Advice for a new analog system

@pindac 100% agree. Unfortunately for us audiophiles, direct experience is unavailable for many brands and units, and most have to rely on the assessments and recommendations of others. As citizens of this community, it is in our best interest to be as helpful to each other as we can, and that is the intent of these discussions. But I agree, there is no better way to land on a decision other than hearing a component in your room and in your system.

@blisshifi The Holy Grail is today the Home Demo' in the Room used for the Set Up.

The next best is to have the demo' in Home where the Set Up and Room are familiar, and some of the Systems devices have been used in your own system.

There is enough on offer to get an extremely good feel for the Sonic of the device under the knife. 

Maybe you don't know that the top 6 tubes on the c1000 are part of an excellent built in phono stage: With whatever TT you choose, you might want to try that 1st before sinking $ into an external phono preamp. As far as choosing TT, You have to go listen. I use a Technics SL1210G with an Ortophon 2m Black with great results and no itch to add another preamp in the mix. If you do decide on adding a preamp, I would think that would consider the 1100 matching phono preamp. It would have been designed by the same design team that worked on C1100. Thus, keeping the true McIntosh sound from source to speakers.

@ftrot 

How important is having multiple arms on a turntable?  This would help narrow suggestions.

There is nothing wrong with VPI products - they are no worse than other turntables. I suspect Agoners who are not fond of VPI is a matter of preference for other brand/model turntable rather than something defective in the design, or they dislike the amount of the cost. 

VPI has been around for a long time and I expect will continue to be around with young Matt Weisfeld taking over the VPI business from his founding father Harry.  VPI generally are high mass simple straightforward designs.  VPI turntables, usually a recent turntable model like the HW40 or Avenger, are commonly found in audio shows systems like AXPONA.

The VPI Avenger Direct offers a top high mass platter, option for up to 3 tonearms, and one of the very best speed accuracy turntables.

I have a VPI Avenger Rim drive.  Although VPI arms are are a fair value at their price points, I opted to get a Kuzma 4point and a Schroeder CB-L.  

@jb1 Yes I am aware of the phono preamp built into the C1100, in fact my local dealer has loaned me a VPI Prime 21 turntable plugged directly into it while I decide on the purchase. I hope to be able to listen to it early next week once the room setup is complete (I'm changing rooms), maybe I will have a chance to listen to it with the CJ phono preamp and compare. I will keep you posted, thank you very much.​​​​​​