Clueless Analog Newbie, Looking to Buy

Like breeding Cockadoodles, analog has become trendy. Other than to impress your friends, there is no real reason to join the analog fray with limited funds that could better be spent on other parts of your system. New LPs are expensive. More expensive than CDs. Ancient old farts, like myself, will beat you to the prime used records and then you will have to learn to set-up and maintain an analog rig. And if you think that you can learn to set-up a turntable by watching Mike Fremer's video, you have no greater chance than you would of watching a stag film and becoming a porn star. If the music is what you want, stick to your CD player and forget the siren call of the analog world.

I'm a 21 year old college student looking to listen to vinyl for the first time. Many current bands are releasing vinyl with material that isn't available for download or on CD. I saw this as an opportunity to add some excitement to my music collection, unaware of the general expenses.

I really like my bookshelf speakers (triangle's have a nice warmth to them) and have heard that vinyl offers a similar feeling. The more researching I do, the more obvious it becomes that these quality low-end tables are still a bit pricey for me.

Despite the elitist attitudes in many of the previous comments, I think I'll continue to shop around for something within my price range. It's all for the love and enjoyment of music (something that seems to fall under the radar among many audiophiles)--- not for the fancy cartridges or other gizmos.

A big thank you to everyone who has suggestion different brands or directions which I may better direct my attention. All the best-

knotgreen-
It took me about 1 week of lurking on this site to realize that most of the posters on this site are more interested in the gear than the music. There are plenty of us that are more into the music then the obsessive tweak/upgrade crew that are on this site. Good observation but don't give up on this site so quick- a lot of experience here.

Your best bet would be either the Rega P1 or P2, pre-packaged with a basic MM cartridge, to make your "analog plunge" worthwhile. If you like what you're hearing with either of these, you can always upgrade to a P3-24 (with a better cartridge) later on down the line.

Your "old" NAD integrated amp probably has a phono stage, so you should be all set. The Rega, mated with your NAD and Triangle's, should give you a very nice idea of what vinyl is all about, and I think you'll be incredibly happy for quite a while. YES !!!!, getting into vinyl is definitely a smart move, and you do NOT need to spend a ton of dinero in the beginning. I wish you the best of luck, and HAPPY LISTENING !

04-21-09: Viridian
And if you think that you can learn to set-up a turntable by watching Mike Fremer's video, you have no greater chance than you would of watching a stag film...

Stag film? Yikes, you are an old fart!

:)

Listen to Viridian. He speaks the truth.