How does a beginner turntable compare to digital ?

Don't forget table is not a player. For your $500 you will have to secure a table, cartrage and a phono stage. Spend the money on a CD player and never look back.

The Brio that the OP has, has a built in phono stage. As a start up system, this phone stage will work perfectly.

The Rega P1 (or the new RP1) would be a great table to start with, and both come with a decent cartridge.

As a cautionary note: You will most likely become a vinyl addict and spend crazy amounts of money on vinyl and turntable upgrades in the near future!

******** Dealer Notice --- I'm a Rega dealer ************

I got back into vinyl after a twenty year hiatis. Now as in the past surface noise (new or used vinyl) can be an issue specifically snaps clicks and pops. I bought a Spin Clean Record Cleaner and a Carbon Fiber Brush along with a stylus brush/cleaner. I have been able to reduce the surface noise on most albums to very low levels. Some are dead quite with the exception of the occassional pop. I did have to send one brand new album back because it was so noisey that I couldn't listen to it. But with either media the quality of the recording as well as the quality of the pressing(vinyl) makes a huge difference.

As to the sound the vinyl has more fullness to it at all frequencies and the soundstaging is better and in most instances also more organic, symbols sound more like symbols,drums more like drums etc. With Digital(SACD) the dynamic range is wider but the sound is thiner at all frequencies. Soundstaging is also very good and the dynamic attack is a bit stronger. In the end I seem to prefer vinyl and I say this after having pounded my chest to the superiority of Digital (SACD) to vinyl. But vinyl is more work, higher maintainence and more finicky than digital.

I bought a used Thorens td166mkII a used Musical Fidelity v-lps phono stage and a new Denon DL103r cartridge. Including the cleaning products I have about $800 into my analoge set-up. My digital player is a modded Sony SCD-1 about $5K into it. So given the fact that this moddest analoge system can compete favorably with my digital set-up is surprising to me. I would say give it a try spend wisely and you won't get hurt if you don't like it.

The rest of my system is a Cary SLI-80F1 tube integrated and Focal 1007Be Monitors with Homegrown Audio DNA interconnects and X32 Speaker Cables.

Good Luck and Have Fun.

Chuck

..it all depends on your entire system and room. You may like your CD player better after all is done.

I was initially very disappointed when I tried what you are contemplating. Lots of good advice above, especially those who point out that a turntable also requires a cartridge, phono preamp, cable... and an isolation stand or similar device. It adds up. I reached c. $6K on the turntable setup before it clearly bested my ancient cd system (Pioneer PD-65/Muse Model 2/Genesis Digital Lens). But now I listen almost exclusively to records (again). It takes a lot of time and effort to get a turntable to live up to its potential, they are not plug and play like digital. I could not recommend going down that road unless you already have a worthwhile record collection.