tube record players

[vashuba]

Looking to get a record player. I would to get a tube one. Anyone have experince with these. I see some on ebay for $100( not tube) i am just going on the assumption that the tube ones will sound better from my guitar amp experience. I cant seem to find many.

[Scooter Burbank]

Looking to get a record player. I would to get a tube one. Anyone have experince with these. I see some on ebay for $100( not tube) i am just going on the assumption that the tube ones will sound better from my guitar amp experience. I cant seem to find many.

Not sure that's the right assumption to make. None of the turntables that I'm aware of use tubes. A lot of hi-fi enthusiasts use tube amps, but to my knowledge tube turntables are not widely used.

[eliot1025]

Yup.

[GCDEF]

Turntables aren't guitar amps. They aren't any kind of amp. What would you even do with a tube in one. Tube guitar amps are popular because of their distortion, not a desirable quality in turntables.

This has to be a joke.

[pennylink]

A record player/turntable is simply a mechanical device that turns a vinyl record at a constant speed, and is fitted with an arm/cartridge/stylus that transfers sound to an amplifier. No tubes required for that. Hi-fi amplifiers on the other hand sometimes use tubes. Maybe that's what the OP is thinking of?

[supergenius365]

And while I love my Scott tube amplifier, there are many good to great sounding SS amplifiers for record listening fwiw.

[itkindaworks]

Turntables aren't guitar amps. They aren't any kind of amp. What would you even do with a tube in one. Tube guitar amps are popular because of their distortion, not a desirable quality in turntables.

This has to be a joke.
I assume the OP just lumped record player and amplifier into the same boat.

I don't really think tube guitar amps are popular for their distortion, but how/when/why they go into distortion and the inherent "warmth". Once they do distort, it's certainly more pleasing than SS.

People listening to music on HIFI tube consoles are looking for the same thing, the warmth. Plus these amplifiers are designed for little to almost non existent distortion, something that guitarists don't really want in an amp.

[guitarjazz]

In grade school the music teacher had a self-contained record player with tubes, and it sounded like doo-doo.

[jmczaja]

Skip the tube turntables.. If you want one that sounds great, reasonably priced and will last forever, look into one of these:

http://www.rega.co.uk/html/RP1.htm

Great turntable!

[itkindaworks]

In grade school the music teacher had a self-contained record player with tubes, and it sounded like doo-doo.
Tubes don't necessarily make junk turn into awesome. If it's poorly designed then it's poorly designed.

[Rockledge]

I have a tube record player. Most of them really are not good for records, they had old style needles and tracked quite heavily.
It is best to have a tube stereo amp and run a modern turntable into it.

Tube record players that are in good shape sound fantastic, my first record player was a very early stereo one. But I wouldn't use it now, that thing ate records.
Also, the old tube record players did not have strobe adjustments on them.

[guitarjazz]

Tubes don't necessarily make junk turn into awesome. If it's poorly designed then it's poorly designed.

However, if we could plug a guitar into it it might be semi-godlyke!

[tiktok]

In grade school the music teacher had a self-contained record player with tubes, and it sounded like doo-doo.

That was my first record player. It sounded warm and punchy. Until smoke came out the back and it completely stopped working around 1979.

[musicofanatic5]

In grade school the music teacher had a self-contained record player with tubes, and it sounded like doo-doo.
I have one of those and it sounds great (single 6V6 power amp!)! Naturally the "tone-arm"/stylus is low-grade and I would not play any of my good records on it.

The dead giveaway for me was the OP's choice of the term rekkerd player. Most who have a clue call it a turntable, of course.

[Rockledge]

I have one of those and it sounds great (single 6V6 power amp!)! Naturally the "tone-arm"/stylus is low-grade and I would not play any of my good records on it.

The dead giveaway for me was the OP's choice of the term rekkerd player. Most who have a clue call it a turntable, of course.

This made me chuckle. When I got my first couple of stereos there was no such animal as a "turntable".
Everybody had "rekkerd players".
Of course, I still sometimes call fridge the "ice box" too.
Which when I was a kid was a common name for it.