Want to Start vinyl

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!"

I recommend you start with one of the modest belt drive tables that are advertise alot on Agon complete with arm and cartridge. The Michell gyro with arm and cartridge will cost between 1&2 grand. Many others in this price range. As for collections. Many antique store have tons of old albums of almost any genre. My daughter and I spent 4 hours on fathers day in Memphis and found 50 albums for less than 100 dollars. This store had over 5000 albums scattered around it. Many for 99 cents! Lots of good music for anyone to get back into vinyl. Go for it!