Maximizing My Turntable Experience - input reqeust

Congratulations on your wise choice!
I just love my set-up, one that has evolved somewhat, but one of my most important purchases after buying an entry-level 'table was a Spin Clean record washer, and a big pack of nice quality record sleeves. Then, don't be afraid of buying lots of cheap garage sale albums. Walking home from work a couple months ago I bought 15 albums for 12 dollars. After washing them, most of them were pretty bad....but I ended up with three gems, including a great sounding Laurie Anderson album. Still a deal for $12.

By the way, I enjoyed my first turntable quite a bit but I still didn't quite 'get' the allure of vinyl. Then I bit the bullet and bought an Ortofon 2M Black (after returning a faulty Rega Exact). WOW, goodbye ones and zeroes!

One other thing. Look for classical boxed sets. I've found that they are often in mint condition. I think many were given as christmas presents in decades passed and never played. I bought a seven disc set of Mozart piano music played by Klara Haskill on Phillips for a dollar and they were NEVER PLAYED! After googling it, I found that this set is very highly regarded for its musicality and production. One sold on ebay for $250.

Cheers!

The 2M Red is a very good cart and the TT you purchased is one of the better entry levels. The Red is not a superstar, but good. I started out one level below the Red (sticking my my big toe back in the vinyl arena)and upgraded to it. One of the beauties of vinyl is the ability to make a significant incremental upgrade by upgrading the cart. Ortofon makes other "colors" for a few more $.

All the advice you need to get you started is here.
The phonostage setup is important. I'm sure you've set it to MM cart, but you can make capacitance adjustments starting with 47pf, then trying 100pf or 300pf. Your unit will have some similar settings.

A lot of members have been posting about starting with a Pro-ject Debut Carbon as a first TT. To answer one of your questions, many have upgraded to the Ortofon 2M Blue or higher which is a substantial increase in SQ.

Some very good advice here.I must respectfully disagree with Effischer if he means that you need to wet clean a record before every play. A good cleaning before the first play then a good brush to keep the dust off before every play after should be good .

To clarify for Ray, I use a V8 ultrasonic on used records, LAST mold-release agent with a microfiber brush on new records and LAST cleaning solution with an old-school Discwasher brush for cleaning everything that hits my tables before the styli get near them. I brush the styli (always back-to-front of course) and use an agent on them before every play, too. That cleaning system has worked very successfully for me for over 30 years. Records I purchased new back then are still silent after even 100+ plays in some cases. My styli also remain clean and show even wear when examined annually under magnification.

Kevin, there are several threads on the merits or lack thereof of just about every kind of record cleaning regime imaginable here. You'll have to come to your own conclusions about methodology, but cleaning of some kind before every play is generally considered a must-do. Dust is especially evil.