Beginner in Vinyl - How far should I go?

This reminds me of the famous line from Hans and Franz on the old SNL's. HEAR US NOW AND BELEIVE US LATER! :-)

I, too, started from scratch and started building a quality system about 6 months ago. I had a late-70's Sony DD table with a decent Ortofon cartridge. Used it with my higher grade stuff and, by God, it sound pretty dang good with my old vinyl. Then, I recently bought a Nottingham Spacedeck. First album I threw on was a thrice played Maxell Jazz sampler album that I got free for buying blank tapes years ago. Queued it up to "New York Sate of Mind". Nearly fell out of my chair upon hearing the difference.

Someone above said it best, if you have anywhere near decent components - you OWE IT TO YOURSELF to get a good table.

I have a NAD & B&W system, consisting of the C370 integrated, C541 CDP, C420 tuner, and B&W DM601S2 speakers.

This probably decent enough, eh?

So going into the slightly more expensive route...any recommendations on turntables, cartridges, and phono pre-amps? Could any of you recommend a package below $500? (Preferably as close to $300 as possible)

What do I need? Where can I learn more about it? Where can I buy it?

Thanks for all the great info guys.

Go to Ebay and search AUDIOGON there are plenty of good TT and cartridges for 300 skins.

Lenny: If you want great sound on a low budget, then you have to be patient and wait for the good deals to come. I am currently using a Thorens TD125 MkII with an SME 3009 II arm that I purchased used for $219 shipped (Ebay auction). For a good budget phono preamp there is only one choice that I am aware of. This is the Radio Shack battery powered preamp (#42-2111) that is currently out of stock though. They can be found on Ebay if you search 42-2111 and they may be coming back to RS as well (mixed stories on this). The unit retailed for $25 and you will also need a 9 volt battery charger and two NI 9 volt batteris (charge one while using the other). I purchased the batteries and charger @ Target and figure under $30 (easy) to equip a singe preamp. I use two of these units as dual mono's (one per channel) with some special shorting and 100 ohm RCA's that I made myself, on the unused inputs/outputs, but a single unit used in stereo also sounds quite good and because it is battery powered is dead quiet. Anyway, I have just under $300 invested in this rig (the TT came with an Ortofon F15E II cartridge, plus I already had a Grado Silver). Compared to the Music Hall MMF5 that I auditioned twice there is no comparison (the old Thorens/SME combo whoops it badly). It took me almost a year of research and a lot of looking to put this together, but this is what was needed to keep the cost down. I would also put my old Thorens TD165 (with its stock arm) up against the $500 Music Hall that I auditioned (this would probably be a wash) and I paid just over $100 for this deck.

Lenny
Boychick listen to your uncle Dekay!I would buy a used Kidney if I needed it and he had one.The Arm alone blows doors on price of whole rest of the Music Hall.And while I might not think to buy the Thorens new at this price it's a great deal.