Pre-Amp
A separate pre-amplifier is needed for most stereos these days to play from a record player. I got the NAD PP 1 which has been doing a good job so far. It is a small box that will just slide behind or under some shelf and do its work when necessary.
Belt Drive
You will have to put the belt over the lower wheel to play those 45s.
When I was fifteen or so I got my parents’ old record player – some 1970s monstrosity. Back then I bought a handful of Led Zeppelin records and after listening to those and to some childhood Smurf records for a few times the record player broke. I didn’t investigate getting a new one because, well, my compact stereo back then didn’t even have a pre-amplifier and those weren't many records anyway.
But when getting my new stereo I really wanted a record player as well. Mostly because I had bought a 7″ when seeing Hefner play. While this was meant to be a present for a friend, over time the idea of keeping it and getting a record player evolved. I started off quite clueless but a little investigation showed that despite being not that popular these days there are a number of resaonably good record players you can get these days.
If you value the music sounding good more than being able to handle the record player roughly in a club, you don't want to get a machine like the much-lauded Technics-1212. It may be a classic and it may be incredibly sturdy but it just doesn't sound that good. It's not exactly cheap either. Of course I used the opportunity to listen to the LP12 – which must be one of the most widely and consistently acclaimed record players – when I bought my stereo, but with prices between 4000 and 10000€ or so even getting one of those used was out of question.
I contemplated getting one of the simple Pro-ject turntables, which come at a reasonable price and which everybody seems to be quite happy with, but then I had the opportunity to get a used Rega Planar 3 in a good condition for a reasonable price.
The turntable is a bastion of simplicity and it’s hard to imagine how a record player could be simpler. There is a single switch to turn the drive on and off. The motor is fixed beneath the wooden board and just extends a rotating wheel above the board where the thin belt takes the motion to the turntable which is quite heavy and made of glass. The tone arm is completely separate from this and comes with the standard fixtures and controls.
The only annoyance of the player is caused by this simplicity as well: There is no switch to toggle between 33 and 45 rpm. You have to lift off the turntable and put the belt over a differeent wheel to change speeds. That's quite inconvenient and probably accounts for half of my dislike of singles.