Orbit vs Rega - why should I pick which turntable?

[OriginalGeek]

Orbit - https://uturnaudio.com/pages/turntables

Rega - http://www.rega.co.uk/turntables.html

I've read a bit about the Rega and have heard of them for a while. They get great reviews but they also start out quite a bit higher priced than the Orbit. Orbit starts lower but you can customize it and add features that get you up into Rega money anyway.

Problem is I probably would be happy with either so not sure why I'd spend extra money on the Rega however I do want to get a good turntable that has staying power. I have a good sized collection of vinyl from my youth and for the last few years I've only been buying new albums on vinyl.

My goal is to integrate the turntable into a home entertainment system with A/V receiver, computer and all my game systems. I will almost always play the record a few times and then rip it to the PC and create a music server so I can play anything anytime I want. I'll probably compress to mp3 just because average, cocktail party music mix doesn't need to be audiophile quality. And with cheap terrabytes of storage I can keep tons of music readily available. I can always get the record out if the family is gone and the neighbors are on vacation and I wanna sit back and blast my eardrums.

So I haven't heard of Orbit except for ads that pop up on facebook. I assume they pop up because I talk about vinyl and Zuckerberg is always watching. The concept and website look promising but I don;t wanna buy a piece of crap lol.

Anybody heard of or use them?

[Adsos Letter]

1. I have no idea which is best performance-wise.

But I really like the look of the Orbit.

[OriginalGeek]

2. Another point in Orbit's favor

Is the Orbit made in the USA?
All of our turntables are assembled and tested in our Woburn, MA workshop. The large majority of our parts are sourced within the United States. Some of our components (cables, printed circuit boards, motors) come from overseas. We make a conscious effort to work with domestic suppliers whenever possible.

and I can get good for cheap and upgrade as I have the funds instead of paying all up front...

[Mosby]

3. put your money in the cartridge not the turntable.

[OriginalGeek]

5. that's one of the many upgrades available

just at orbit you can go from 0$ (the included AT91B cartridge) up to $211.00 for an Ortofon 2M Blue. But I gather you can buy any cartridge from anywhere and they go way up from those cheapies. (lol, 211 is "cheap" but compared to a $20,000 Koetsu I reckon that's downright poor-folk.) I will be staying comfortably in the poor-folk range. but i will look around - the quick google search that turned up a 20,000 dollar cartridge also turned up months of reading on the subject lol.

[Mosby]

7. i think the hyper-ellipticals are worth the money

Last edited Mon Jan 16, 2017, 03:46 PM - Edit history (1)

There are lots of other needle types now like line contact but I wouldn't get a cartridge below the elliptical level. Square shank and nude mount is an indication of quality. Remember, the turntable does two things, it turns the record at the correct speed and isolates the cartridge from vibration. Everything thing you hear is a result of the cartridge and speakers (and reciever to a much lesser extent)

In my old system I had a fairly cheap pioneer turntable but a really nice audio technica cartridge. Hooked through my pioneer sx-1280 reciever and ESS speakers the sound was incredible and insanely loud.

It's kind of sad how the audio market is these days, no one pays any attention to specs anymore so most of the "surround sound" systems suck, even ones over a grand in price. The Japanese never made good speakers, not in the old and not today.

[OriginalGeek]

8. I'll be building from the ground up so this is all great info

thank you much!

[Mosby]

9. one last tip

Spend as much as you can afford on speakers and pay close attention to the sensitivity rating. Anything 90 and up is going to be really loud. Don't worry about acoustic suspension vs ported/vented, all ported speakers correct the phasing in some way.

Speaker sensitivity is WAY more important that receiver wattage in terms of loudness:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/manufacture/0907/

[OriginalGeek]

10. my boss hates you

but then, he shouldn't have given me access to the internet at work if he didn't want me reading phono articles and DU.

I MEAN, I'M ON MY BREAK YOU NOSY BASTARDS!

pretty sure that'll work.

[progressoid]

4. I'm gonna go ahead and guess that either of those

is better than the Pioneer I got at a thrift shop.

[OriginalGeek]

6. might depend on which Pioneer

They have been known to make both good and "entry-level" stuff I think.

I know in looking at home theater A/V receivers that Onkyo bought Pioneer's high end home theater department so they are getting some upgrades as far as I can tell. Onkyo is one of the brands I am heavily favoring but now I will have to see reviews and prices for the Pioneer end....

But back in the 80s I had an old Pioneer receiver from the 70s that blew away everything my friends had. I bought it from an engineer at a tech company where I was an intern while in school. It was magnificent...until my youthful exuberance for loudness blew it out...or maybe it got old...but it didn't have all the bells and whistles today's units have. Thing was as big as a mini-fridge. My neighbor across the street said he could hear my stereo while he was mowing his lawn.

But I've been living on crappy audio since then so I'm ready top step up my game now that I can kind of afford it lol.