Vinyl for Small Spaces
I have been collecting vinyl for approximately 6 years, though only seriously for 3 or 4. I do not consider myself an audiophile. For me the hobby is more about discovery and intention. Like many I truly enjoy browsing through record stores, looking for something new, or hoping to come across something I have long desired at a reasonable price. I find as much joy in the discovery of a $5 album from the sale rack as I do from the latest release from my favorite musician or band.
The listening area on moving day.
Beyond the thrill of discovery vinyl is an opportunity to sit down with my wife, have a cocktail and decompress from the day. Streaming music becomes a background noise that is easy to ignore. For us it is more about the intention of sitting down, removing other distractions and having a conversation. It has become a daily ritual for us, after work and before dinner to just relax and spend some time with our music and more importantly with each other.
Let me clear, I have nothing against anyone that takes the hobby to to a deeply detailed level. Far from it! I am amazed by their knowledge and expertise. It just isn't where I am right now, or maybe will ever be, in this hobby. Maybe Ill get there someday, but for now I am happy spending most my time skimming the surface of this vast hobby, occasionally diving deep and drooling over a multi-thousand dollar set up.
I may never be in the market for a $10,000 turntable. My current equipment is still the first "serious" equipment I purchased with some minor upgrades. As my budget has increased over the years I have realized, for my use case, and more importantly the spaces I choose to live in, it is more than sufficient for me.
The console.
Since starting this hobby we have always lived in a condo, or apartment. This means sharing walls, ceilings and a floor with neighbors. I know how I feel about people who play music to loud, to late, and I am determined not to be that person. While I would like to be able to crank the volume as high as I want, that just isn't the reality of how I choose to live now days. We owned a home for over a decade, and for now, living in a space where I don't have a yard to maintain, or significant maintenance to perform is perfect.
We also have an aesthetic we wanted to maintain. Living in a downtown condo meant our living space was one room. We already invested in several vintage midcentury modern pieces, and felt our listening area should match. We were lucky to find a vintage Sylvania console for a decent price at a local shop.
Like a glove!
Which brings us to the main point of this post; what equipment I chose and why. First the turntable, the Fluance RT80. I won't go into the specs, or a review of the Fluance here. There are dozens of reviews already, and to sum them up, everyone that I have read or viewed gives positive reviews of the entire Fluance line. Which was one reason for picking a Fluance to begin with. I chose the RT80 because it was within the budget I set. We could have afforded the RT81 or RT82, but when I purchased it we owned perhaps 30 records, and I wasn't sure how involved in the hobby we would get. I didn't want to spend a significant amount on a piece of equipment I used once a month. It also has a built in pre-amp, which meant less initial equipment to buy. Fortunately, the pre-amp can be bypassed, so there were options for future upgrades. Finally, and most importantly, it fit perfectly in the Sylvania.
To compliment the RT80 I went with Edifier R1280T powered speakers. Again, these have been reviewed several times, and are highly rated for the price. I paid less than $100 in 2017. These would be enclosed in the cabinet, which meant they had to have a remote to adjust the volume. Finally, they have two inputs, which meant I was able to connect the Fluance to one, and our Google Chrome Sound into the other. This gave us the options to both listen to vinyl, and stream from our phones.
That was it, the first, and only system I purchased. Other than the console, everything was ordered directly from Amazon. According to my order history both the turntable and speakers cost less than $270 in 2017. Prices have gone up a bit, but for not much more today you get a upgradable turntable, and good sounding speakers. I have made a couple small upgrades that I will discuss later, but I have no doubt the original setup would still work for us today. It fits our every need and requirement, especially when you take into account how we live.
