Want to Start vinyl

Go for it! I just bought a turntable at the beginning of March, and acquired at least 200 albums in the next 2 months for probably $300 or maybe less. Even most of the vinyl I've fished out of the dollar bins and thrift shops have been very clean sounding. I do a pretty picky visual inspection before paying, though.

I bought a Technics SL 1210 M5G and alternate between Ortofon OM 10 and Shure M97xE cartridges mounted on their own headshells so switching is easy. I play it into an Amber Model 17 preamp that has both MM and MC inputs. It cost me a whopping $130 at a pawn shop.

I *really* like the Technics DD tables. They're very rugged, built to ridiculousy close tolerances (1/2 a micron, anyone?), speed is dead-nuts accurate, they're *very* quiet, and the controls are intuitive and silky smooth. You can elevate the clarity and soundstage significantly by placing the turntable on a thick maple or butcher block cutting board slab with shock absorbing footers under the slab, such as Vibrapods or Mapleshade Isoblocks.

07-03-07: Taters
Here's the bottom line for me. I would rather call Nate at Acoustic Sounds and order the highest quality vinyl on the planet than spend 8 hours looking for used vinyl and maybe finding 2 to 3 records that are listenable.

I think that comes down to how complete your vinyl collection is already, and whether you have more time or more money.

At the beginning of March I had a new turntable and about 15 LPs left over from the '70s. For the first 2-3 months I was hitting the used record shops and thrift shops once or twice weekly, and usually coming away with armloads of LPs. Even at that, the most I ever spent in one outing was $82 for about 22 LPs, and ALL of them were eminently playable and filled some gap in the types of music I was looking for.

Then I started hitting thrift shops and picking up stuff for 50 cents to a buck tops. My yield dropped to perhaps 70%, but at that price, who cares? Again, after a one-hour visit I'd come away with 15-25 LPs that cost me $7-12.

I've supplemented this with about 20 LPs from eBay to get recordings that meant a lot to me from the '60s and '70s. And all except one have been in near new-to-mint condition.

Now that I have 200+ albums, I'm getting pickier. I no longer hit thrift shops and come away with armloads. In fact, the last time I went to a used record shop, I collected an armload from the dollar bin and then put most of them back in favor of a near-perfect early pressing of the Beatles' White album for $18.99. When I got home and cued it up, you'd swear a 707 was landing in my living room when "Back in the USSR" started up.

The other thing that can affect your outlook is how good your local LP shops are. Where I live, I have already visited AT LEAST eight different used LP shops and four thrift shops. The used LP shops all have their own personalities and philosophies. One had really crummy, overpriced records. Another has lots of $1 records in great condition and many many more for $4-$8. That's where I got the White album cheaper than I've ever seen it anywhere, and where I'm going back to get Sgt. Peppers and Abbey Road at $9.99 ea. Then there's another store where--although their prices are on the high side--all the records are near perfect and the records are organized and catalogued as completely as Tower Records was at its peak. If they have what you're looking for, you'll find it in 5 minutes.