Yes noise is a reality, varies greatly depending on the quality of the vinyl. Be prepared to invest time and effort to clean the vinyl to get the best sound. Even at that in my experience you must learn to live with a least a minimal amount of noise.
With that said, let me say do it! You will not believe how much better vinyl sounds. I've got a couple of 10K CD players and my used 700.00 turntable/arm/cartridge smokes em. I have a hard time getting excited about digital sound at all at this point. I was bothered at first by the clicks/pops/noise, but it's slowly not bothering me as much and I'm improving it greatly by learning how to clean the vinyl right. I have yet to find out if a better setup will improve on that or not. How CD sound ever passed for perfect I'll never know. I can only imagine what vinyl loving audiophiles must have thought when CDs were introduced and subsequently cut into the stock of available vinyl. CDs are still neccesary and great of course since most new music is only available there, but there are also a lot of older recordings only on vinyl too.
I'm no expert on what to buy, but if I were spending 2500.00 I would try for a used Nottingham Spacedeck (real unfussy to use for a vinyl newbee) and spend the rest on a cartridge of your choice. I bought a Nottingham Horizon and it's fantastic.
I have a friend who vists and hears my system a lot. He is amazed by the improvment vinyl brings over CD. His comment on it was.... Listening to digital is like looking at a very high quality photo print. Listening to vinyl is like looking at the real thing through a slighty dirty window.
With that said, let me say do it! You will not believe how much better vinyl sounds. I've got a couple of 10K CD players and my used 700.00 turntable/arm/cartridge smokes em. I have a hard time getting excited about digital sound at all at this point. I was bothered at first by the clicks/pops/noise, but it's slowly not bothering me as much and I'm improving it greatly by learning how to clean the vinyl right. I have yet to find out if a better setup will improve on that or not. How CD sound ever passed for perfect I'll never know. I can only imagine what vinyl loving audiophiles must have thought when CDs were introduced and subsequently cut into the stock of available vinyl. CDs are still neccesary and great of course since most new music is only available there, but there are also a lot of older recordings only on vinyl too.
I'm no expert on what to buy, but if I were spending 2500.00 I would try for a used Nottingham Spacedeck (real unfussy to use for a vinyl newbee) and spend the rest on a cartridge of your choice. I bought a Nottingham Horizon and it's fantastic.
I have a friend who vists and hears my system a lot. He is amazed by the improvment vinyl brings over CD. His comment on it was.... Listening to digital is like looking at a very high quality photo print. Listening to vinyl is like looking at the real thing through a slighty dirty window.