I'm thinking that youngsters are getting burned .

The first part of your post applies to most things in life.

..Why buy a Mercedes when a Kia will get you there?
..Why buy designer suits when the cheaper ones will cover you up?
..and on and on and on

I can't imagine limiting myself to 20 albums at any age. If that is all you can afford then I think your money would be better spent on the necessities of life and listen to the radio until you can afford to start on this hobby.

I agree with Herman that more music is needed than 20 albums.

However, if the point your trying to make is that for a VERY small investment a young person can enter the world of analog, learn from it and enjoy new music, I agree completely.

We need to encourage anyone who is interested in this hobby to join in.

For the most part youngsters see and feel like youngsters. It is more than the music. It is also the technology that gathers and delivers the music. "for the times they are a changin'".

I spent $2500 on my(admittedly good) APL Hi-Fi's Denon 3910 cd player(a class-C Stereophile recommendation before modification). I spent over $3700 on my turntable setup. I just remember that I learned almost all I know about audio when I was broke. For one, my memory was good(which is no longer the case{I'm 54}. The second is that I didn't have much money-I had to make do. I want to mention to those with no money the Zhalou(read about it on Head-Fi). We are old and fat now. We are not the future. With that in mind, I want to add Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" to those twenty discs we are supposed to come up with. Herman, I suggest that you drive the early Porshce's and compare them to later Porshce's to see if your comment(which is similiar to others) is correct. We are no longer the future. We need the youngster's input! You would not believe what I came up with when I had no money(I've gotten respect from Walker and Mana from what I learned when I was broke.).

I'm not sure I follow about the Porsches.

My interpretation of the original post was "why spend a lot of money when you can have music very cheaply?"

My point was that you can apply that philosophy to just about anything once you get past the basic necessities to sustain life. That doesn’t mean I agree with it. I clearly see the difference in a Mercedes and Kia . I was just pointing out that if you adhere to the cheap music philosophy then you should also choose the Kia. I prefer the Mercedes.