 'Could do better' on the report card is the +10kHz THD with +0.04V MM cartridge output, but this is being a bit picky.

Sadly, the Solo doesn't follow in the family footsteps. There's a weird frequency response thing going on. ASR measurements.

[Lucid_AV]

cwis said:

I'll check out the phono amp suggestion - many thanks for that - I was looking at a valve phono amp just because I liked the way it looked, to be honest:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fosi-Audio-Preamplifier-P...

If you sit and look at your Hi-Fi, get the pretty lightbulb phono pre. But if you listen to your system, just get the best phono amp you can for the money. Leave the jewellery to others.

cwis said:

Maybe I should concentrate more on function rather than form...

Can't argue with that.

[richhead]

dont forget that records are a very floored format for music, yes the faults can give atmosphere, read crap sound, I would just buy a cheap new player with a built in amp tbh.
If you want quality then cd or lossless is the way.
I have a great hifi, and havnt used the turn table in years.
just an alternative view before all the vinyl geeks jump on me, and i understand the nostalgia point, but that is all it is.