Was your first cartridge relatively expensive?

thanks for the posting...

i'm new bee...

i got a linn lp12 with ekos/arkiv/lingo..etc used.@ usd 5k. .. but never got to set up cos was worry as i might screw up... so i went to purchase a lower end ..just to get familar with the use.

yes.. i hv more than 300 lp before gettting my tt... and now make do with my vtl pre with phono just to start off before setting up my lp12.

hv fun..

cheers

Dear Howie: +++++ " I'm thinking seriously about buying my first analog rig. " +++++

Ok, take your money for that analog rig and look/find a trusty dealer where you can buy it and where that dealer do the set-up for you. That's all.

Welcome aboard!!!!

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

I was asking the same question a year ago with little or no vinyl but a passion for the stuff and a need to cleanse myself of that digital grunge! I spent $250 on a Denon 103R and $2000 on a Scoutmaster, and boat loads on records. I guess my personal rule of thumb is spend 10-20% of the cost of the turntable on the cartridge. I'm considering something better now though, a year on. Maybe a Shelter 901, which would be pushing 50% of what I've put into analog this year.

Cheers, Nick.

one thing nobody's mentioned yet: in terms of sound the table is most important, followed by the arm, followed by the cartridge;
so you should spend as much of your budget as possible on the first two - you'll have to replace cartridges regularly anyway down the road (conventional wisdom is that they last about 1500 hours) and you can move up cartridge-wise at those points

and Raul is right, any decent TT dealer will set things up for you for no extra charge when you buy a cartridge. further, dealers will give you generous credit for trading in your used cartridge. I've never messed with my TT a bit, but I sure enjoy it!

I was told by my dealer and others that the list of importance goes. 1.cartridge 2.phono stage 3.arm 4.table

I have recently upgraded from an entry level setup to something that is far more expensive, and while the new rig sounds better, the big jump is going from only having digital to haveing an entry level turntable.