I recently did what you are asking about, I lacked an analog front end and phono section but read all the stuff about how great and superior to digital that vinyl sounds and had to find out for myself.
I left a wanted to buy on this board and decided on a Rega Planar 3 about 3 years old, with an SME 3009 III and a new Benz Micro MC20E2 cart all mounted. It took weeks to receive as the cart neede to be replaced (blown channel) and I grew impatient.
Here is the key point, I believe, to this post. Analog requires commitment and patience on the user's part in a way that digital does not. I was ready after a few weeks to chuck the whole thing and sell it, went as far as listing it on other forums as for sale. I was sick of hand cleaning records slavishly to reduce surface noise. Getiing up after 20 minutes to put another one on the player.
Then a strange thing happened, I was listening to a decent copy of Bach's Brandenburgs and the violins and cello's actually sounded like stringed wooden instruments. The drive and pace of the music was palpable, it added to the joy of listening. An occasional crackly was forgiven.
No more plans to sell. A record cleaning machine appears to be a near necessity but even without it, I hear the differences and I like them. I haven't sold my Sony SACD player and I intend to keep it because it gives me pleasure too.
My costs to get here were around $700 USD,-TT setup, phono section, interconnects, stylus force gauge shipping etc.
So 200 GBP might be light.
For me it became like a relationship, I had to work at it for it to work.
I left a wanted to buy on this board and decided on a Rega Planar 3 about 3 years old, with an SME 3009 III and a new Benz Micro MC20E2 cart all mounted. It took weeks to receive as the cart neede to be replaced (blown channel) and I grew impatient.
Here is the key point, I believe, to this post. Analog requires commitment and patience on the user's part in a way that digital does not. I was ready after a few weeks to chuck the whole thing and sell it, went as far as listing it on other forums as for sale. I was sick of hand cleaning records slavishly to reduce surface noise. Getiing up after 20 minutes to put another one on the player.
Then a strange thing happened, I was listening to a decent copy of Bach's Brandenburgs and the violins and cello's actually sounded like stringed wooden instruments. The drive and pace of the music was palpable, it added to the joy of listening. An occasional crackly was forgiven.
No more plans to sell. A record cleaning machine appears to be a near necessity but even without it, I hear the differences and I like them. I haven't sold my Sony SACD player and I intend to keep it because it gives me pleasure too.
My costs to get here were around $700 USD,-TT setup, phono section, interconnects, stylus force gauge shipping etc.
So 200 GBP might be light.
For me it became like a relationship, I had to work at it for it to work.