Wanting to get into Vinyl - Need help

I agree with Sibelius and Audiofeil but it is a fun aspect of the hobby that I am very glad that I took the plunge into a few years back. I bought my first table (in years) from a local dealer but I set it up myself right from the box and it was a worthwhile experience because you really are forced to understand the various rules of engagement with your TT set-up. I started with a decent TT and cart using my MM phono stage on my integrated and over time upgraded to a good stand-alone phono and MC. I will likely try to upgrade the table next but it has been a blast along the way. Don't forget to factor in a record cleaning capability of some kind (lots to read in the archives on that).

Congrats on getting into vinyl. Much like you, I started out my vinyl collection from nothing a few months ago because I liked what I heard of vinyl playback at a friend's place and now have about 20 LP's with the collection continuing to grow. Have a Rega P3/24/Ortofon Blue and phonostage via a Van Alstine T8 preamp. Yes, playing records is a fair bit of work (cleaning mostly), but frankly I find the sound to be very engaging especially for stuff recorded in the 80's and 90's. It's also a blast going to the local record stores and finding good used finds or even picking up new releases.

I would agree with the posters above in finding a good local dealer who can help you get things set up and teach you some things along the way.

Buy what you like and have fun. It's a hobby after all...... Some will say that going the cheap route isn't a good way to go, but frankly I think it's not a bad way to figure out if you want to deal with the additional attention vinyl needs and if you decide it's not for you there are plenty of other buyers out there of gear in that price range.

The Rega RP1 is a better deck than the others you've listed IMO. Better table, tonearm, etc. I'm not bashing the others, as I've owned a Debut III and currently own a 1Xpression. The MH 2.2 is probably the only MH deck I'd consider, but I'd take an RP1 over it any day. Personal preferences, but I've seen and heard all of them side by side.

The phono stage is very important. I think Rotel has them built in to their preamps and integrateds? If so, that'll be at least as good as what you listed, and most likely better. If you've got an internal phono stage, keep that until funds recover and you can take a bigger step up like the entry level Simaudio phono stage IMO. I've heard the Rotel internal phono stages, and they were quite good. Not world class, but definitely as good or better than entry level external ones like the NAD and MF. I owned the PP2. It was decent, but nothing special. It sounded a bit too slow, veiled and closed in. If you don't have an internal phono stage, the Cambridge 640P (second step up, not the cheapest one) is the best I've heard at that level. It's not much more than their cheaper one, and is quite a bit better.

I strongly recommend buying from a local dealer. Turntables can get a bit difficult to set up. Once you see someone do it once or twice it's no big deal, but doing it on your own can get tricky. If you misalign a cartridge, you can damage it and/or your albums.

Make sure you get a good cleaner. The Spin Clean gets great reviews and is pretty cheap, at least for this stuff anyway. I haven't used one, but I know several people who do. They've had nothing but great things to say about it. After you amass some vinyl, invest in a vacuum cleaner. I bought a KAB USA EV-1 for about $170. It's s Nitty Gritty, minus the vacuum. I attach my home vac, and it's the same thing for quite a bit less money.

Sorry if I'm overwhelming you. Not my intention at all. And contrary to what's been said, you don't need to spend $3k to enjoy vinyl. My Rega DAC and 1Xperssion/cartridge/Speed Box are about $1k each. The turntable definitely has a distinct sound. Both are great to my ears, just different. Even my father's old Technics SL-BD1 that I dug out of his basement which was not much better than a toy Circuit City Audio Technica $20 cartridge showed the heart of what vinyl's all about when I hooked it up in my old system. That table and his old vinyl got me into spinin' the licorice pizza.

One other thing.....as others have mentioned, I would definitely recommend a cleaning system of some kind especially if you want the lowest noisefloor possible. (Which IMO is really the only thing I miss from CD's at this point during playback.)

Buddy of mine has the Spin Clean and while I think it's a good solution, I'm glad I paid a bit more for the KAB-EV1 as the vacuuming of the cleaning solution and debris off the record really seems to make a large difference. Even my friend has commented that he wished he went for the KAB over the Spin Clean as the difference was pretty noticeable in back to back playing of records cleaned with the Spin Clean and then cleaned with the KAB.

I had a KAB-EV1 and it worked very well but I eventually wanted something a little easier to use and got a VPI 16.5, feel like that was a great upgrade. Now thinking about a loricraft. It never ends.