Ev314, if you're like most of us you will be upgrading sometime in the not too distant future. Keeping this in mind I would say that the fact that the Rega arm is better than the Pro-ject that comes on any Music Hall table is really not that important. I say this because if you decide to change tables you will most likely want to sell the table with the arm that came on it because you are more likely to get most of your money back that way. The Rega's do have the advantage of being able to handle many more cartridges than the Pro-ject, but I believe that the Music Hall's have better speed stability. You will enjoy either of these and I would venture to guess that you would be happy with the Technics that Psychicanimal is so fanatical about.
I started back into vinyl almost three years ago now. I started with a MMF 7 and used it until about last November when I decided to get real serious. You may also want to consider purchasing a used table. That is what I did and got all but $100 back when I sold the MMF 7. You do need to be careful buying used, but that is where A'gon can help. If you can find a used MMF whatever here in the classifieds you will save big and not loose anything to depreciation. Music Hall go very fast so you really have to check early and often.
As far as record cleaning. IME you can't do any better than a home-built vacuum RCM unless you're willing to spend some serious money on a Loricraft or Monk. The VPI's and the like are perhaps more convenient but a DIY RCM is likely to have much, much better suction and you can build a very effective model for less than $50. Cleaning supplies are essential to getting the most from vinyl, but it is money well spent as you will be able to achieve stunning playback from some records that many would think would be just too dirty to ever sound good again.
I started back into vinyl almost three years ago now. I started with a MMF 7 and used it until about last November when I decided to get real serious. You may also want to consider purchasing a used table. That is what I did and got all but $100 back when I sold the MMF 7. You do need to be careful buying used, but that is where A'gon can help. If you can find a used MMF whatever here in the classifieds you will save big and not loose anything to depreciation. Music Hall go very fast so you really have to check early and often.
As far as record cleaning. IME you can't do any better than a home-built vacuum RCM unless you're willing to spend some serious money on a Loricraft or Monk. The VPI's and the like are perhaps more convenient but a DIY RCM is likely to have much, much better suction and you can build a very effective model for less than $50. Cleaning supplies are essential to getting the most from vinyl, but it is money well spent as you will be able to achieve stunning playback from some records that many would think would be just too dirty to ever sound good again.