Maximizing My Turntable Experience - input reqeust

On the hum, ZD has good advice, but do the isolation drill. Disconnect the leads from the cartridge then the table to find which one is the culprit. It is possible the cartridge itself has a fault. You also should double-check your ground connection between the table and your outlet ground. Normally the ground lug on the preamp is sufficient, but ground faults can pop up in surprising places.

To find the magic, both Czarivey and Mr_M are correct. Get a good protractor (Pro-Ject makes one), a strong magnifying glass and verify your alignment is correct. It's a very fussy adjustment but makes a world of difference. Spend the time necessary to get it right.

Next, get record cleaning supplies. All records must be cleaned before every play, including new ones. Note that new records need a different kind of cleaning (mold release removal). Then find some material you like. A new record is usually best but not absolutely necessary. There are lots of great choices out there. Spin it and float away.

Congratulations, good luck & happy listening!

Congratulations on your wise choice!
I just love my set-up, one that has evolved somewhat, but one of my most important purchases after buying an entry-level 'table was a Spin Clean record washer, and a big pack of nice quality record sleeves. Then, don't be afraid of buying lots of cheap garage sale albums. Walking home from work a couple months ago I bought 15 albums for 12 dollars. After washing them, most of them were pretty bad....but I ended up with three gems, including a great sounding Laurie Anderson album. Still a deal for $12.

By the way, I enjoyed my first turntable quite a bit but I still didn't quite 'get' the allure of vinyl. Then I bit the bullet and bought an Ortofon 2M Black (after returning a faulty Rega Exact). WOW, goodbye ones and zeroes!

One other thing. Look for classical boxed sets. I've found that they are often in mint condition. I think many were given as christmas presents in decades passed and never played. I bought a seven disc set of Mozart piano music played by Klara Haskill on Phillips for a dollar and they were NEVER PLAYED! After googling it, I found that this set is very highly regarded for its musicality and production. One sold on ebay for $250.

Cheers!

The 2M Red is a very good cart and the TT you purchased is one of the better entry levels. The Red is not a superstar, but good. I started out one level below the Red (sticking my my big toe back in the vinyl arena)and upgraded to it. One of the beauties of vinyl is the ability to make a significant incremental upgrade by upgrading the cart. Ortofon makes other "colors" for a few more $.

All the advice you need to get you started is here.
The phonostage setup is important. I'm sure you've set it to MM cart, but you can make capacitance adjustments starting with 47pf, then trying 100pf or 300pf. Your unit will have some similar settings.

A lot of members have been posting about starting with a Pro-ject Debut Carbon as a first TT. To answer one of your questions, many have upgraded to the Ortofon 2M Blue or higher which is a substantial increase in SQ.

Some very good advice here.I must respectfully disagree with Effischer if he means that you need to wet clean a record before every play. A good cleaning before the first play then a good brush to keep the dust off before every play after should be good .