The stereo receiver - the electronic center of the whole system - is a crucial choice, and it may come as a surprise that it is still possible to buy a good one probably for less than its $200 list price. Any good low-cost cartridge will fit these record players, including the exceptionally inexpensive Grado FCE, selling for $35. If you want a similarly capable fully automatic turntable (i.e., one that also starts and cues a record at the mere touch of a button) Onkyo's CP1012F will do it for $150. Their lightweight tonearms will track at stylus pressures no greater than 1.5 grams, thus being kind to your disks, and both models shut themselves off automatically at the end of the play. Both have precision-tooled platters, and high-quality bearings combine with smooth belt drive to keep rumble so low as to be practically inaudible, especially when these turntables are used in conjunction with the smaller speakers most likely to be included in a budget system. With this in mind I tried to pinpoint among current low-cost components a handful of models exceeding the norms of their class - budget paragons that can be relied on for musical pleasure where the money is tight.Īmong turntables, for example, a couple of fine performers can still be had for $135 - Pioneer's PL-2 and Technics' SL-B202. List prices, like those published in this column, are hardly even mentioned in the stores, and on the manufacturing side the audio industry is bravely trying to stir the sluggish market by offering tempting values in terms of cost/performance ratios. By the same token, the soggy economic climate has also softened prices, making sound equipment more affordable. Feeling strapped comes naturally to many people in in the current economy. To prepare for this eventuality I seriously considered what stereo components I might buy if I felt relatively strapped. But what really dashed me was a letter from a reader who asked, ''What if the uncle lives to be a hundred?'' I hadn't thought of that and realized with a shock of dismay that, for all I know, fictive uncles may live forever. One of my correspondents thought it frivolous, fraudulent, or worse to wish the death and spend the inheritance of a rich uncle who never existed.
Some said that my talking of expensive sound gear they couldn't afford made them feel bad. A number of readers were quick to point out that such conditions certainly didn't apply to them. The point of those musings was the choice of stereo components under conditions of financial abundance. Last March I speculated in these pages upon the death of a hypothetical uncle who was to leave me a great deal of money.
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