Getting into analog is tough....

Matchstikman,

I realize it seems like a daunting task but all the stuff you are concerned about is the easy part. Building a suitable software collection is most likely your biggest challenge UNLESS you have a mountain of money. Boatloads of money can buy anything your heart desires in the analog domain. If you have enough extra time to master all the issues you have listed then you will likely have enough time to find all kinds of vinyl at very affordable prices.

Please provide your general location so that one of us can invite you over to check analog out. That may settle the issue for you quickly. It might not be your cup of tea. Then again you may agree with the claimed benefits and become more motivated.

Depending on your existing system and how influenced you are by negative comments about certain turntable manufacturers it may be much easier than you believe.

Everyone has an opinion and here is mine. Your total budget needs to be in the $2500 range so that you can have a record cleaning system and all the associated gear that you will be happy with for a very long time.

I've had my current turntable and arm since 1984 and still have no compelling reason to replace it especially when comparing the cost of a digital front end to better it. Top dollar on the used market for what I have including the cartridge is about $1500. The extra money that I have allocated for you will buy everything else you need for the care of vinyl and the other bits and pieces all we vinyl junkies have plus some software. And, this is considering you don't have any inclination for DIY.

On the other hand, $2500 will buy a lot of CD's.

If you don't already have an LP collection then I would not bother with analog. Like Patrick said $1500 buys a lot of music. If I were you I'd put the $1500 into CDs and /or upgrades to your digital front end, or get an SACD player. I listen to vinyl/CDs about 50/50, but I think in my case this is only historical, because I already had a turntable and an LP collection. I can't say that I categorically prefer the sound of one to the other. To my ears the quality of the engineering of the album makes more difference than the format. A good CD sounds much better than a bad LP.
I'll disagree with Pat on the cleaning system ... my cleaner cost $40 (Allsop orbitrak) and it gets very good results.

Lastly how do you plan to purchase vinyl ? If you're prepared to spend $15 per LP then you can get new albums. These days I only buy used LPs, which I have to thoroughly clean. It's very time consuming, so I only do it because to me it's fun, but many of my friends think I'm mad spending hours at the local record store going through hundreds of albums looking for the 5-10 albums that I want, that are not thrashed. Financial cost is nil (50cents per album) but time cost is very high.

"So what was the reason I wanted to get into analog".

To expand your hobby and your music collection. You expand your hobby by learning about how to assemble and maintain a turntable system. You take on a new hobby of chasing down good LP's of music not available on CD's (which can be well worth the effort). Its not a rocking chair hobby. If you are up to the effort involved, I would do a dry run of the used music stores in your area, view the for sale ad's here and on EBay and see if there is enuf stuff available which interests you to make the effort worth while. If you're caught up in all of the posts proclaiming that vinyl systems sound better its best to be a bit cynical. While there is a lot of potential with vinyl there is a lot of potential for CD's as well. Much can depend on set up, maintenance, and system matching. You can make either sound pretty good with careful planning. I'd let the software issue guide my decision.

Sean,

I guess I wasn't clear. My budget would be $1500 for the table/arm and maybe cartridge. The other grand would be for a phono stage, cleaning system, alignment tools, brushes, poly sleeves, etc. We don't disagree at all. Yes, I agree also that it has been easy for me since I grew up with vinyl and never really adopted CD's to any extent. Between the early 80's and today it was a very difficult time watching my software of choice dry up and disappear in the stores. It's slowly coming back which is refreshing.

Interesting stuff. Ok, here are some details about my listening habits. At one time I had about 3000 CDs and one day I decided to clean house and only keep the CDs that I truly loved and gave/sold the rest. I rarely buy a new CD these days unless it is a better recording or a recording I have that comes with extra tracks that I want, so I don't buy that much anymore. I personally felt that all those CDs that I would never play were just taking up space and were of no use to me. A CD has to work for its keep. That is just me. For me, less is more.

However, my older brother has an LP collection from way back when that amounts to about 1000 LPs and maybe 400 45s and he rarely plays them. I myself have about 200 LPs and about 100 45s that have been collecting dust for decades that, I am hoping, are waiting to release their magic. I don't plan on acquiring alot more LPs, but it would be nice to find better copies and better versions of the ones that I already have, plus I have seen some LPs of CDs that I already own that might be nice to have.

So, this year I am hoping to finish up the digital side of my system and it is coming along to my satisfaction. It has been hard from falling to obsession and into the poor house.

Next year will be the year of analog and I thought I would start studying and this is where my frustrations have come in. You might call me a weekend analog warrior. I won't be doing it as much as some of you, but I would like to do it. There are those special nights where you just want to put on something and get comfortably numb. That is what I picture to be an analog night. Can you dig it?

All this frustration started when I was checking out Teres turntables and the price seemed reasonable, but then I read that the turntable did not come with an arm or a cartridge. I thought, geez, that's like buying a car that doesn't come with tires or a steering wheel. What is up with that? Do I have to shop 3 times?

I guess I may end up not shooting so high and buying something that is plug and play like the MMF or Rega stuff that you just plug in and go. That should work, right?

I guess it is like starting into this hobby again as I did months ago into audiophilia....baby steps, right?