Suggested entry path into vinyl...

Thanks for the feedback. I have 0 LPs right now - as I said new to the format. There are a number of very good record stores offering an expansive number of used/new LPs across all formats in the greater Boston area. I am a fan of '60s-'80s rock, '50s-current Jazz, and getting into classical, and my sense is that LPs as a source for these genres of music is plentiful (both new and used). I agree that I could end up finding the whole experiment frustrating but I won't find out until I give it a shot. My only concern with starting out with a very modest set-up is, if I end up not liking the "vinyl sound," I would always question whether that was a function of the format itself vs. the quality of the platform being used. Appreciate all the feedback thus far. Thanks.

Interesting and thanks for the feedback. Buconero117 - is buying used vinyl rig advisable given the more delicate/finicky nature of the equipment (i.e., more susceptible to buying a "lemon")? I would be more at ease buying a phono stage used for example but less so, the tt, tonearm, or cartridge given susceptibility to damage. Am I way off on that assumption? As for doing the setup myself, I have ordered Fremer's DVD for vinyl setup :-). I hope that will be enough to walk me through the basics of tt setup.

Thx Sibelius. I don't disagree with you at all. I have a number of dealers in the area. What has been frustrating is that even with very high profile dealers in the Boston area, the number of vinyl rigs available to audition is very limited to almost non-existent. Let me ask a follow-up question for those of you who own ARC CD7 and a vinyl setup. I have an all ARC front-end, including the CD7, which I found to be the least digital-sounding CD, with very liquid, smooth and natural sounding sonic character to CD playback. I envision well-put together vinyl can better the ARC CD7 on those sonic traits, and that one can get these types of results without necessarily spending an arm and a leg. Am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Thx Clio and Sibelius for your follow up answers. To Clio's point, any thoughts on component matching or any "truisms" regarding approaches to vinyl (i.e., suspended vs. mass loaded designs, use of motor controller vs. not for speed stability, certain types of tonearm technologies vs others). Also, any rules of thumb regarding how to match cartridges/tonearms for better tracking, and or cartridge/phono stage matching that I should be aware of? I know these are very broad questions, so any thoughts or any reference pieces folks can point me to on the net or other places that discuss these basic "matching" principles would be very much appreciated. Thanks again.

Thanks Daverz for your response and the link to the Analog Dept web site. Looks very useful.

Thanks Samhar and T bone. Appreciate the thoughts.

Thank you all for your comments. It has been very helpful hearing folks different perspectives. And I realize that the vinyl vs. digital debate can escalate to an all out smackdown among Agoners/audiophiles. I guess I never owned a vinyl rig (pre-teen in the 1970s) and so I grew up on the digital sound and while I am acclimated to that sound, I have grown to learn and appreciate what digital does well and what it does not do as well over the past 3-4 years which is when i started down this crazy audiophile journey and as my playback system has improved over this time. I recognize that this may still turn out to be an exercise in futility as I may decide that I do not want to deal with all the "headaches" for some and "rituals" for others that comes with optimizing vinyl playback, or I may not be able to look past the surface level clicks and pops that is endemic to the format (even with the most assiduous cleaning systems/rituals). I get all that. But I guess this is what the quest for "better" sound reproduction is all about and that is why I wanted to ask peoples' opinions about the best approach to entering vinyl as opposed to specific equipment recommendations (of which there are many threads on Agon).

Having said that, on the equipment side of things, one of the things that is clearly more complicated in evaluating vinyl playback is the whole issue of component matching (table, tonearm, cartridge, phono, and phono cable) and how to compare among different vinyl rigs. This may make auditioning different vinyl rigs at local dealers a bit meaningless because a vinyl rig one auditions will be a function of whatever set-up is being used at a particular dealer (i.e., you could hear Brand A turntable at dealer X and you can walk away unimpressed with that audition for whatever reason and you will write off that Brand A tt when in fact it could have been a poorly matched cartridge to that tonearm or poorly matched cartridge to the phono stage being used, etc...). The dilemma of having so many variables that determine what the overall vinyl rig sounds makes the auditioning process kind of a hit or miss proposition. Any thoughts on how to try to adjust for this in the auditioning process, or is it just the nature of the beast and one has to rely on the dealers matching components to show off the best capabilities of whatever rigs they have on display? I don't know if I was clear on that but your thoughts would be very appreciated. Thanks.

Thx Clio09. I got the same advice from Samhar offline on the use of MM cartridges. He also recommended battery powered phono because of the lower noise floor which is so important in vinyl application. Thank you all. Great stuff.

Hi Samhar. Absolutely right. I misspoke. Thanks all for your continued advice. Appreciate it.

Thx Dressprmex. Great thoughts. I agree with the advice. The approach I am taking is to go with a moderate set up to learn the intricacies of table set up/operation and to test whether I have the temperament for vinyl playback (get up every 20 mins or so, clean LPs, constantly check cartridge alignment, etc...) and also to start doing the rounds at various used record stores in the greater Boston area to see the choice and quality of LPs that is available to me. If I find that I enjoy the process of spinning vinyl and I have good sources for used LPs, then I will upgrade into a more serious vinyl playback system. I am still in the research phase and trying to figure out what I mean by "moderate" starter vinyl systsm. I will come back to all you folks for advice and pester you with questions (either in this or a separate thread) when I start narrowing down hardware options. Thx again for your advice and enjoy. Let me know if you get a chance to hear the Rockport Miras and what you think of them Dressprmex. Take care.

Thx Catfishbob and Oilmanmojo. Appreciate the thoughts.