Top 5 Reaons to NOT BUY A TURNTABLE.

I first dropped a needle on "Peter and the Wolf" at the age of six on my father's Rec-O- Kut turntable, with a Sherwood mono amp and 15" Altec Lansing speaker. I remember it clearly- the rich, sonorous voice emanating from the system. That was 60 years ago. If you can't hear, feel, or experience the OBVIOUS superiority of vinyl over digital, it's your deficiency- not vinyl's.

Right now, I cannot understand why anyone would use a turn table with today's streaming technologies.  I must admit the $20,000 turn tables are gorgeous.  But tracking a record with a needle produces a lot of noise.  Also, digital amplifiers like a Luxman are really great sounding.

My own theory about the vinyl experience is that the physical vibrations mined by a stylus mimics the aural mechanism of the ear, so that there is a subtle resonance at play between the two systems. The ear's bones and tympanic membrane operate very much like a cartridge. In defense of Guttenberg, he goes on to say how much vinyl means to him, but if someone discouraged me from "getting into vinyl" for practical reasons, I would ignore that. I suspect that Guttenberg sees the writing on the wall of youngsters abandoning him, so he may just be pandering to an audience still wet around the ears.

Three reasons not to buy a turntable: 
snap
crackle
pop

Just listening should help people understand the appeal of vinyl and why so many think it is superior to digital at a very fundamental level. Most of the appeal of digital has little to do with sonics.