Turntable noobie...what advice do you have?

@mijostyn: Good point about the Dust Bug not being conductive; that had not occurred to me. It's been a long time, but I seem to recall the Bug traversing an LP side at about the same rate as the arm on my AR turntable (this was in 1969, before some of you were born ;-).

One thing that makes such a device irrelevant to me is the fact that imo the most important time to neutralize any static charge on an LP is before you clean it. If, like mijostyn, you don't "believe" in cleaning an LP before playing (other than with a dusting brush, of which I have the Hunt, Decca, and new Audioquest), I guess you disagree. We all find our own preferences in LP care; whatever works for you is cool.

Consumer alert: A while back I instigated a thread dedicated to disclosing the used LP's I had recently obtained, which has laid dormant for quite some time. For the benefit of my Portland neighbors, I will now go to it and list the LP's I brought home this week. 

Clicks and Pops, poorly produced new vinyl, poor storage  medium. Every time you play it  you degrade the record, permanently, especially with the low priced cart that will end up on the end of your arm. And whats the point of new releases digitally recorded transferred to vinyl?

Put some money into a GOOD DAC,, a tube one if you like. I have a Kora Hermes with a dual tube output  stage and it makes anything plugged into it sound gorgeous and analog like.

Forget the hipster turntable,their time has come and gone....

Why bother, really.  Clicks and pops, poor new pressing, digitally recored music transferred to plastic?  Whats the point. If you need to see something go round and round go open reel.

Much sexier than a Thorens.

Alright, the RPM 3 Carbon was delivered as well as the Mobile Fidelity StudioPhono.  I set the turntable up and the the stylus pressure using the little balancing stylus pressure gauge that came with it.  I have a digital scale but I wanted to use the other method first. I hooked up the wiring and connected it all to my amp.  I cleaned my Purple Rain album, put it on and started the motor.  Everything is move correctly so I positioned the arm/stylus and used the little level to drop it.  Low and behold...MUSIC!!!  Unfortunately it was Alvin and the Chipmunks doing a cover of Prince's Purple Rain.  So I lifted the arm and stopped the motor. I then moved the belt to the other spindle and tried again.  Much better this time.  Prince sounded much more like himself. 

I am currently listening to Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon and it sounds great.  Some pops here and there but certainly nothing that takes away from the music.  However, I went to adjust the volume and realized that I do that through the pre-amp/DAC which is not in this chain.   My amp does does not have its own volume control.  I checked the player and I don't see one nor do I see anything on the Mobile Fidelity.  DOH! Does anyone have an idea to make this work?  The only thing I can think of is to find cables that will go from RCA (phone side) to 3 pin XLR so that I can connect it into my pre-amp/DAC.