Finally stepping into the hobby after 30 years of watching from the sidelines

Cottguy, I think that you are doing it exactly right. Seeking advice and, very cleverly, advice about infrastructure.

That's what nobody sees, but everybody hears. Power is usually neglected, yet it is a critical piece of the puzzle, for two reasons: first, it affects the sound, and second, it affects the longevity of your equipment. Every piece of equipment in my system, from (active) speakers to turntable motor, is protected by an isolation transformer. You can hear the difference for each piece. Plitron makes a wonderful line of isolation transformers, from raw pieces to finished boxes, all the way up to medical isolation transformers. I submit that if it's good enough for a hospital, it's good enough for audio - because in a hospital, it has to work, and smart people have already sifted the quality stuff from the snake oil.

That said, when isolation transformers are doing their job they can growl, so it's a good idea to site them in a garage or utility room. That means an electrician, or a good DIY project for you.

I also suggest another piece of the puzzle, similar to electrical infrastructure - a record cleaning machine. Clean vinyl records sound LOTS better, and wear the stylus less. Someone analyzed the crud in a record groove, and found that it was a near perfect grinding compound, consisting mainly of grease and diamond dust. Just the thing for a precision ground diamond stylus to bath in.

If you have an expensive stylus, that crud can cost you mucho dinero, so I suggest that the quality of record cleaner should match the quality of your cartridge. I have a Koetsu, and so I use ultrasonic.

My final suggestion is to concentrate on the biggest bang for your buck, at each stage. I find that cables are the least bang for my buck - so mine are about 1% of my system cost. Really. YMMD, but don't be shy about sticking up for what you hear, how much it costs, and therefore what you are going to take home. 

Good luck!! And welcome!!!

This is a neverending subject - cables. To put cost aside for now, cables are components. There is no difference, one has to treat them as such. Signal transmission is just as important as anything else. My approach is that cables must me at least one step higher than the active components they connect. In this case you will hear everything those components are capable of.

Can't agree, Inna. Cables connect components - and the internal wiring of components is rarely, if ever, up to the standard of the interconnects. Further, the caps and resistors and inductors in the components are almost always far from ideal.

I start by correcting the physics, which is well established and not the subject of neverending discussion.

@terry9 We are extremely fortunate that our listening area will be directly above our garage which houses our breaker box.  So running a dedicated power line will be extremely easy as will housing power dedicated equipment.  A record cleaner will be purchased the day I buy my table.  I was unfortunate enough to audition some equipment at a store that hadn't cleaned their vinyl and I was appalled at how bad it sounded.  

@inna I know that cables are a hotly contested subject.  That's part of the reason I haven't brought them up yet.  Also because I'm waiting to pick out my gear before I begin to dive into that topic.  We'll revisit that when the time comes :)

 Terry9,
Hearing is believing, but if you never try you will never know. Did you actually try really great cables?
By the way, Cottguy, there is Nottingham Interspace turntable with Interspace arm, I presume, for sale here. Price is high and should be taken down by about 20%/25%. Put Goldring 1042 MM cartridge on it, and it will make a great audiophile entry level analog front end. I have Spacedeck, it is next step in line and most popular Nottingham.