I don't know what you mean by plug and play. Almost all record players need to be hooked up to something. Mine plugs into my stereo and I listen to it via the Video/Aux channel.

the only plug 'n play i can think of are those old record players with the built in speakers like they had in elementary school...

i have no idea the quality of these, but they look cool...

you can find it and a few others at the musicmanmurray website, something tells me you should be able to find a better price than he advertises...

yeah, you'll want to get something that you have to play through, but get a direct drive and not a belted player

the ones with built in speakers suck. definitely get one that you hook up to a stereo or something.

and absolutely direct drive.

Yeah, I meant hooked up directly to speakers. Someone used the term "plug and play" on an amazon.com review of one, so I suppose I got confused with that.

Direct drive. What else? I notice not all of the ones I look at play at 78rpms, is that something I will need?

Unless you plan on listening to music from the early 1900s, I wouldn't worry about 78s. 78s are the reeeeeally thick records.

33 and 45 are the standards.

I'm looking at this one

good? bad? a better one out there?

What are you looking to do? Do you just want to listen to records? If so, you don't really need something that high end.

Yeah, just listen.

Hey! Hey!

Something I know something about.

1: Look for a local record store. They usually sell record players or sell records to people willing to sell record players. That's how I got mine, and it's fabulous.
2: When hooking up record players, you should have a stereo. These have hookups in the back, and you plug the hookup into the stereo. Fun! The stereo probably hooks up into speakers, blah blah blah. That's about as hard as that gets. If you've got a stereo system, you simply plug the turntable into it.
3: 78s are, for the most part, classical records. You shouldn't worry too much about not having 78, unless you love love love thick shellac classical records.
4: Direct drive adds generally distinct background noise and I would recommend a belt-drive turntable.
5: A grounding cable. You might know all about grounding cables but when I got my turntable it bugged the crap out of me until I figured out that the grounding cable goes into a grounder. I plugged mine into one of the antenna outputs, I guess that worked...

But defenitely seek a local record store, because the owner is probably nuts about records and will give the best advice.

I'd stick with something simple then. I have this one and it works fine. It is belt driven, but it works perfectly well.

direct drive will give a bit of a different sound. i'd recommend trying to listen to that and a belt-driven and decide what you like

if you look you will notice that the one that you are looking at with the link shows below it that you will need a reciever

Direct Drive does lead to motor sound interference.

I have a JVC JLB31, and I love it muchly. Also belt-driven.

And I still have to say, look for a local record store, that's really the only way you're going to get a really secure deal.

There is only one local music store (that I can think of) and I know they are just about cds/dvds. We didn't have a bestbuy or circuit city for a long time and when they came along all the local music stores went out of buisness (about 3).

Now, I'm considering the one tracerbullet has/showed. It looks verysimple and is a good price. What kind of cable hooks this up to a stereo?

Ugh, that sucks.

How are you going to get your LPs, anyways?

just normal RCA cables. although i would recommend buying extension cables for it because they're reeeeeeally short on that model. like only a couple of feet. i have six foot extensions and that helps a lot.

word to the wise: ALWAYS keep your stylus covered when it's not in use. sophomore year my stylus was uncovered and my roommate accidentally hit the play button and my stylus got shredded to hell. luckily i was able to bend it down so it still plays, but i really just need to buy a new stylus at some point.

The internet/seeing bands live and I will be moving to manhattan in august, so it will be very easy then. I already have a favorite music store there.

used record stores are the best. there's a used bookstore right by my school and their basement is FILLED with vinyl

my mom has a plug and play from when she was a liiiittle girl. haha. of course.. she's in her 50's now.
but she'd take it and her records (with her initials, of course!) to her friends houses. lol.
it's blue with a white top with a big red stripe. veryyyy... 60s-y. :D
man. i love it.
now it's mine.
check out the thrift stores and goodwills in the area if you have any.. they sometimes have some good finds!

i totally pwned (i can't believe i said that) the goodwill i used to work at once. i can't remember everything i bought, but it was like the beatles "sgt. peppers", "let it be", "a hard day's night" albums, simon and garfunkel's "sounds of silence", the rolling stones' "through the past, darkly" and a few others for $17

Tracerbullet: how did your roommate accidentally hitting play destroy your stylus? Did you forget to put your stylus up?

my town does have a very nice thrift store. I will have to check it out.

the stylus has a little plastic cover that you're supposed to put down when it's not in use. i didn't have the cover down and there was no record on the player, so when he hit play, the machine began playing and the stylus rubbed against the empty platter (the plastic mat that you put the record on) and it got shredded.

Ugh, what a weird design. On most record players, to my knowledge, you just lift the stylus up and to the right and it stays up.

on that record player you don't touch the stylus at all. pressing play automatically moves it to the record, and there's an up/down button if you need to reposition it.

it wouldn't have been a problem if i had been paying attention, but i didn't notice it playing for about 10 seconds

Ah. That's still an awful design. There's basically no failsafe?

Pretty much. The failsafe is the plastic cover.

It's really not a bad design. It could definitely be better, but it's not that bad. It serves its purpose.

Some day I might get a better player, but not in the near future.

I did not read all of the posts, so forgive me if I am repeating this....Numark makes a portable turntable with a speaker (and yes the speaker sucks) but it also has headphone jacks and such...it runs off AC or DC and it goes for $100...its called the PT-01...its for portable use and you dont need an amp...may or may not be what you are looking for...

I wouldn't recommend a portable turntable, because their overall quality tends to be very low.

I'm still trying to market my in-dash car turntable so you can listen to records while you drive, but it just doesn't seem to be catching on yet.

*sigh*

or rather, on-dash

I think they gave that idea a good try in the 60's before tape decks.

HEY VINYL JERKOFFA STPs?