Analog point of entry...

Readster, I think YOU need to hone your sense. I too was being funny. (The smily face at the end of my sentence was a tell.)

Also, I'm very familiar with Marco's posts in other threads; agreed, very knowledgeable.

If you want something audiophile approved you will probably end up spending $2000 minimum. Thats going with a $1000 table and arm combo plus another $1000 for cartridge and phono stage. The well tempered is a good suggestion if you go this route. I owned a well tempered for many years and its a good belt drive system. The damped arm makes everything pretty{too?} smooth but the bass is only fair. I found something much better with the Lenco idler wheel system but that entails finding a separate tonearm{as well as a Lenco} and before you know it your into armboards, plinths and cartridge swapping but hey I guess thats vinyl{maybe too much hands on}. The advantage is that its much cheaper and you will ultimately have more cartridge choices depending on the tonearm {tonearms} you buy. A problem with this stategy is that even good non-audiophile approved tonearms are becoming expensive lately. Good luck.

I just got back into vinyl playback about a month ago. Here's what I acquired for a total of about $1,200 US:

- ProJect RPM-5 turntable with 9c tonearm (carbon fibre tube), comes with phono cable;
- Clearaudio Aurum Classic Wood moving magnet cartridge;
- ProJect PhonoBox preamp;
- Dust cover for turntable;
- LP cleaning solution (home brew of Stereophile formula made by the store where I purchased the rig) and record brush;
- LAST record preservative and stylus cleaner solutions.

I already had an extra pair of interconnect cable to hook up the phono preamp to my line preamp, a 0.5m length of Zu Cable Gede (about $150). The rest of my audiobsession is described on my system page on Audiogon.

Since I don't really have a point of reference for vinyl, not having listened to any for the last 15 to 16 years, my comments about sound quality should be read with that in mind. However, I have been really impressed with the intimacy, presence, three-dimensionality and organic nature of the music played on this analog set-up. Even though this hardware might be considered to be at the lower end of high-end audio, everything that I've read about analog playback versus CD has been more or less confirmed. In a word, better!

All the best,

Max

PS Marco may be silly, but in a funny ha-ha way. ;-)

Two years ago I resurrected my B&O Beogram TX2 tangental turntable with mid level MM3 cartridge and bought a used Parasound phono stage for $125. Since then, I'm hooked on vinyl like a druggie with almost weekly visits to my favorite used music store where I buy 4-5 records/visit for $1-3 dollars each with occassional splurges on "classic" or hard to find records for $5-10 each.

Now, I'm searching to upgrade my phono stage to get the most out of my current set up without replacing the turntable/cartridge which will happen inevitbly in the future. In short, if you get "hooked" you'll be on the same sad path. I encourage you to buy the best phono stage possible - a tube unit to maximize the lovely qualities of vinyl because it'll be one of the first place you'll be upgrading.

Happy listening and welcome back to the source of your first musical love.