Suggested entry path into 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.

T_Bone You forgot the countless hours glued to your seat listening to great music... with none of that listener fatigue!

Cmalak If you want to spend a little less in the beginning try a top MM cartridge that you can get for around $ 500, if you want to get good quality from a recognized MC you will need to spend well over $ 1k plus a better phono stage...JMHO
MM is easier on the tone arm and on the phono stage.

Later on you can get an SV1 or a colibri....

MM cartridges are a great place to start. Many fine ones out there. There is an entire thread here on Audiogon discussing MM cartridges started by Raul Iruegas who IMO is a good source of information on cartridge tonearm matching. He sure owns enough of each and he has tried more arm/cartridge combinations than anyone I know.

Dealers should be able to demonstrate well match analog rigs, but some don't take the time to go through the process. For most dealers vinyl is not a priority. Even though I've had some good dealers available to me who knew analog rigs, I found it best to talk to some of the folks here on this site or use resources at other sites like Vinyl Engine. Lots of information out there. Exercise a little patience and you will do fine setting up a reasonably priced analog rig that will exceed digital play back quality.