Getting into vinyl for the first time, need help

Welcome to the world of vinyl. $800 you say? No problem. Look at the new Pro-ject Carbon that comes equipped with an Ortofon 2M Red cartridge at $400. Add the optional Speed Box II that really will tighten up the bass and make for easy changing of speeds for another $160. Last, get a Pro-ject Phono Box S preamp at $200. I can't say enough good things about this little preamp - it blows away the phono stage in my Parasound 2 channel preamp. It also allows for full cartridge loading.

Total cost $760 with $40 left over to start going to the used record shows to start your vinyl collection.

Yes the more I think about it, I would opt for a new Carbon, et al as described above.

Paraneer and Tbomgard hit the nail on the head. Pro-ject is a great entry level product, although they also have pricier offerings too. I've been very pleased both with sound and reliability. Cheers.

The PS Audio is a fantastic pre. I've owned it for quite some time and have had no desire to upgrade it. I am currently using it with a Grado Sonata 1 reference (high output), so I'm not sure how the PS Audio does with low output carts, but it does have several loading settings should you end up going that route in the future. It does seem to have very low noise output so I'm sure it'd do fine with most low output carts.

I agree that the Project turntables are very good and in the lower price range there really is only Project and Rega.

As someone has already said, it would be better to spend less to begin with until you are sure vinyl is for you. It is a labour intensive format that requires constant maintenance. As suggested you could go for a Project Debut but I think you should be spending less to begin with, and spend your extra money on records instead. The Project Essential is said to be good, but being a unipivot, can be a bit fiddly if you are not used to them, and cartridges can be fussy on unipivot tonearms.
I would go for an entry level Rega, the RP1 I think would give you satisfaction without spending too much and it has a reasonable cartridge (though I would change this for an Audio Technica AT95E). The arm can take better cartridges so you can upgrade a little with this deck.
If you wanted to go the second hand route, you could not go wrong with a Thorens TD150 or 160 or a Rega Planar 2 or 3, or NAD533 (Rega Planar clone).
The Thorens decks come in many guises i.e. some with and some without fitted tonearms, so you would need to decide if this is too much complication to begin with.

I hope this helps you.

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