Hello all, being just under 30, I grew up in the digital age. I thought that vinyl was a dead medium, until I started visiting this site. Anyway, I was driving by a local audio store yesterday, and decided that I'd drop by and have a listen to some records on some quality equipment. Being a rookie, I asked the salesman to demo their entry level model, which was the Rega P2. He A/B'd a few albums with their CD counterparts, and I almost could not believe the difference! The bass, dynamics, and even detail were so much better with the vinyl. The Rega is $500 plus the cost of the cartridge, which I really could not afford at the time. They also had a used Systemdek IIX TT with a Profile arm and a Rega cartridge for sale for $200, so I asked him to demo that. I was impressed enough that I decided to buy it and play and learn with it as much as I could.

Anyway, I got home and found out that my HK receiver does not have a phono stage built in, so my first mission is finding a phono preamp. I'd like to keep the cost to $100 or less, but if I had to spend a little more to get a big jump in quality, I'm OK with that. What are my options in that price range? Also, what would you recommend doing next? Are there any inexpensive tweaks that can help the sound quality? Are there any websites dedicated to educating an analog newb like myself?

Thanks so much in advance for any and all responses.

Regards,
traut