Personally I think you should not look at this in a piecemeal way. You should budget for everything now, or else you will regret it later. (Obviously you are concerned about a budget, so take it into account now.)
You should budget for cleaning supplies (RCM, fluid, brushes, etc. - figure a few hundred dollars, if not more), as well as inner and outer sleeves and record racks to protect your precious records. You will need these things in order to really get the most out of your LPs, so don't put off buying them until after you are dissatisfied with the sound, get them now.
Also, you will probably need a turntable stand/rack as well, which can cost hundreds of dollars too. Plus, new LPs tend to be more expensive than new CDs, especially the heavy vinyl reissues, be make sure you can truly afford it.
(If you don't already have a LP collection, you should make sure you really want to commmit to analog. I made this choice myself a few years ago, and don't regret it, but I already had a fairly large (1,000 LP) collection, from before I switched over to CDs in the late '80s.)
As far a sound quality, I would say it will be close. The Cary is a good CD player, no question about it. In order to really give your analog system better sound, I highly recommend going with a good MC cartridge, (the Shelter 501 is a good budget cartridge @ $850 new). However, it is a low output MC cartridge, which means making sure your phono preamp is not only a good quality unit, but it needs to have plenty of gain (at least 55 db of gain, if not a bit more), and needs to be fairly quiet. (I recommend going with something of good quality like an EAR or an ARC, at the very least. My best advice is to not cheap out on the phono preamp.) This is another reason why not to put off buying the phono stage until later, as your choice of cartridge my restrict your choice of phono stages, and visa versa.
Personally, I much prefer the sound of my turntable to my cdp, and they are fairly closely matched in terms of costs.
My analog system is slightly more than your $2,500 budget: My Basis 2001, RB 900 arm & Shelter 90X cart, (all bought used for around $3,400).
The sound of my analog system vs. my CDP (Resolution Audio Opus 21, with AU 24 I.C. - used price was $2,700), is pretty close, as they both sound great. However, I just prefer the sound of vinyl vs. digital. (I'd estimate I use my analog system 90% of the time!)
IMHO, if you truly wish to make sure your sound is better than your cdp, you should increase your budget a bit more. (My two cents worth anyway!)
Good Luck!
PS Make sure you have someone help you setup your table, arm and cartridge, as it can be a bit tricky. (Even if you have to pay someone to do it, as I did. It is very much worth it, to enable you to get the most out of your system.)
You should budget for cleaning supplies (RCM, fluid, brushes, etc. - figure a few hundred dollars, if not more), as well as inner and outer sleeves and record racks to protect your precious records. You will need these things in order to really get the most out of your LPs, so don't put off buying them until after you are dissatisfied with the sound, get them now.
Also, you will probably need a turntable stand/rack as well, which can cost hundreds of dollars too. Plus, new LPs tend to be more expensive than new CDs, especially the heavy vinyl reissues, be make sure you can truly afford it.
(If you don't already have a LP collection, you should make sure you really want to commmit to analog. I made this choice myself a few years ago, and don't regret it, but I already had a fairly large (1,000 LP) collection, from before I switched over to CDs in the late '80s.)
As far a sound quality, I would say it will be close. The Cary is a good CD player, no question about it. In order to really give your analog system better sound, I highly recommend going with a good MC cartridge, (the Shelter 501 is a good budget cartridge @ $850 new). However, it is a low output MC cartridge, which means making sure your phono preamp is not only a good quality unit, but it needs to have plenty of gain (at least 55 db of gain, if not a bit more), and needs to be fairly quiet. (I recommend going with something of good quality like an EAR or an ARC, at the very least. My best advice is to not cheap out on the phono preamp.) This is another reason why not to put off buying the phono stage until later, as your choice of cartridge my restrict your choice of phono stages, and visa versa.
Personally, I much prefer the sound of my turntable to my cdp, and they are fairly closely matched in terms of costs.
My analog system is slightly more than your $2,500 budget: My Basis 2001, RB 900 arm & Shelter 90X cart, (all bought used for around $3,400).
The sound of my analog system vs. my CDP (Resolution Audio Opus 21, with AU 24 I.C. - used price was $2,700), is pretty close, as they both sound great. However, I just prefer the sound of vinyl vs. digital. (I'd estimate I use my analog system 90% of the time!)
IMHO, if you truly wish to make sure your sound is better than your cdp, you should increase your budget a bit more. (My two cents worth anyway!)
Good Luck!
PS Make sure you have someone help you setup your table, arm and cartridge, as it can be a bit tricky. (Even if you have to pay someone to do it, as I did. It is very much worth it, to enable you to get the most out of your system.)