While Black Friday may be the best time of the year to upgrade a hi-fi system, it is arguably just as good a time to begin one. If you are beginning to collect vinyl records and are looking to buy a proper music system to play them on that won't cost the earth, may I suggest a simple but entirely satisfying modern set-up that, thanks to the Black Friday hi-fi deals, you can currently save £230 on.
To play records, you need a turntable (of course!), a phono stage, amplification and speakers – and all of those duties can be covered with two modern products that are both highly recommendable five-star performers and together cost £538.
The first is the Sony PS-LX310BT turntable, which is just £199 at Amazon thanks to a £40 Black Friday discount. It ticks off the necessary phono stage box as well and also features a Bluetooth transmitter that lets you wirelessly send your spinning records to Bluetooth speakers.
That brings me to the second product, the ELAC Debut ConneX DCB41 speakers, which are now only £339 at Peter Tyson courtesy of a £190 Black Friday saving. These What Hi-Fi? Award-winning speakers are powered, so have built-in amplification, and also sport a Bluetooth receiver, meaning they can wirelessly pair with the Sony turntable and play its records cable-free!
Plonk them both on a sturdy desktop or bookshelf, fire them up and pair them together via Bluetooth, and away you go spinning and streaming records! You can, of course, physically connect the two together instead using the RCA audio cable that comes with the turntable; just plug it into the speakers' RCA inputs. Your records will sound better that way. The speakers also have HDMI (ARC), USB (24-bit/96kHz) and optical inputs for connecting your TV or another audio source, and of course Bluetooth is handy for mobile streaming too.
As both the Sony turntable and Elac speakers have integrated phono stages, I would advise using one, before then switching to the other – this is via simple switches on both products – to see which offers a better sound. Other than that, this duo couldn't be more straightforward to set up and use. It's an easy recommendation for me to make to vinyl newcomers.
Possible system tweaks
If you want to spend a little less, you could swap the Elacs out for the Q Acoustics M20, which are also five-star (albeit not Award-winning) powered speakers that cost a little less this Black Friday – they are £299 at Peter Tyson, down from £440. That would give you a total system spend of £498 instead. This is actually a pairing Sevenoaks recommends, although for a slightly higher price.
Also, if you don't care for wirelessly streaming records to the speakers and are happy with a good old-fashioned wired connection, you could replace the Sony deck with the slightly superior-sounding, same-priced Pro-Ject Primary E, which is the What Hi-Fi? Award winner in the budget deck category. (Just note that this Pro-Ject alternative with the Q Acoustics speaker alternative won't be a harmonious match alone as neither have the required phono stage – you'll need to add an external phono stage one into the chain.)
But honestly, this Sony and Elac pairing is a very fine one indeed, offering wireless convenience, a musical sound and a hefty Black Friday saving. Vinyl starter paths don't get much simpler and sonically satisfying than this.
MORE:
I’m picking the best Black Friday hi-fi deals as they go live – speakers, turntables, amps and more
