Willing to be proved wrong.

David, Elmuncy, the Little Rat I bought from Radio Shack only requires one nine volt battery, and it lasts a long time. No charger needed, just buy another battery. Honestly, it isnt very good compared to, for examples, the phono section of an old Mission Cyrus One integrated that I have around or an Adcom 565 preamp that I tried, or any of the receivers or integrated amps I used to have. But, it's ok.

Elmuncy, try a new cartridge with your record player, an inexpensive one, and use something to remove dust and reduce the static. Btw, they're putting ticks and pops into some cds to make them sound more like vinyl.

Unless you are in love with the technology of vinyl record playing and want to spend more money than you appear to, the chief reasons to have a turntable nowadays are 1) to play your old records and 2) to go scavenger hunting in thrift shops and garage sales like DK does and find stuff cheap that may not be available on cd. I keep one for the first purpose because there's enough on cd to interest me.

Vinyl is a delecate medium. Poorly treated vinyl will sound, well...poor. If the vinyl has been abused, then there really isn't anything that I know of that can be done. If it's just dirty, the look into the cleaning supplies from http://www.discdoc.com.

My system isn't going to make any 2-channel purest green with envy (Music Hall MMF-5 turntable, Rotel RQ-970 phono pre-amp, Rotel RSP-1066 [with the turntable run through the multi-channel L/R analog passthroughs], RMB-1095 amp, and B&W Nautilus 805 speakers). However, put on a virgin piece of vinyl that has been cleaned using the Disc Doctor method, and I hear magic. No clicks. No pops.

I don't know what you'd consider to be an "expensive new TT", but for under $500 new, I've been really happy with the Music Hall MMF-5. Quite frankly, until I can justify a Teres, I probably won't upgrade to an "intermediate" table. The Music Hall is a great way to see if the sound, the romance, and the experience of vinyl is something you want to (re-)commit to.

You have some nice hardware. I'd hate to see yourself soured on the vinyl experience because of your table.

Elmuncy, noise reduction processing is generally only used for transcription purposes of material old enough not feature a full frequency range, and rare enough and in bad enough shape for the inevitable trade-offs not to outweigh the benefits. (Although these days, most such processing is done in the digital domain.) Audiophiles don't use "de-clickers" for ordinary listening, and you won't need it for records in good shape. If your vinyl is in bad enough shape that cleaning it won't make it listenable to you (not only due to dirty surfaces, but maybe to being played on a poorly tracking cart/arm for many years, or improper handling or storage), then you will probably only be content with newly bought records. But you might also view not being able to happily listen to your existing collection as an end to your reason for wanting to get back into vinyl in the first place. Records can be fantastic, but only you can judge whether your records can be that for you.

Hi Paul:

From your comments you do not leave the preamp powered up 7/24 which is very much needed to improve the sound (it also requires a minimum of 100 hours, 150 is more like it, of running a signal in order to sound its best). The most a battery can last (@ complete idle w/o a signal being processed is 8 days in any of my units) and I cannot imagine buying and tossing non rechargeable batteries within this amount of time being that I leave them powered up all the time.

This is not meant as a rebuttal of your specific findings and is just to point out that these budget preamps can sound quite good when operated in the manner that I describe (hassles and all, which also includes using a high output cartridge due to the gain).

As far as the rest of your post you have my MO down to a "T" (being that I am a music junkie on a budget) and I also heartily agree with what you point out as being the main reason for most anyone to own a TT (regardless of its status) in decent operating condition (this being in regard to expanding ones music library).

Elmuncy:

If you wish possibly scratched and dirty LP's (from your hay days) to be without crackles and pops, then it's not going to happen. I will purchase rare LP's in poor condition (just to hear them for the first time), but the ticket is to learn how to inspect and judge LP's, as far as playing condition goes, if purchasing them in person on the used market.

Just to drive you nuts (LOL) me and my wife have purchased 1200, or so, used CD's in the past 3.5 years for maybe $2.5K tops. In the past year we have purchased around 1500 LP's, 99% of them being in mint playing condition, also on the used market, for well under $1K. I do however realize that this depends on ones local.

I also collect reel to reel tapes and 78's even though I have not owned a R2R or a 78 player for 20 years as someday I may have this source gear again.

Dekay, you're definitely a man after my own heart!