Getting into vinyl for the first time

You don’t want to be clueless.

In terms of gear, all of it matters, from the phono cartridge to the phono stage, to the wires, the arm and the cartridge.

Then you have the issue of the current vinyl market- overinflated in my estimation, both in terms of price and grading.

New vinyl is largely digitally sourced; sure, you can get a different "voice" playing back over a turntable, but the real gold, to me, is old pressings.

And then you have to know what you are chasing and know how to buy-- basically understand that anything less than M- is a total crapshoot and if it is a scarce record, talk to the seller in advance.

You’ll need to know how to clean records effectively. (I won’t advocate one method, I’ve been down that rabbit hole many times).

Have I discouraged you yet?

There are still some bargains to be found. I buy the vast majority over the Internet, since I’m not real interested in the 298th reissue of a warhorse. (I’ve got more than enough classic rock, and thousands of classical records from back in the day that I have sadly ignored).

You need to educate yourself. Part of it is gear, but that can get sorted and upgraded. The question then becomes the source material.

I’ve found over the decades that my tastes have changed. Every once in a while I’ll pull out something that hasn’t been played for 30 years (but clean, with a nice old third party inner) and fire it up.

Getting "into" LPs requires some basic competence in set up, associated equipment and ultimately depends on how deep and broad your listening tastes are.

Good luck,

PS: FWIW, I would not go into this medium at this point. But more power to ya.

Get ifi iPhone 3 if you can. When I was shopping for phono stages that came up highly recommended in that budget. Once you have a basic analog setup, just build up your vinyl collection and gradually upgrade your gear. This hobby can take you to stratosphere in terms of financial commitment so knowing what you want n where you want to be early will save your money. I recently got started into this analog game and I started watching lot of different turntable setup videos. At the end of the day, know how to setup the table using a basic protractor and tracking force scale. Plenty of over engineered tools out there to help you set up the table but I do not need those. Know relationships between cartridges and tonearm, i.e compliance. Normally MC carts sound better than MM, so I'd invest money in mc carts. In terms of upgrad path, table > tonearm > cartridge > phono pre

OP starting to vynil is intimidating at first. Try to learn on what you have.Be patience.If you know someone who is willing to share his analog set up in your area that will help.I did not made a big move on analog until I got a very good idea.Vynil is amazing if you do it right.

Welcome to the vinyl club!  It is a thoroughly rewarding pursuit. Ignore the haters and have fun.  That is a great cartridge and phono pre pairing, and replacement styli are inexpensive and easy to replace.  That particular cartridge allows the listener to replace the microline stylus (the ML in the model) with a Shibata or Special Line Contact for a few more clams.  I've found that I prefer the SLC for classical listening and ML for rock/jazz. 

My one recommendation is to ignore anyone who says that there is ONLY ONE WAY to listen (analog v digital, tubes v SS, dynamic v planar/electrostats, etc). You know which beer/car/ice cream/genre you prefer and someone else telling you that you're "wrong" for liking them has issues that run much deeper than audiophilia.

Enjoy!

I think the Zphono is a good match for your system and you should just hold on and play records for now. If you stay interested and are ready to break some eggs, you can upgrade to something like a Technics 1200 (about 2k I think). If you’re not willing to go to that level, stay with what you have IMO. The TT you have looks nice for the money and buying another one for $500+ or so is a waste IMO. But just go slow and play records.