great vinyl sound cost as much as great cd sound

IMO opinion an expensive hi-end cartridge is wasted on a lesser arm/TT/phono stage combo. Given budget constraints it's probably better to put long money into a great arm/TT that will last in your system & start with a fairly basic cartridge. Since cartridges wear out anyway, one has ample opportunity to upgrade them.

Awhile back I bought a used SME IV/Oracle Dephi III and put in a Sumiko Blue Point Special. I had really good sound for $1200 total investment. I later replaced the BPS with a better Audioquest NSX7000 Fe5 cartridge, but couldn't really coax too much more from the better cartridge until moving to a better VPI TNT/Graham setup. With the VPI/Graham, I could really hear the difference in cartridges and even more so later on when upgrading to a Lyra Helikon. But still, the difference between my first and last vinyl rigs is not night-and-day like between good & great digital front ends.

Dave

Markd51 and Dgarretson, thank you for your shared experiences and thoughts on the topics.

I'm really enjoying the DL-103 right now. What are your thoughts as to an exceptional phono cable?

Thanks everyone for their input.

I am thinking of getting into vinyl because I thought it would complement my roughly 2200 cd collection.

I thought it would be fun to start collecting vinyl as I own none at this time.

I am leaning however against it for now. Mostly because of the high up front cost. I am sadly middle class and my digital rig set me back a very pretty penny so if I am looking at spending $10,000 to give my emmlabs a run for the money on the analog front that is just too much for now.

Michael

Hi Karma, I can wholeheartedly understand your viewpoints, and decisions, and I think you're 100% correct.

Sure, one could get a inexpensive rig to mess with, (Say for example a used VPI Jr, or such) but I'm strongly doubting that anything within these low price ranges will even barely touch the state of the art digital gear you are now so enjoying. (Do you sense a touch of jealousy from me? hee hee)

If you have an "Analog" buddy, maybe you can visit him/her from time to time, and get the bug out of your system? Perhaps in your personal case, you'll look back in time, and say "Gee, I'm glad I didn't buy a turntable". Mark

Hi James/All,
Today, surfing around the web, I came across another very interesting site that sells numerous analog "goodies", and this online dealer is called "Sleeve City".

Here, I browsed what they had as far as LP Sleeves, and they seemed to have a quite good selection of quality Inner, and Outer Sleeves, plus other items like LP Jackets, Cleaning Supplies etc, etc.

Their prices seemed very reasonable to me, and this might be a good place to check out for your Analog "needs".

While MucisDirect does carry a multitude of great products, and I've done countless thousands of dollars of business with them in the past 10 years I've known them, sometimes their "goodies" are a tad bit overpriced IMO.

Check this place out I mention. While I don't have the link handy, those interested at a peek should be able to find the site doing search with your browser.
Mark