Ready to try vinyl


I would like to buy a turntable just to see what all the fuss is about. Since I remember the pops and scratches all too well, I do not want to spend alot just to satisfy my curiosity. I want a turntable that is capable of giving me a "taste" of what the vinyl sound is all about without going overboard. I can always upgrade if I like what I hear. I would also like to avoid deciding against vinyl because the turntable was not capable of capturing at least the basics. What turntables should I be looking at and how much should I spend? I would prefer to buy used due to the experimental nature of this adventure. Current gear is Sunfire processor with phono input, a pair of Classe M 701's, and B&W 800N. I am relying on your responses since I don't know squat. Thanks for your help.
baffled
Before we can go-on there is one subject that is really important for to do a critical evaluation on TTs and that critical subject is the TONEARM/CARTRIDGE combination: is has to be the same. Albert we have to find how we can run the Walker with a different tonearm. If we can solve this issue, I can give/put two samples of the same tonearm.

Sorry Raul, that is not possible. The Walker tonearm is integrated with the turntable and there is no room to add another arm or anything to mount an arm to. The base of the Walker is stone and I have no interest in drilling into it to mount another tonearm for a test.

I never post that idea, I post : +++++ " A Walker DD system beats a Walker belt drive system .. " +++++

Not according to Lloyd Walker. His opinion of direct drive is the cogging (search for speed) is worse than errors of his air bearing and silk belt drive. Guess that will never be resolved as Walker has no intention of building a direct drive so, we are back to one mans opinion against another mans opinion.

You are secure with your decision and I with mine.
The unfortunate vinyl neophite who initiated this thread has no doubt been comletely scared away by now by those posters who have hijacked his thread into yet another Raul vs. the World debate on the fine points of analog reproduction which are so far beyond the scope of his question as to be irrelevant. One thing he was right about, however, is the "all the fuss" he has heard over analog. I have heard less fussing from a nursery school full of 5 year olds than on this forum! ;)
... but then I guess fussiness is the one defining characteristic of a true analog addict.
Further posts on you impression of your new aquisition would be appreciated. I have a modest Vinyl frontend and wounder wether it would be worth it to upgrade. Although I find the convience of CD still quiet appealing.

I also learned something new a couple weeks ago. The bass is compressed from the original recording because of vinyl limitations. I have yet to A-B an album and CD on my system.
If the government really wanted to do the population a favor, they should can all this bullshit manufacture of the useless flu vaccine–have had it administered twice and caught the flu with even worse symptoms than ever–and find a cure for Elpitis: the dreaded psycho-acoustical condition that brings new meaning to the word bipolar for many of us. (If I am not mistaken, Dante mentions Elpitis affliction as a punishment in the third level of “Hell” and Moses thought about it for one of the Egyptian plagues but at the last minute opted for frogs.)

Why, there I was perfectly content with my perfectly beautiful Audiomeca digital gear when I spot in a closet a Paul Desmond LP that missed the shipment to the Salvation Army many moons ago. I reach in the cover–mind you, with the same care and finger dexterity that I had learned since I started collecting (insert a few more moons here)–and pulled out the black disc. I could swear that as I gazed into the grooves I heard angelic voices and had a bright beam of light wash over me because (as in a trance) I immediately went to the garage where a (cheap) Technics TT–I kept it because I had intended to use it as entertainment for my then-newborn son to watch toys spin on the platter–was quickly put into service using other ancient relics: a Sansui receiver with a phono input and a pair of AR3s.

Well, that was the end (beginning) for me! Desmond’s sax sounded like a...well...sax? Working against me and my resolve was also that the record was in good shape so the dreaded “pops” were not a turnoff. My Elpitist progressed through a B&O, another Technics (it was at this juncture that I discovered Audiogon’s “Oracles of Analog,” an enthusiastic bunch that really fucked me up even worse), an MMF 7 and, finally, a TNT V with a ZYX Airy 1000. Instead of going to fashionable stores to purchase CDs, I am now being spotted in dimly lit backrooms of second-hand shops searching through cartons of LPs or worse, bidding my life away in the click-and-gotcha byways of EBay. Once or twice a year my wife allows me (after swearing that I have taken my medication) a pilgrimage to the holy shrine of New Jersey–the Princeton Record Exchange–where I spend a day and four wallets scavenging for 12-inchers.

Oh no, it doesn’t end there. Sorry. Then there are the so-called “tweaks,” my dear. The LP cleaning machine, the LP covers and dust jackets, the fluids, the brushes, the cabinet(s) that can actually store thousands of these thingies (yes, trust me, it gets to a thousand by the end of the rapture’s first month)...please! Oh, and let’s not forget the phono amp since you outgrow the receiver phono input as the disease accelerates and invades the glands which control common sense.

Welcome and ready to...try vinyl?