Just retired and want to get back to vinyl listening

btw how picky on placement do you find the 0/93s -- how far out from the wall -- how far apart - anything between

I had an educated guess where they needed to be and think I am very close with no fine adjustment yet. I read John's "Care and Feeding" instructions and he ascribes to the rough equilateral triangle configuration with two options depending upon whether you set them along the long wall or short wall. Mine are five feet from the front wall, three from the sidewall, seven feet woofer to woofer centers, seven feet from my head in my listening chair, and toed in so that I barely see the sides of the enclosures. So my short answer is "not picky at all".
On the TT, my advice is to have the dealer set it up, buy a good digital tracking force gauge and level, and be sure to check VTF and for levelness when you arrive home. VTF is likely to change during transport. When I got back into vinyl about a dozen years ago, I felt compelled to tinker with alignment and VTA and azimuth rather than sitting back and relaxing and trusting that my dealer had aligned the cartridge and set up the table properly. That was a mistake. The problem with most TT's is that the basics of TT set-up are fairly easy but the the TT manufacturers don't make it very easy to actually perform the adjustments. I have owned two VPI tables and five different VPI armwands and though I love VPI, I don't like the tiny allen key screws that are prone to stripping with the least bit of over-tightening and the awkward location of those set screws. At 58, the most annoying thing is not being able to see what's going on without a pair of readers on and a flashlight in one hand with an allen key in the other while craning to see what's going on towards the back of the table against the wall. I tend to disassemble platter from table and tonearm from pivot point and transfer the whole mess to my kitchen table under bright lights :-) Don't let a bit of this cause you pause-the pain is worth it. 

@steventoney 

So you are in WA.?
You may wan to look up Chapman Audio. Stuart Chapman Jones and family are on Vashon Island, in the sound, and have been making top notch speakers for decades. He is very friendly and will have you for a visit in the listening facility.. 
Also, a trip to Ferndale, to visit Lou with Daedalus Audio would be top on my list, as well, for speakers in your area. Lou is one of the friendliest in the business. Both are very very good and you get more performance than you pay for going direct with these two.

But I do also love Devore and am personally looking forward to hearing the Gibbon X again... 

will be in WA -- Spokane.. moving van comes 2 weeks from day -- I drive away a day or two later after check out of the apartment -- 2500 miles to Spokane -- probably more with side trips along the way..

thanks for the input ---  the Daedalus speakers are pretty things -- what is their sound compared to the Devore Gibbon X??

Music Direct has open box Luxman 550AX for $3.5k, that's $2k off. 

Hi Steve, I've got to add my $2. Congrats on making it through your illustrious career. I retired several years ago to pursue other opportunities. I got back into analogue audio about three years ago. I have spent more money than I care to count trying to satisfy my lust for good sound.

I'm not going to tell you what brands to buy. I will just relate some of my experience. Peter Lederman told me the speakers and turntable/cartridge are the most important. In that order. You can match the electronics to those. I use a 35 yo Conrad-Johnson PV6 and an Acoustat TNT120 for the amplification. They sound as good as anything for my speakers, ATC SCM19s. You need to match features that you need with the performance necessary for the speakers. Your phono stage should match your cartridge, not the other way around. Pick speakers that will sound good in a variety of locations, so if you decide to move into a different room you don't have an acoustic nightmare, like I did.

As you are aware, there are literally 100s of cartridges and everyone will tell you to buy what they have. A really good one is going to go for $1K - $10K. Just remember that in spite of advancing age and the subsequent hearing loss, the best possible sound will be enjoyable even if you need hearing aids to have a conversation or watch TV. You will put them aside to listen.

The turntable needs to be able to track the better carts, specifically the cart you have chosen and most will do a fine job. I've heard VPI bandied about in this thread. If you don't mind tinkering and tweaking, the VPI is a very fine turntable. I have a Prime Signature. It sounds wonderful with my Sound-Smith Voice.

I had no idea though, the amount of continuous tweaking that is needed. Everything is adjustable, which is good, but there is a compulsion to tweak it to squeeze more, better sound out of it. Or you'll notice a bit of sibilance and after spending hours if not days trying to find what has caused it you find a tweak will help. You can buy tools and what not to help in the tweaking, but you are still tweaking. You'll need a Fozgometer and test records. You can adjust the azimuth with that. A lot, they say, do it by ear. Great! I can tweak and listen, then tweak and listen some more, etc., etc. Oh, and anti-skate. That's a whole education in and of itself.

So you've got to ask yourself, "do I want to just listen or do I want to spend my retirement tweaking?" I personally would prefer to set it and forget it so I can just listen. The VPI is hands on at all times.

You've heard what everyone else has recommended, mostly hardware, but I thought a bit of my personal experience might help too. Once the equipment selection is done, you'll want to listen and enjoy. If you've done a good job selecting you'll have years of pleasure in your retirement. Best of luck on this new adventure, bring the Dramamine. And, happy listening!

Peace out, Len