Clueless Analog Newbie, Looking to Buy

In response to any naysayers, I say go for it. If you've been itching to try vinyl for so long, you'll always remain curious as to how it may sound if you don't indulge. Prepare yourself for what you're about to get into; save up the money if necessary so that you can afford the table, arm, cart, and accessories. I took the plunge a little over a year ago, and yes there were things I had to buy that I was not expecting (good cleaning materials, DIY vibration isolation, etc.). But it's all just part of the fun. Digital is ok if you don't want to spend time with audio as a true hobby. But if you find yourself saying "hmm I wish I had another hobby", then vinyl is it. Going to used record shops on the weekends to score records, tweaking the performance of your system through your own various inventive methods, learning from others how to add further tweaks and tune in your system, these are all things that keep me very busy with the hobby. But I will absolutely agree that you can easily end up spending more money than you originally thought. It all just depends on how far you want to take it.

I recommend you do what I did: buy one of the "all-in-one" packages that include tonearm and cart, and preferably have it setup by your local dealer. This way you can quickly jump into listening and not have to worry about setting up a turntable with no knowledge at all. Then as you progress, you may find that you want to make minor tweaks to the table, at which point you'll be gradually learning. I personally went for the Music Hall mmf-5.1, but they also make an mmf-2.2 which I believe is in your price range.

I'm a 21 year old college student looking to listen to vinyl for the first time. Many current bands are releasing vinyl with material that isn't available for download or on CD. I saw this as an opportunity to add some excitement to my music collection, unaware of the general expenses.

I really like my bookshelf speakers (triangle's have a nice warmth to them) and have heard that vinyl offers a similar feeling. The more researching I do, the more obvious it becomes that these quality low-end tables are still a bit pricey for me.

Despite the elitist attitudes in many of the previous comments, I think I'll continue to shop around for something within my price range. It's all for the love and enjoyment of music (something that seems to fall under the radar among many audiophiles)--- not for the fancy cartridges or other gizmos.

A big thank you to everyone who has suggestion different brands or directions which I may better direct my attention. All the best-

knotgreen-
It took me about 1 week of lurking on this site to realize that most of the posters on this site are more interested in the gear than the music. There are plenty of us that are more into the music then the obsessive tweak/upgrade crew that are on this site. Good observation but don't give up on this site so quick- a lot of experience here.

Your best bet would be either the Rega P1 or P2, pre-packaged with a basic MM cartridge, to make your "analog plunge" worthwhile. If you like what you're hearing with either of these, you can always upgrade to a P3-24 (with a better cartridge) later on down the line.

Your "old" NAD integrated amp probably has a phono stage, so you should be all set. The Rega, mated with your NAD and Triangle's, should give you a very nice idea of what vinyl is all about, and I think you'll be incredibly happy for quite a while. YES !!!!, getting into vinyl is definitely a smart move, and you do NOT need to spend a ton of dinero in the beginning. I wish you the best of luck, and HAPPY LISTENING !