How Much To Rival Good Digital Playback

Not very much. $400-$500 if you know how to select a decent used and/or vintage deck/arm combo and you learn how to set it up yourself.

Without this effort (developing these skills) then figure 2X-4X the above.

Never experienced much of a surface noise problem, but I use a different cleaning method than most that involves thoroughly irrigating the grooves prior to a brush/pad ever touching the LP. Currently use a Water-Pik, but used a simple faucet with the addition of a pressure nozzle before (both work fine).

Additional:

-decent cartridge
-decent phono preamp that it synergistic to the cartridge
-decent shelf/rack on which to place the TT
-cleaning system

A good sound reason to get into vinyl is to listen to the music that never made it to CD. We have approx. 1500 CD's and 2000 LP's (not many duplicates between the two formats).

I have listened to but one CD player that reminded me of decent vinyl playback (an Oracle player a few years ago).
In the same audition we listened to BAT and AR players (both were nice, but neither reminded me of vinyl).

In a way the original Bel Canto DAC 1.0, other than lacking detail, sounded a bit like vinyl. This quality was lost with the 1.1 version which nonetheless sounded better overall.

Just to say that the two formats need not sound alike to be good. I grew up with vinyl/tape and this is the type of sound I am used to.

My personal experience is in-line with what 4yanx has written.
I used to own a Music Hall MMF-5. I had the orig. tonearm wires cut off & female RCA jacks installed so that I could use my own cables. Other than this the TT was stock. Incl. tax & this mod. it cost me $480. My trusty-rusty H/K HD7625 CDP was bought for $400 (retail $560 but I got a good deal). I can confidently inform you that the MMF-5 bested the CDP by a long shot. The vinyl was simply more emotionally involving. I ran the MMF-5 into my CAT phono stage, which is dead quiet. So, other than the expected groove noise, the system was just as quiet as the CDP when the music played. Of course, the better I scrubbed my LPs, the lower the this noise got (upto a certain pt).
The performance of the MMF-5 could be improved & I checked the AudioAsylum for MMF-5 tweaks. I found a # of them such as employing blu-tak on the motor, using the Ringmat instead of the felt mat, using a silk string or audio cassette tape instead of the rubber belt, upgrading to the G1042 MM cart. Most of these tweaks cost very little. Also, when I was shopping for the MMF-5 I found that HCM Audio offered the MMF-5 with G1042 MM for $75 more than the stock. So, it was possible to get higher grade perf. at a marginal extra cost right from the get-go.
In conclusion: I'm saying here is that it cost marginally more than my CDP to get far better sound.
AFAIK, the present owner of this TT is still enjoying it!

I started with a piddly little collection of less than 20 LPs! However, I knew that vinyl was the way *I* wanted to go. So, like other members who have posted this:
* Make sure that you want to go the vinyl route. I.E. ensure that you can endure some "pain" as vinyl play-back is seldom plug-and-play.
* Make sure that you enjoy seeking LPs at Salvation Army, Goodwill or your local store.
* Make sure that you can clean these LPs so that you can maintain a high quality sound.
* Make sure that you will be able to endure the pops & clicks on many used LPs as their prev. owners probably took minimal care of the vinyl. If you like music (rather than being analytical of the sound each & every time you sit to listen) then you might be able to endure the pops & clicks. I know a bunch of friends who just cannot stand the thought of vinyl!
* Make sure that you can endure this high maintenance hobby 'cuz (make NO mistake) it IS one!
* Most of all, make sure that you have the vinyl mind-set. How many CD-ONLY guys will walk up to the rack & flip the side of the LP??

It's a lot of fun to spin vinyl both from the music & memories pt. of view BUT the opinion is HIGHLY personal.

I envy your access to used vinyl 4yanx. I am in east TN. A great place to live but not a vinyl mecca. Most the stuff I have found either on line or locally used that I have been happy with costs as much as a CD or more, but they sure sound better and I don't regret buying them.

I do not want my vinyl rig to rival my digital. My goal is to make them sound as close to each other as possible. In order to do that w/in my budget, I have a KAB modded Technics SL1200 MK2 and a Parasound CBD-2000 belt driven transport (being modded in Dan Wright's shop at this time). The mods in the 1200 make it closer to digital's positive attributes and vice versa for the belt driven transport. I understand my mental framework is radical but it *does* make a lot of sense! The people that push for analog, even with cheap rigs, ALWAYS omit the fact that digital has PERFECT pitch. I can infer that they can't hear differences in pitch...

I recently bought a Nottingham Spacedeck and Spacearm, Audio Research PH2, and Acoustic Zen Matrix ref balanced cables - this $3500 investment totally recaptured musical reproduction in my system. Love it, rarely play the digital front end any more. Invest more than the minimum, you will be rewarded

tom