Freediver
I was in the same position as yourself a few years back.
I had a Krell integrated and a Krell CD player and tbh the sq was pretty darn excellent!
Decided to try my hand at vinyl again and thought near enough exactly as yourself with a low budget.
Bought a Project Debut if I remember correctly and an el cheapo made in China tube preamp from ebay( think this was the biggest problem), about $370 all in.
Deeply disappointed is an understatement....
Enough so that at that time with my very limited set up experience and lack of tools to do the job right it all went back on ebay and shelved the idea.
Of course the bug had bitten but the next time around I did a lot more research and came to the conclusion a much larger budget would be required.
Now I had a McIntosh c48 preamp with mm/mc inputs and lots of loading options.
Along came a Clearaudio table cw Clearaudio Ebony cartridge I think, anyway about $1500 total.
Now we were getting somewhere and I could at least listen to vinyl quite comfortably.
But it is a serious addiction and I wanted, no , needed more!
Now I have 4 tables and I think 12 cartridges!
Main table, cart and phono stands about 6k in cost, and that's not much by some peoples standards but at this level I am LOVING my vinyl and listen every chance I can.
$350? Nope not even really going to get you a half way decent phono in reality ( yes there will be lots of dissension on that point I am sure!).
Go for it by all means but...….
I was in the same position as yourself a few years back.
I had a Krell integrated and a Krell CD player and tbh the sq was pretty darn excellent!
Decided to try my hand at vinyl again and thought near enough exactly as yourself with a low budget.
Bought a Project Debut if I remember correctly and an el cheapo made in China tube preamp from ebay( think this was the biggest problem), about $370 all in.
Deeply disappointed is an understatement....
Enough so that at that time with my very limited set up experience and lack of tools to do the job right it all went back on ebay and shelved the idea.
Of course the bug had bitten but the next time around I did a lot more research and came to the conclusion a much larger budget would be required.
Now I had a McIntosh c48 preamp with mm/mc inputs and lots of loading options.
Along came a Clearaudio table cw Clearaudio Ebony cartridge I think, anyway about $1500 total.
Now we were getting somewhere and I could at least listen to vinyl quite comfortably.
But it is a serious addiction and I wanted, no , needed more!
Now I have 4 tables and I think 12 cartridges!
Main table, cart and phono stands about 6k in cost, and that's not much by some peoples standards but at this level I am LOVING my vinyl and listen every chance I can.
$350? Nope not even really going to get you a half way decent phono in reality ( yes there will be lots of dissension on that point I am sure!).
Go for it by all means but...….