Raw (or Chuck): I think you’ll ultimately be better off with the simplest of old school components long term. I really liked yakbob’s suggestion for a couple of reasons- the 7T was derided in its day compared to the earlier (and far more desirable) tube version, but it is still a very good preamp- in fact, though I don’t really keep up with market prices, my impression is that even the transistorized version prices have risen in recent years. It still isn’t a tube 7, but...
The Dynaco amp is a classic. They were sold in kit form and are easy and pretty cheap to upgrade and fix.
It is money well spent. I’d much rather have that combo than an old receiver or some new Class D on the cheap.
I haven’t heard a small Klipsch in years, and some people really dig them; (I have dated experience with the original big K-horn, which has been the subject of tweaks by a guy in Maine).
You can probably get decent sound from box shop electronics--e.g. I use a Marantz pre-pro for our small home theatre system and it outperformed my long in the tooth Meridian processor (a highly regarded and now quite expensive line). But, I don’t use it for music. Some people do--I think if you want to go into vinyl, you are going to have to do this step by step; when I first got started, that’s how I did it, as did many of my contemporaries. Which means that you may have just an OK turntable for now-- make sure it doesn’t damage the records (I don’t know about the U-Turn but used Technics 1200s are work horses, perhaps not the height of high fidelity; also, there are smaller low priced Regas (a turntable that has a real following). The preamp- other than the Marantz 7 transistor, there are many updated, modded tube Dynacos still around- starting as a PAS 3 with additional nomenclature that I’d have to look up, but some quick research will put you on the right track.
To me, this is a better investment, not so much financially (hell, if I took all the money I spent on hi fi over the decades and really invested it, I’d be way richer)- but a better investment of your hi-fi dollar that you can build on if you go deeper into the hobby. And even if you don’t, there’s a lot to be said for what used to be called "beer budget" hi-fi. Great sound can be gotten at modest prices if you know what you are after. Coming to this as a neophyte would be daunting, not just because of the terminology and marketing BS, but because even folks that have done this quite a while can’t really judge something until they hear it, long term, and live with it for a while using a variety of source material.
There used to be a whole battle of specs which has morphed into the ’objective’ v. ’subjective’ schools and shadings in between along a spectrum. My point is that the more you dig in, the more you may find that brings you joy rather than "OK, that’s the easy way to check that box."
Sorry for the overlong response. I guess I’m in a mood.
regards,
