Getting into vinyl for the first time

Dont do it! stop immediately,Its a trap! Before you even know what’s happening you,ll be spending all your money trying to get your digital to sound as good as your analog.

What sound you get from vinyl or digital is completely dependent on your equipment. I have a $45K analog side and a $45K digital side to my system. I have been upgrading them for decades to get here. I have 2,000 pristine / audiophile albums, with an equivalent recording the analog and digital end sound the same.

So, if you are getting a kick out of playing with the records. Enjoy. There is lots of ancillary paraphernalia you will eventually need… like a disk washer / vacuum. It can be great fun.

If, on the other hand you are on a quest for great sound, put all your research and money into your digital end and core system.

Your local person gave you good choices,

I have no doubt that will happily last you until you acquire more vinyl, get thoroughly hooked, then move up to Better TT, Better Tonearm (with standard removable headshell),

Your tonearm has a unique removable headshell, the more standard removable headshell is on the AT-LP120XUSB Turntable.

Perhaps keep existing setup for a second system somewhere, sell it, give it away. IF/When VM540ml stylus gets worn, the stylus can easily be replaced, leaves the cartridge body mounted and aligned, a big advantage of MM cartridges.

New TT/Tonearm: ADD a new cartridge on a removable headshell, perhaps Moving Coil cartridge at that time.

You don’t want to be clueless.

In terms of gear, all of it matters, from the phono cartridge to the phono stage, to the wires, the arm and the cartridge.

Then you have the issue of the current vinyl market- overinflated in my estimation, both in terms of price and grading.

New vinyl is largely digitally sourced; sure, you can get a different "voice" playing back over a turntable, but the real gold, to me, is old pressings.

And then you have to know what you are chasing and know how to buy-- basically understand that anything less than M- is a total crapshoot and if it is a scarce record, talk to the seller in advance.

You’ll need to know how to clean records effectively. (I won’t advocate one method, I’ve been down that rabbit hole many times).

Have I discouraged you yet?

There are still some bargains to be found. I buy the vast majority over the Internet, since I’m not real interested in the 298th reissue of a warhorse. (I’ve got more than enough classic rock, and thousands of classical records from back in the day that I have sadly ignored).

You need to educate yourself. Part of it is gear, but that can get sorted and upgraded. The question then becomes the source material.

I’ve found over the decades that my tastes have changed. Every once in a while I’ll pull out something that hasn’t been played for 30 years (but clean, with a nice old third party inner) and fire it up.

Getting "into" LPs requires some basic competence in set up, associated equipment and ultimately depends on how deep and broad your listening tastes are.

Good luck,

PS: FWIW, I would not go into this medium at this point. But more power to ya.

Get ifi iPhone 3 if you can. When I was shopping for phono stages that came up highly recommended in that budget. Once you have a basic analog setup, just build up your vinyl collection and gradually upgrade your gear. This hobby can take you to stratosphere in terms of financial commitment so knowing what you want n where you want to be early will save your money. I recently got started into this analog game and I started watching lot of different turntable setup videos. At the end of the day, know how to setup the table using a basic protractor and tracking force scale. Plenty of over engineered tools out there to help you set up the table but I do not need those. Know relationships between cartridges and tonearm, i.e compliance. Normally MC carts sound better than MM, so I'd invest money in mc carts. In terms of upgrad path, table > tonearm > cartridge > phono pre

OP starting to vynil is intimidating at first. Try to learn on what you have.Be patience.If you know someone who is willing to share his analog set up in your area that will help.I did not made a big move on analog until I got a very good idea.Vynil is amazing if you do it right.

Welcome to the vinyl club!  It is a thoroughly rewarding pursuit. Ignore the haters and have fun.  That is a great cartridge and phono pre pairing, and replacement styli are inexpensive and easy to replace.  That particular cartridge allows the listener to replace the microline stylus (the ML in the model) with a Shibata or Special Line Contact for a few more clams.  I've found that I prefer the SLC for classical listening and ML for rock/jazz. 

My one recommendation is to ignore anyone who says that there is ONLY ONE WAY to listen (analog v digital, tubes v SS, dynamic v planar/electrostats, etc). You know which beer/car/ice cream/genre you prefer and someone else telling you that you're "wrong" for liking them has issues that run much deeper than audiophilia.

Enjoy!

I think the Zphono is a good match for your system and you should just hold on and play records for now. If you stay interested and are ready to break some eggs, you can upgrade to something like a Technics 1200 (about 2k I think). If you’re not willing to go to that level, stay with what you have IMO. The TT you have looks nice for the money and buying another one for $500+ or so is a waste IMO. But just go slow and play records. 

Keep what you have for now, buy a couple more albums and importantly, get them nice and clean! I don't mean things like Disc Washer clean, I mean dedicated album cleaning machine deep clean.

Congrats on your new TT! Buying vinyl takes me back to the 80s when record stores were everywhere! Main thing is to have fun! Here's my two cents: check out some accessories (you may have them already): stylus cleaner, record cleaner, maybe an upgraded mat or vinyl weight stabilizer (kinda looks like a hockey puck). All of these little things can also improve the sound. Cheers!

Time and time again I have set up systems and when the customer compares "high resolution" streaming like Qobuz to a local 24/96 file of the same recording they are shocked at the poor quality of the streaming. It is no surprise that the vinyl also outperforms it in your case. You have to compare it to a local file. Streaming is for background music only. The better the system the the worse streaming will sound. Personally, I think this is being done on purpose. The industry wants you buying records and files. There is no reason that streaming should not sound just as fine as a local file. 

Suggest enjoying what you have for a bit before you hop on board the upgrade train. For your given setup, sounds like you made some good changes.

My small vinyl collection is approaching 50 yrs of age!  Half a century.  Still sounds great. I always took extra care with my LP's.  Had nothing more than a discwasher that has served me well for just as long.  If you get into buying used LP's, a more aggressive approach to cleaning would be ideal as noted above.

If you do have to satisfy that itch, suggest you talk to your dealer about a home audition to see if it is really worth it to you.  My guess would be if you upgrade to a $1000 phono preamp, your turntable will be the next item to go and so on.  Honestly, your system right now seems pretty "balanced" in terms of fund allocation.

Buy more LPs. You’re going to get sick and tired of the two you have otherwise. Listen to what you’ve got for several months. Then come back with specific questions.

An excellent low-price phono stage is the Schiit Mani 2 for $160. Michael Fremer gave it a very positive review, praising its versatility in handling both MM and MC cartridges.

Keep the Zphono and keep playing LP's.

The cartridge alone will require 50 hours, or so, of playing time to settle in (sound better) and probably the same for the phono preamp.

Your TT/cartridge and phono preamp are all favorably reviewed.

First step should be, IMO, figuring out how you will be cleaning the records and the stylus (safely/effectively without spending much $). 

Down the road look @ what the TT is resting upon and how it affects the sound.

Get the most out of what you have before switching gear. 

DeKay

Remember that the phono cartridge is the most important link in your chain.  Nothing later will add back what the cartridge didn't get off the album.  There are lots of phono preamps out there.  Many can be had on the 'used' market for a lot less money.