I am a total newb to the world of vinyl but I had been wanting to get into vinyl for a while. I did quite a bit of reading and research prior to settling on purchasing the Angels Horn turn table. I had not found any other turntable with this level of features at this price point, and that was definitely a concern. If it's too good to be true... you get what you pay for... etc thoughts were nagging me. I wanted to be sure I knew what I was getting into. So my first piece of advice is Google this brand and model and read some different reviews, and also watch Youtube videos.
After being confident about what to expect from this purchase, I pulled the trigger. I will say that the setup is not for the feint of heart. I was prepared to spend an hour or so on the setup. First thing I did was ensure the table and unit were perfectly level in three directions. One drawback is that the feet are not adjustable so I used thin rubber washers to make any adjustments. Second was setting up the counter weight and ensuring it had the right amount of down force. I had to loosen some of the tone arm screws and used a small kitchen scale to ensure it was at 3.5 grams. Next was the anti skate weight which I have to agree with other reviewers that the string and weight mechanism is super finicky and janky. I used an old laserdisc (look it up on youtube) and fiddled with it for a while, ultimately I found that the weight was not enough and added a small washer which seemed to help. Finally I adjusted the alignment of the cartridge using the protractor that came with the unit.
After all of that, I was ready to plug it in and listen to records for the first time. I'll preface this by saying I don't have "nice" speakers at this point. I'm using a large bluetooth speaker, and the setup of connecting through bluetooth was super easy with no issues. The first record I threw on was a used one I purchased on ebay and I was disappointed at first. It just sounded muddy, dark, and not clear to me. At that point I cleaned the record and the stylus and took a ton of dust and particles off it, and then it sounded MUCH better. So that's my second tip - clean your records!
I've had a lot of fun collecting a few albums at this point and listening to them. Some sound better than others, and I haven't been totally happy with the sound quality thus far, but a few do sound awesome. And as I said, I don't feel I can completely judge the audio quality without higher quality speakers which I plan to upgrade to soon. I also plan to upgrade the cartridge and stylus in the future.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with this purchase. I knew what I was (and wasn't) getting and I wasn't disappointed. The unit has a lot of higher end features I was looking for at an amazing price and looks absolutely awesome. I'll be curious to see how it sounds through better quality speakers though. Good luck!
