Cheapest Analogue Setup to Conquer Best Digital

Why tie up a TON of money when you don't even know if you'll like the end result ? My suggestion is to look for a reasonably priced yet good performing USED rig and go from there. This should give you more than a glimpse of what analogue offers without biting you in the wallet too drastically. If you find the whole analogue process appealing, you can always upgrade AND retain most of the resale value of what you originally bought. That is, if you do your homework to start off with and are just a bit patient.

I would try looking for a used Well Tempered or Sota table. For the money, they are hard to beat. Keep in mind that you will also need a decent arm ( may or may not come with the table ), a phono cartridge ( most would probably recommend moving coil although there are some good moving magnets ), some type of decent yet easy to use record cleaning device ( the Disc Doctor system comes to mind ) and a preamp with enough gain to accomodate the low output voltage of the specific cartridge that you select. I could easily assemble a COMPLETE phono system for well under $1000 that would please just about anybody but the most picky. That is, buying used except for the cartridge. This would also include some type of isolation devices, as TT's are quite sensitive to acoustic feedback, vibration, etc...

I'm assuming that you'll do this courtesy of a preamp that already has an input stage designed for vinyl or via an outboard phono stage. I only mention this as you need a device that has the RIAA phono EQ curve built into it.

If all of you've been using is a digital front end, you are in for a bit of a surprise. While good digital is QUITE good, even a reasonably priced vinyl system that is well thought out and well set up and can do some things better. The others have already covered the caveats in terms of various quality of pressings and recordings, etc... Best of luck and good listening. Sean
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Plato, if you re-read my post i said that a system of that nature would give him a solid "glimpse" of what top notch vinyl had to offer. In other words, a good "bang for the buck" type of offering. After all, Wonjun might not like what is involved with the care & maintenance of a vinyl system so i suggested taking a "small bite" and go from there. If it was to their taste, they could always move up. If not, they wouldn't have sunk a lot of money into what they might consider a frivilous venture. For the record though : ) my price "guesstimate" took into account that they might already own a preamp with a phono stage. Sean
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Pbb, i think that anybody that thinks that only one of the formats does everything best is lying to themselves or delusional. Both formats offer advantages over the other in different areas. While i will agree that vinyl has a LOT more maintenance to go along with it, it really can sound much more "liquid" or "lucid" on many recordings.

My girlfriend, who hasn't listened to LP's in years nor ever owned a good "stereo", was utterly amazed when i played some tunes for her via the TT. The first words out of her mouth were "I don't remember records ever sounding this good". My brother, who is 25 years old, owns a quad-amped system and grew up with CD's instead of records, said that he didn't think that vinyl could be so quiet or sound so good. It was good enough for him to buy a TT and start listening to vinyl.

Both of these reactions and opinions from people that thought "vinyl is dead". The "funny" part about all of this, especially after reading your response, is that it all came about because i bought a turntable / arm / cartridge combo that set me back $150 on Ebay and wanted to show them how good it sounded. To top it off, the records that were oh - so convincing to the "vinylly challenged" audiophile and non-audiophile were never maintained that well and were lucky if they had been "discwashered" once in a while.

Like i said, a well set-up vinyl system can be done for under $1000 ( so long as you already have a phono stage ). It might not be state of the art, it might not challenge the finest that digital has to offer, etc... BUT it will get you to the point that MOST people ( civilians and audiophiles alike ) would find it both "enjoyable" and "musical" to listen to. Like anything else, achieving 90% of your goal may be cheap and easy. It's that last 10% that kills ya in terms of budget and labor... Sean
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