Starter Turntable

F155: The hype is true vinyl is stupendous your dealer is right it costs money but if you have it, do it, but its no picnic.
I had only 1 box of records when I started less than 2 months ago now through friends and family I have 4 boxes and haven't heard all of them. I also spent serious money on the net getting new recently released and heavy pressing remastered albums. Those are expensive with a capitol E.
I a more than pleased with the Music Hall MMF-5 which my dealer set up and comes with a cartridge and arm for about $500 new. Many consider that table the one to start with, there was just a thread about it. You'll probably need a phono stage unless you had bought a pre with a phono board or have an integrated with a phono stage. Any number of mini phono boxes will do- Clear audio sells a cheaper one as does Project, I got an unbelievably good one by Redgum its the little phono box,its great, But I wouldn't have bought it except I got it from a dealer who sold it to me as a demo very inexpensively.
A record cleaner also turned out to be a necessary piece (serious bucks look at VPI or Nitty Gitty in the catalogs) if you go with used. Which is really the only way to get quantity and want but poor quality is a rmians real problem with used you need to get near mint or mint if you don't want any noise.
Thats the bad news if you want audiophile level sound. The good news is that nothing sounds as good as vinyl and its worth it. I saw some inexpensive tables with built in phono stages but forget where. I have no idea what they sound like. As a total newbie I would listen to vinyl at a fellow audiophile's place before making the investment.
I am now totally addicted vinyl but you've got to understand its a real hassle as mentioned. Its not the place to put your precious dollars in your first serious system. That being said, after you get rolling a bit, give it a try it really is uniqely better.

Why do you all have to make this sound so complicated?

I was in this guys exact same position 3 years ago, was asking the exact same questions, and had the exact same concerns. If I was reading all of this advice, I'd be thinking that this is way too complicated, and probably isn't worth the effort. Here's my perspective:

For your first table, you want something that you don't have to mess with that much. Everyone seems to try to point you at something that can be tweaked, modded or upgradable. As a newbie, you just want something that sounds good without a lot of work.

I would recommend a Music Hall MMF-5. No, you can't really tweak, mod, or otherwise upgrade it - and that's the beauty of this table. You should be able to pick one up used on the 'gon for about $350.00. Out of the box, this table is generally good-to-go. This is the table I started with. In a side-by-side comparison with a Rega P-25, Rega RB-900 arm, and a Grado Reference Platinum cartridge, the Music Hall didn't lose by that much. And when you take into consideration that the Rega (or at least the one I compared the MMF-5 to) ran fast, one could make the argument that the Music Hall sounded better.

The MMF-5 hooked me, and after 22 months with this table, I sold it and purchased a Teres 255, Origin Live Silver tonearm, Shelter 501 cartridge, and a Wright WPP-100c phono stage. I learned to set up the table properly, and I love to tweak it to maximum performance. Was I ready for that kind of comittment when I first go into vinyl? Hell no! But I wanted to experience what vinyl had to offer and see if it was right for me. If you get hooked, a starter table is easy to dump, you won't lose much money on it, and you'll probably want to upgrade significantly (as opposed to incremental upgrades to a starter table).

There is one other table that just came out that may be interesting (although I haven't heard it) - it's a Goldring GR-1. The Goldring GR-1 is built by Rega and is the same as the Planar-2 with a modified RB-250 tonearm a different platter and slightly less expensive cosmetics (and comes with a cartridge). Do a search for this table on the 'gon, as they are going for between $350 - $365 new and may be exactly what you are lookging for.

Hit the used book and record stores for vinyl. If the vinyl looks like it's been abused, it's probably going sound abused. Note that a dusty record is not necessarily an abused record. You may want to look at the cleaning products by Disc Doctor. It's a PITA to do, but it does make a big difference.

Wow guys this is great. It seem like everyone who have vinyl are really passionate about it. Well I guess I should tell why I got interested. All the magazine and forum I read, everyone seem to say that the only way to listen to music is with vinyl. Yesterday I was at a used book store (Half Price Book) that also sells used music media (cds, vinyl, and tapes). In the music section a box sitting on the ground said “Mystery Box $10”, it was packed full of records. I almost brought it since I figure there might be something good in it. If not, I ‘m still not losing much and I can even sell it on Ebay. But I didn’t buy it since I got no room for it. However I did buy a box set of the Boston Pops for $1.00, which looks like new.

So that my story so now I am looking a TT. How about a Rega P3 with the RB300 as a starter table? I read many good things about it and it relatively cheap when buying used. Also pardon my ignorance but what does the “phono stage” do? I got an Audio Research LS-2B and I know it doesn’t have the phono. Does the phono amplify the signal from the pickup?

I greatly appreciate all the help here.

i'm going to chime in on the keep it simple side to start with. My analog system consists of a CJ walker table with a linn basic arm..can't even remember which linn cart. i'm using an old B&O reciever for phono pre and a tuner. i have an ACR CD-2 for digital source. Guess what? there are areas where my simple analog (like sence of realism and 3-d nature of the sound) walks all over the ARC and that is a highly rated $3k player. The ARC does better on the freqextensions but sounds pretty wall paper like in comparison with the vinyl. I'm not sure what a good analog rig sounds like but the cheapies are pretty good. not to mention all the like new records you can find for under $2

Not everyone. I have a rega planar 3 with a Linn K-9 cartridge. I have about 200 albums. That's really the only reason I have a turntable. Many date back to when I was a teenager.

My CD playback is a marantz CD67SE driving a Monarchy DIP jitter filter into a Monarchy 22A DAC. Quite expensive in its day the Monarchy DAC can be picked up for about $200 used now.

This plays through a Densen B-100 amp ($1300) into Green Mountain Audio Europa speakers ($900). It's a very revealing amp-speaker combo.

Overall I would say that the sound quality from the turntable and CD is about equal, and more dependant on the quality of the recording, than on the medium. Some CDs sound stunning, others not so good. Same for the turntable. I could not make the statement that the turntable sounds better, because to my ears it doesn't. It looks better, and there's much nostalgia in some of my LPs, but on sound quality alone I would stick with CDs and buy a better CD player. That is, if I didn't have such a large collection of LPs.

That said a used Rega planar 3 could be bought and subsequently sold for little loss, if you find out it's not for you. A phono stage is essential as it not only boosts the signal, but corrects the frequency response. (LPs contain reduced bass and increased treble, following the RIAA curve ... to maximise the signal to noise ratio ... the phono stage cuts treble and boosts bass to restore the frequency response). Project, NAD and creek make phono stages ... the creek is probably the best, but also a little more costly. Budget for $150.

Rega cartridges are a piece of cake to fit to the rega arm, but unfortunately, not very good. Much better would be a denon dl-160 (if you like it exciting) or a benz micro (if you like it smooth), both at about $180.