Agree with the "don't spend money" logic.
I resurrected my 28yr old TT before I dove into vinyl. Bought a Nagaoka MP-110 and installed it. (Had to, because the old Shure was dead). Did the adjustments to the TT/arm/cartridge. Bought a good pressing of Kind of Blue and did some comparative listening. I liked what I heard and have not looked back. Now, the Red is by no means a crappy cartridge. I installed one on my friends Rega P2 and after the break in period, it sounds just fine. I chose it because he has a lot of old vinyl and I thought it would be forgiving on surface noise and other annoyances.
It is a bit of an expense as you will be hunting for good pressings of your favorites, and they more often than not are kinda pricy.
You are going to find that you're going to want a proper record cleaning machine to be able to get the most out of your records. After having listened to "clean" digital files, you may or may not be comfortable w the snap crackle and oppose of vinyl...
Get what you have set up properly, or confirm that it is set up right. Get a good pressing of one of your fav's and let the cart break in.
If you like what you hear with that, it will only get better w better TT/arm/cart.
Good luck!
P
