I'm interested in vinyl.........


Would someone tell me what they think of someone getting into vinyl at this stage of the game. I'd like to pick up a Music Hall MMF 7 at a decent price to begin seeing what all the fuss is about. My question is this. I have a Plinius 8200 that has a built in phone stage. If I were to purchase the MMF 7, what else would I need. Also, at what pricepoint would cd get better sounding than the Music Hall. I realize the MMF 7 isn't the last name in players, but I thought for what it's worth, it would certainly be better than most transports. Thanks. Any other recommendations would be appreciated.
128x128durwood
Durwood,

What else you need depends to some extent on the cartridge that you get with the tt. If it's a high output moving magnet, then there's not much else.

If you go for a moving coil (esp. low to medium output), youi might find that the phono stage of the Plinius is lacking a little in gain.
Currently I can name examples that I have in my collection on CD as well as on vinyl:
Dire Straits S/T where vinyl sounded more superb on Rega P3/Elys/Creek OBH8 than on Cary 303/200.
Same comparison was made with Dire Straits "On Every Street",
Irmin Schmidt "Musk at Dusk", David Sylvian "Brilliant Trees", Frank Zappa "Joe's Garage"...

There are some different conclusions can be arround but hear this: CD-player or separates are DIGITAL and MMF7 is ANALOGUE and in this case no doubt that many people prefere $500 analogue setup(including phono) over $4k CD-players.

I believe that my $4k analogue rig(including cart,phono) can't probably beat any CD- or SACD-player for any price cause it's not analoge. If you spend $3...4k carefully selecting components i.e. cart, phono on analogue setup, you will hit the point where investing more in digital will make no sence in comparison to what you've already got in analogue. That's where the competition for digital stops and for analogue still goes and goes...