Want to Start vinyl

There are a number of good turntable in the price range you mentioned. Remember that you will need a turntable, tonearm, and cartridge, as well as a phono stage either in your preamp or as a standalone. The phono stage should be matched for the type of cartridge you have, either moving-magnet (higher voltage output) or moving-coil (lower voltage output). I would suggest turntable models from Rega, Pro-Ject, Music Hall, or perhaps Thorens. Some of these come as a package of table, arm, and cartridge. You will want to set the table up correctly, which many dealers can do, or you can buy setup kits. Another high recommendation is a record cleaner, which will make your records sound better, protect them, and best of all, allow you to revive used records. This can save a lot of money over trying to find them new and make it easier to find titles you want. You can buy used records on ebay and audiogon, as well as other internet sellers like Records by Mail, Elusive Disc, Earthwave Records, and others.

The only way I would start lp again would be if someone in my area say an old person just wanted to get rid of a good collection at a fair price, than and only than would I start lp playing. But to start hoofing it all over again searching and locating and paying the price for new vinyl well just "forgettaboutit"

As the previous posters have noted, there is a variety of good turntables available at modest cost. I would disagree with the respondents who suggest it is too late or difficult to buy used vinyl. If you live in or near a major city, used vinyl stores can usually be found. I always check used vinyl in locations where I travel and usually find one location worth a side trip. There is always e-bay and Audiogon as well. I probably have purchased several hundred LPs (out of a total of 6000) during the last 2 years. It's out there.

i agree with taters....a vinyl collection is fun, but so is collecting cd's, and in all honesty, its an 'appreciation for music' that we all hope our kids have...the format or media is nothing but a sign of the times (or their times)........by the time he's a teen, he will marvel at dad and mom's ancient cd collection..cars and girls will then trump everything anyway.

I'll be one of the lone dissenters here and say go for it. I had about 40 decent records from my few years prior to the advent of CD, (had much more than 40 but those were the only ones I'd still want to listen to). I wanted to get back into vinyl. Some said don't, some said try a cheap tt. I ended up doing neither.

I went out bought a VPI Scout, (actually my wife gave it to me as a Christmas gift), with an inexpensive Rega cart. I used the phono stage from an old receiver I had kicking around. Over the next 6 months I upgraded the cart/phono to a Dynavector Karat and Dynavector P-75. Truth be told I could have stopped there but I'm an upgrade junkie and have kept changing things. The point is that for me I've been very happy with my setup from the Karat/P-75 on, (heck even with the rega cart it was OK).

Anway, I've purchased many new and used records since then and grown my collection to about 400 lp's. The above posters are right, new vinyl's not cheap but for some of the music I like there is quite a bit of good new vinyl and it's not that much more than CD. Also, now many smaller record companies are including free mp3 downloads which is great for portability.

Anyway, a long winded way of providing an alternate opinion. I like looking around for vinyl, don't mind paying a premium for an obvious niche product and like the extra involvement about using/maintaining a tt. Most important, it sounds great.

I would say buy the following

Scout - 1100 (ad here on A-gone)
Dynavector P-75 (seen for about 400 used on A-gone but nothing currently listed)
Dynavector 20XL or Karat 17D2 or 17D3, (450 to 695)

Total arond 2100 plus cables.

Just my 2 cents and best of luck

Bryan