I am definitely experiencing the same newbie bliss as you. I have been listening to records my whole life (I'm 55) and after 40+ years I finally put together a great system. I bought a VPI Super Prime Scout from Upscale with a Soundsmith Othello cart, and found a Threshold NS10 and Parasound HCA-800II for a really good deals. I topped it off with a vintage pair of Snell J3's. I mean wow. Like you, I finally get it. Now get a copy of Hugh Masekala "Hope" and be ready for the neck hairs raising and the tears of joy from such great sound. I am a musician (Trumpet and Drums) and a have done quite a bit of home recording and mastering. I never really paid much attention to the end user aspect. Now I am more the end user. I get it. I am fully inside the rabbit hole. Just bought a Soundsmith Zephyr MK III cart to replace my Othello, though honestly I'm not sure my system can sound any better than it does now. Here's to the Rabbit hole. Cheers
Now I get it...
Hey everyone, long time listener first time caller. I sold a bunch of used gear and recently updated my vinyl front end to a Feickert Woodpecker, a Soundsmith Paua, and a Pass Labs XP-25 (I feel blessed). As a result, I discovered I own some truly awful pressings. Seriously, never knew some of my records were so darn terrible. The good ones, though? Absolutely magical. This was a pretty cool moment in my audiophile journey. Now I finally get why some system reviews describe the components as “unforgiving to poor source material”. Awesome.