A friend asking me for recommendations for in upgradable Vinyl system.

He wants to keep it cheap with the ability to incrementally upgrade later.

I'm thinking

Music Hall MMF 2.2 $400
Yamaha receiver $350 75W Has a phone preamp and the ability to be used as just a preamp or just an amp later.
Speakers ??? something in the $500 a pair range.

I was curious if any of you had suggestions in this lower end of the market.

Sadly I gave away a system that might have been a good fit
Dual turntable - Onkyo integrated amp 70W with separate amp / preamp sections and Boston Acoustics Speakers.

These speakers, much less than the $500 range, get pretty good reviews.
http://www.stereophile.com/content/pioneer-sp-bs22-lr-loudspeaker#LBZISOkIZfiSO4br.97

Their big brother, floorstanders, sell for twice as much, but still less than $500. They are mentioned in the review link.

How about the PS Audio Sprout integrated amp for $500? 50w/ch. It has phono in, among other stuff. Caveat: I only know it from Paul McGowan's monthly newsletter; no first-hand experience.

Thanks for the link. That definitely fits in his price range.

I think I will give him a bunch of options.

Receiver that can be split and used as a preamp or amp
Receiver that can not be split

Book shelf and floor standing speakers.

I don't think you can go much lower than the MF 2.2 and still have a reasonably capable record player.

Bose Acoustimass 5 stereo speaker system.

$399.95.

I had a childhood neighbor close friend whose first music system comprised of the acoustimass 5 loudspeakers first version.

The year was 1989 and the sound from modest sony source and receiver was great. The woofer was kept in a corner.

The satellites were fixed about 8 feet high on the wall in front.

Great room filling clear and dynamic sound with hardly any distortion.

The magnepan MMG offer great value too.

A great budget power amplifier is the Odyssey Audio Khartago. Price $995. Used in tandem with MMG

should make the MMG sound great. Phonostage Vincent Audio PHO-8. $400.

I would not recommend the Music Hall TT. Instead Rega RP1 with Bias 2 cartridge. $640. Quality better than MH TT.

Bernard said:

How about the PS Audio Sprout integrated amp for $500? 50w/ch. It has phono in, among other stuff. Caveat: I only know it from Paul McGowan's monthly newsletter; no first-hand experience.

Click to expand...

I have to disagree with Bernard. The price of PS Audio Sprout is $799. Made in China. This integrated amp got a good review in May 2015 Stereophile.

He told me that he got his first system ordered, but he hasn't told me what he got yet.

He told me earlier that he might consider looking at the used market or see if someone was selling something way below value.

I'll be curious to see where he went with this. We talked about a lot of options.

He has a large multi-purpose room with a pool table in the center, lots of glass windows, a two level ceiling and no good place to set up across from a pair of speakers where you might have a chance of getting a good stereo image.

This is a very challenging space and he was hoping to be able to do some critical listening.

My guess is that I will just need to be supportive and smile after he shows me what he did

Oh well.

I can see where this is going.

Whenever anyone asks this question, I recommend products that are available through stores that offer a 30 - 60 money back. Lots of good budget choices.

Sounds like he didn't listen to you.

His loss.

And you can smile until he asks you what you think.

M15 said:

I have to disagree with Bernard. The price of PS Audio Sprout is $799. Made in China. This integrated amp got a good review in May 2015 Stereophile.

Click to expand...

As I said, I got the price from the monthly newsletter of Paul McGowan, owner of PS Audio.

Bernard said:

View attachment 18233
As I said, I got the price from the monthly newsletter of Paul McGowan, owner of PS Audio.

Click to expand...

I got my price of $799 from May 2015 Stereophile. My apologies for you are right with your price quote and my price quote is not recent and is now no longer relevant or useful.

Once again, sorry about that.

I must have blinked....
Where in the PS Audio sprout product description does it state it is vinyl based as per the OP question?

RcH, the MMF is a decent starting point.
Pre-owned turntables e.g. LP12, Gyro, Rega, may be interesting (with a little bit of extra investment) which gets him significantly further up the scale. (Setup may be an issue with LP12s though)

Victor said:

I must have blinked....
Where in the PS Audio sprout product description does it state it is vinyl based as per the OP question?

RcH, the MMF is a decent starting point.
Pre-owned turntables e.g. LP12, Gyro, Rega, may be interesting (with a little bit of extra investment) which gets him significantly further up the scale. (Setup may be an issue with LP12s though)

Click to expand...

PS Audio Sprout does have vinyl input. The input selector, selects vinyl. Only being polite designer has not termed it phono rather vinyl. A euphemism.

Right. Got it.