George3,
Yes, "cart" is short for cartridge.
If you have wood floors over floor joists, wall mounting is preferred, generally speaking. Be sure to bolt into the wall studs or masonry. See the recent www.6moons.com article on wall mounting, for example.
As recommended by others, the VPI Scout with JMW 9 tonearm is a very fine turntable/tonearm combination with a very good and reasonably priced upgrade path. (E.g., upgrade to the Scoutmaster, the Signature version of the tonearm, add a motor controller...) The upgrade to the Scoutmaster (either intitially or later) is highly recommended, but the basic Scout is very fine. Combine this with a medium-to-high-output cartridge of choice (e.g., Grado Sonata, Shelter 501, Sumiko Blackbird, Denon 103R), and you've got a very competitive vinyl set-up.
For record cleaning, my recommendation will be to start with Disc Doctor's Miracle Record Cleaner and manual cleaning procedure. Add a record cleaning machine later only for the added convenience, not for any improvement in cleaning results. (NB: I've used a VPI HW-17 record cleaning machine here for nearly 20 years and wouldn't be without it. But it's the Disc Doctor that makes the difference in cleaning results.)
Good luck on your journey into vinyl!
Yes, "cart" is short for cartridge.
If you have wood floors over floor joists, wall mounting is preferred, generally speaking. Be sure to bolt into the wall studs or masonry. See the recent www.6moons.com article on wall mounting, for example.
As recommended by others, the VPI Scout with JMW 9 tonearm is a very fine turntable/tonearm combination with a very good and reasonably priced upgrade path. (E.g., upgrade to the Scoutmaster, the Signature version of the tonearm, add a motor controller...) The upgrade to the Scoutmaster (either intitially or later) is highly recommended, but the basic Scout is very fine. Combine this with a medium-to-high-output cartridge of choice (e.g., Grado Sonata, Shelter 501, Sumiko Blackbird, Denon 103R), and you've got a very competitive vinyl set-up.
For record cleaning, my recommendation will be to start with Disc Doctor's Miracle Record Cleaner and manual cleaning procedure. Add a record cleaning machine later only for the added convenience, not for any improvement in cleaning results. (NB: I've used a VPI HW-17 record cleaning machine here for nearly 20 years and wouldn't be without it. But it's the Disc Doctor that makes the difference in cleaning results.)
Good luck on your journey into vinyl!