New to Turntable - what're involved in playing LP?

I should have mentioned that there is a good DVD explaining set up in detail by Michael Fremer; I would get that and watch it before making a decision.

Great little speaker you have.

find someone locally who has one and check it out first. it's helpful to have someone who knows their way around, especially if they can help with tracking force and such.

I am not sure that Fremer's video would not discourage a neophyte from going anywhere near a record player. Maybe the best advice is to purchase a player with a built-on tonearm (so no installation and alignment necessary) and then ask your dealer to install your cartridge of choice, or a knowledgeable friend. Then, enjoy. If you are smitten, you will take it upon yourself to learn more about the art and science of record playing. If not, you won't.

You will also need a phono stage; the signal that comes out of a phono cartridge is tiny in magnitude (voltage) compared to that which comes from any sort of silver disc player (CD/SACD/DVD), and it needs to be equalized, which is the unique job of the phono stage. Decent ones can be bought for well under $500. (Check out phono stages on Audiogon.) For a cartridge, I recommend any of several good "moving magnet" (aka MM) cartridges. As a class, MM cartridges work best and sound best with those low cost phono stages mentioned above. Shure, Grado, and Ortofon, among many others make good MM cartridges.

There's a lot of very good entry level decks that come with pre-mounted cartridges. They're about as plug and play as it gets. Speak to the seller and get a sense of what you'll need spec-wise from a phono preamp.

After you amass LPs and decide you want more out of your setup, get familiar with cartridge installation. A local dealer is invaluable in this regard.

That's how I started out anyway. I bought a Pro-Ject 1Xpression deck which had a pre-mounted Sumiko Oyster cartridge, and an NAD PP2 phono stage. I upgraded to a better integrated that also had a great internal phono stage (Bryston B60). After moving, I found a local Rega dealer who's a vinyl guy. I bought a Dynavector 10x5 cartridge from him, and he installed it while explaining everything to me. When the time comes to replace it, I'll buy something from him and ask him to watch me install it. He's a great guy in this regard and would be happy to help me out.

One thing I'd strongly suggest is good cleaning stuff - for your records and stylus. They don't need to be expensive however. I bought some Mofi record cleaning fluid, a wet brush, and a carbon fiber brush from Music Direct. Nothing fancy or exotic.

After you amass a decent sized collection, a vacuum cleaning machine works wonders. I bought the KAB USA unit for about $150 or so? Took my vinyl sound quality up several notches. I also added using a hand held steam cleaner that I already had (it was about $25), and that combined with the vacuuming took it up another few notches.

It's easy to get caught up in the cleaning stuf and other vinyl tweaks. One thing at a time IMO, and don't get overwhelmed by it all. It's not as difficult as it seems.

Cleaning is an essential process. No matter how good your equipment is, it'll sound like crap if your records are dirty. That doesn't mean it has to be an intricate process though.