Would I be wasting my money to get a turntable?

Whether to buy a turntable or not depends on the value you put on "the analog magic".  The simple answer is no, but that doesn't mean you should not buy a turntable, it is more complicated than that.  In my personal set-up, I have about $25,000 in my turntable, arm, cartridge and phono section and that doesn't include buying records.  To have a decent amount of records is another $25,000.  If you get enjoyment and you have the disposable income and you are not depriving your family or the charitable causes you support, then go ahead.

A lot of good advice here - which pretty much adds up to "The Cartoon" above - "Don’t Waste Your Money" - unless:

1. You have a pretty decent collection of vinyl albums... and/or...

2. Lots of money to invest in acquiring such a collection of "high quality" vinyl... and... the time and patience / tolerance for frustrating detail (cleaning and de-ionizing your vinyl, filtering the pops and scratches without loss of signal quality,, never-ending upgrades of all the turntable, turntable components, and phono pre-amp, etc., etc.)......

3. Are single, without children and other family obligations...

4. Have such a bad case of OCD, that you are compelled to read threads like this... and... to invest lots of your money, time and patience into very, very small refinements in your sound quality... regardless of family obligations...

and...

5. Are prepared to extend your OCD case to SET tube amps, tubes and high efficiency OB speakers to accommodate the tube amps (ala DecWare, etc.)...

Did I mention... "LOT"S OF MONEY!"

Prolly less expensive to find a good analyst to help you recover from your OCD!

rhg3 and ozzy62, thanks for the thoughts, I appreciate it. Not trying to hijack this thread at all. It’s been a tough couple of months. To the OP. I had been thinking to myself, as many of us do, where should my money go? For any audiophiles out there with pressing issues and needed to put money on necessities for the family or oneself, I would not buy a turntable. For anyone battling inner demons and possibly a drug or alcohol problem I would not place throwing money at albums or a turntable before counseling or just tackling those issues first. I have often heard the word “fun” associated with record albums and playing them. More often than with any other audio device. It’s probably true that many young people were instrumental and factored into the vinyl revival movement. So there is a part of me that says, if my issues are not too serious maybe I should through caution to the wind and get into vinyl a second time in my life. Just for the fun of it. It’s something that often we overlook… maybe because we take care of granny, or put our kids schooling first, soccer games and other people. In some cases, not all, it’s ok I think to treat ourselves and relax and enjoy our indulgences. Just a thought …

OP...If you ask the question "Would I be wasting my money to get a turntable?"....The answer is indeed YES

Somewhere the term 'emotional' was used ("friends are emotional about their vinyl). That pretty much says it all. There is nothing wrong to 'like' vinyl. But terms like 'better' do not apply in this context. 

I swore off vinyl some 40 years ago, and still have a hard time imagining how a (even small) mass (needle with coils/magnet, etc) gets 'shoved around' (accelerated, decelerated) say 15,000 times per second trying to follow the hills and valleys pressed into a tiny channel of a plastic disc, then modifying the analog output to be amplified and resemble the 'sound' of a violin for example.