Want to Start vinyl

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

Buy used. Read the forums and decide which table is for you. I would get an entry level zyx cartidge. My nephew has the "Bloom". It is an excellent little cartridge. Definately go moving coil. I've heard mm cartridges that were over $1000.00, they were nicer than cd but the zyx bloom was much nicer.

I get a kick out of people who look at vinyl shopping as work. THIS IS A HOBBY. I enjoy the s**t out of vinyl hunting. BTW - Don't be suprised when you find yourself listening to the turntable alot more than you listen to the cd player. Put it this way - Once I got a turntable and heard the difference - My cd player was sold.