Here's what I'll be playing through: Marantz 4320 Receiver. Mission Diamond 8.1 bookshelf speakers. No sub because I live upstairs in a smallish apartment in the city.

My collection: roughly 300 pieces of vinyl. Old bluenote jazz (heavy on the horns) inherited from wife's grandpops. Organ jazz. Hefty amount of classy rock like Zep, The Who, Neil Young, Tull. 80s rock and some punk stuff. Also a fair amount of reggae vinyl, some of it vintage 70s stuff. I try to take care of my disks and store them carefully. I do not, however own a cleaner (apart from a brush and buttle of stuff).

Lets say I've got $500 to spend on my rig. How would you allocate? I see some interesting options at $300 price point. Maybe then drop some $ on a cleaning system? New paper sleeves for those old records? Not sure if my receiver rig (although I really do like it) calls for a higher end table.

Please share your thoughts. Thanks.

I like the Audio Technica AT-PL120 turntable ($220, incl. shipping)that I purchased recently off of eBay. It has a line-out/preamp switch which allows you to hook the turntable up directly to a computer in case you plan to do any transfers to CD. However, I'm planning to replace the supplied cartridge with a Shure M97xE ($70). If you plan on playing 78s, you could also purchase a Shure M78s cartridge, which is made specifically for that purpose ($40). That leaves you about $170 for cleaning supplies and accessories. Maybe you could even get lucky and find a used Nitty Gritty Cleaning Machine on eBay.

It sure is fun spending other people's money!

Coop

Russellc

Russellc