What's the cost of an entry level vinyl setup?

Well, if it truly costs that much ( I do not think so), so much for a vinyl revolution in that few will ever see any benefit.

I still believe a lot of the vinyl revolution to whatever extent it exists has to do with the fact that used records can be had for cheap or that people already have a lot of records that they want to play but do not want to spend a lot of money. It has always been the case that low end record players have outnumbered high end turntable systems by a huge margin and that will never change.

The general cost estimate seems to be $2,000+ for great quality sound. I'm enjoying learning about vinyl and what it takes to really get it right. I simply can't afford to start down that never ending path...

No it's not if you do thorough due diligence. Thom Mackris gave you some excellent advice on a set up. Even adding in the cost of a good record cleaner (VPI) and fluids you'd be under $1000. As Thom said, you'd have nothing to apologize for either.

Analog is my priority, but I have what I consider to be a an excellent digital set-up. I recently purchased a Galibier Serac from Thom that has an SME Series III tonearm mounted on it and I use a B&O MMC-2 cartridge. I also use the Hagerman Bugle phonostage. This system exceeds $3k and while I was waiting for it to be delivered I played around with a few B&O tangential tracking tables. None of these tables cost me more than $550 with cartridge. All of them delivered very good sound (very competitive with digital) and while I can clearly hear that the Galibier set-up is better (and exceeds my digital playback), I will admit I could have easily lived with my refurbished B&O 8000 with MMC-2 cartridge.

Dual, AR, Thorens, Luxman, Lenco, Empire, and B&O tables among others can get you great sound for little investment and set-up effort/maintenance. What really appears to be the issue is that you're on the fence and can't decide if you even want to get into vinyl. If that's the case consider this last point. You can buy a nice vintage table (with tonearm), a decent cartridge, the Bugle phono, a Nitty Gritty cleaning set-up, and some records and give it a whirl. If it doesn't work out you should be able to resell everything pretty easily and not suffer too much of a loss in the process. My feeling is if you do it right, you won't be selling it off.

Clio09

Agree as I am already looking into a phono stage upgrade.

Chuck

The OP doesn't want to get on an escalator to higher and higher expenditures, and there's absolutely no indication that anyone posting and reading Audiogon discussion threads has the fortitude or willpower to stay with a sub $1000 analog rig.

Agreed. I wish I had the willpower to stay with any single aspect (cart, phono, table, arm) that is sub $1000.