New to Turntables

 The Ortofon 2m red can surpass 1000 hours of use.

No way, probably 600, it's an elliptical tip (not even nude).
1000 hrs is for shibata and related advanced profiles, but not for an elliptical. 
 
You will be disappointed after reading this article 

@chakster


Direct from Ortofon's website:

" Stylus lifetime: with proper care we find that up to 1000 hours is possible without degradation of performance. Please read about stylus care on our FAQ. "

That article is very informative, thx. Although, I do wonder how many people follow Jico's recommendation. That seems awfully short, especially if someone invested $10000 on a cartridge. One would have to start breaking down performance by dollar. Like, it might cost someone $25 to listen to an entire album (A and B side) based on wear/tear. ;) 

You should learn a bit about different stylus profiles, Micro Ridge stylus life span is ~2000 hrs, but this is the most expensive and most complicated stylus profile (just like Ortofon Replicant-100). But elliptical (and conical) are two cheapest profiles with very short life span. I’m giving you realistic numbers (600hrs for elliptical, 1000hrs for Shibata, 2000hrs for MicroRidge). If you want Ortofon cartridge look for higher morels than Red, look for the models with Shibata stylus. 

Personally, I wouldn't put any extra money in that turntable. You can buy a $450-500 turntable that comes with a better cartridge, no internal phono stage, no USB. Simpler and should sound better, too. Just my opinion.

Ok, so it all arrived and I set it up....for the most part.  I followed the instructions but the balancing of the tone arm was utter fail.

According to the instructions, you screw on the weight, set the anti-skate to 0. adjust the weight until the tone arm balances. Then set the inner weight scale to the downforce weight required for your cartridge and set the anti-skate to the same.  I did this three times with the exact same results.

The tone arm was too light and the anti-skate would cause the tone arm to swing quickly off the record.

Eventually, I gave up and just set the weights and anti-skate based on what the tone arm was doing.  If it is too light, it will skip or loop on any slight imperfection.  I increased the weight and lowered the anti-skate until play-through was consistent.

There is a good chance I am increasing the wear on the needle and the record itself.

The sound quality was better than I expected. I can see why people are going back to vinyl.  It has a depth that isn't easy to achieve in the digital world, even at high bit rates and resolutions.

There were some issues of harshness in the mid-high frequencies, like electric guitar riffs, or mid-range male vocals. I have chalked it down to break-in as it got better after about 2 hours of playing.