Want to Start vinyl

Buy used. Read the forums and decide which table is for you. I would get an entry level zyx cartidge. My nephew has the "Bloom". It is an excellent little cartridge. Definately go moving coil. I've heard mm cartridges that were over $1000.00, they were nicer than cd but the zyx bloom was much nicer.

I get a kick out of people who look at vinyl shopping as work. THIS IS A HOBBY. I enjoy the s**t out of vinyl hunting. BTW - Don't be suprised when you find yourself listening to the turntable alot more than you listen to the cd player. Put it this way - Once I got a turntable and heard the difference - My cd player was sold.

The Rega P3 turntable is a really nice place to start and they have just upgraded it, as well. If you get into the whole vinyl thing and want to upgrade, you will get most of your money out of it. A fine cartridge match is the Dynavector DV10X5, which matches the table well. A marvelous phono preamp to go with this rig is the Jolida. Costs new will be around $800.00 turntable, $380.00 phono cartridge, $340.00 phono preamp. A really nice system that will allow you to enjoy a lot of recorded music that will not ever make it to CD for around $1500.00 new, certainly less if used.

I agree, the P3 is a great table. I actually only have the P2 right now and couldn't be happier. I'm using a Clearaudio cartridge and an inexpensive project phono amp. I love my vinyl in a way that I could never love a CD or mp3. Vinyl hunting is one of my favourite hobbies.

Needless to say, I say go for it!

Go for it! I just bought a turntable at the beginning of March, and acquired at least 200 albums in the next 2 months for probably $300 or maybe less. Even most of the vinyl I've fished out of the dollar bins and thrift shops have been very clean sounding. I do a pretty picky visual inspection before paying, though.

I bought a Technics SL 1210 M5G and alternate between Ortofon OM 10 and Shure M97xE cartridges mounted on their own headshells so switching is easy. I play it into an Amber Model 17 preamp that has both MM and MC inputs. It cost me a whopping $130 at a pawn shop.

I *really* like the Technics DD tables. They're very rugged, built to ridiculousy close tolerances (1/2 a micron, anyone?), speed is dead-nuts accurate, they're *very* quiet, and the controls are intuitive and silky smooth. You can elevate the clarity and soundstage significantly by placing the turntable on a thick maple or butcher block cutting board slab with shock absorbing footers under the slab, such as Vibrapods or Mapleshade Isoblocks.

There is a Townshend on here for $1200. The arm cost at least that if not more when it was new. These tables truly have bass and are dynamic. IMHO ... " Ain't nobody gettin' my Townshend!"