Suggested entry path into vinyl...

Koegz, I certainly did not mean "Don't Bother!"
I completely agree with you when you say

"Vinyl is more than just the music, it is a[sic] obsession, it is a hobby, it is involvement in the music, it is a conection[sic] to the music, it is an investment, and when done right, it is GREAT sounding music! it is not for everyone but..."

What I meant is that the "bother" is actually far more of what vinyl is than the making sure the $2000 budget is spent just right, and whether this $600 phono stage smokes that $795 phono stage. Within a $2000 budget there are literally hundreds of ways to get it right. However, none of that matters without the commitment to do all the other stuff. As you say, it is an obsession, a hobby, an involvement in the music. It is also an involvement in getting up and changing sides every 20 mins, and brushing the records, and cleaning the stylus, and cleaning the record when you get it, and putting it in a new inner sleeve, and making sure your albums are stored right, and protecting the jacket bottom, and making sure your VTF hasn't drifted because this one is a thicker vinyl, or you changed mats, and cleaning the stylus again, or cleaning the record again (not to mention learning about how to do all this stuff).

If one has zero dollars invested so far in equipment and vinyl (except for the Mikey Fremer DVD on its way), to me the risk is on the "doing the vinyl thing" aspect rather than the "owning gear" aspect. If one can get involved with vinyl with a light heart and open mind, that is a good way to avoid the stress of "I've got $f&6#@ invested so I'm damn well gonna appreciate vinyl!" One can ALWAYS spend more money later. As for reissues vs originals... for someone just getting in, anyone should be able to enjoy well-pressed/engineered reissues. Many of them are indeed very well-done. They may not be collectable, and if you listen to ten great reissues vs their 10 great originals, the originals may be better in every case, but I agree with Daverz in that that is where the deals are, and ten great reissues is ten great pieces of music with the ability to go out and buy dozens (or hundreds) more for the same price as the ten great originals.

In any case, if Cmalak decides to splurge on gear at the beginning, used is still the way to go to get the best bang for buck.

did i miss something? where is it listed $2000 budget? is that a complete set up? if that is the plan there really is no plan and i humbley apologize for the miss understanding. as i said used is def the way to start, but $2000 budget, basaeball cards and comic books maybe, but not vinyl.

Another benefit of vinyl is you will hear what your system is capable of. As good as your system sounded to you before with CD's you will hear so much more. The first touch of the stylus and the first notes from the speakers and you'll know it was worth all the work improving your system so you could enjoy this quality of sound, digital's limitations will become instantly apparent. Those that have spent more than $10,000 on digital MMV but I've heard the Scarlatti and the vinyl rig in the same system was...well "better"!

I disagree Koegz, even at just over $2k, you can get a new Rega P5, a used Graham Slee Gram SE, and a VPI 16.5. Two grand is more than enough to get your feet wet. Jump in and enjoy the music. Buy the albums you like and even some you have never heard about. The journey is about the music not about the gear.

Thank you all for your comments. It has been very helpful hearing folks different perspectives. And I realize that the vinyl vs. digital debate can escalate to an all out smackdown among Agoners/audiophiles. I guess I never owned a vinyl rig (pre-teen in the 1970s) and so I grew up on the digital sound and while I am acclimated to that sound, I have grown to learn and appreciate what digital does well and what it does not do as well over the past 3-4 years which is when i started down this crazy audiophile journey and as my playback system has improved over this time. I recognize that this may still turn out to be an exercise in futility as I may decide that I do not want to deal with all the "headaches" for some and "rituals" for others that comes with optimizing vinyl playback, or I may not be able to look past the surface level clicks and pops that is endemic to the format (even with the most assiduous cleaning systems/rituals). I get all that. But I guess this is what the quest for "better" sound reproduction is all about and that is why I wanted to ask peoples' opinions about the best approach to entering vinyl as opposed to specific equipment recommendations (of which there are many threads on Agon).

Having said that, on the equipment side of things, one of the things that is clearly more complicated in evaluating vinyl playback is the whole issue of component matching (table, tonearm, cartridge, phono, and phono cable) and how to compare among different vinyl rigs. This may make auditioning different vinyl rigs at local dealers a bit meaningless because a vinyl rig one auditions will be a function of whatever set-up is being used at a particular dealer (i.e., you could hear Brand A turntable at dealer X and you can walk away unimpressed with that audition for whatever reason and you will write off that Brand A tt when in fact it could have been a poorly matched cartridge to that tonearm or poorly matched cartridge to the phono stage being used, etc...). The dilemma of having so many variables that determine what the overall vinyl rig sounds makes the auditioning process kind of a hit or miss proposition. Any thoughts on how to try to adjust for this in the auditioning process, or is it just the nature of the beast and one has to rely on the dealers matching components to show off the best capabilities of whatever rigs they have on display? I don't know if I was clear on that but your thoughts would be very appreciated. Thanks.