Depends how far you go with step ups, cartridges, tone arms.
I went about 40 years straight with my TT in a closet or other room, with no dust cover on it. I was pretty much always at near SOTA.
By about '77 I just couldn’t listen to regular vinyl set-ups. It took until '14 when I found a DAC that really seemed to transmit musical truth that I decided to step away. I have a lot of solid and insightful music from my DAC, but the magic isn’t at all there anymore, but vinyl the way I did it is very taxing and also its hard to put a $3k cartridge down on a piece of questionable vinyl - I don’t miss that,
You have to be a madman to get into it now. New vinyl is very pricey. Older great/good vinyl is very pricey too. Plus storage… and cartridge replacement… nope, stay away.
I’m probably going to end up pulling the trigger on the Rega Planar 2 here soon as my first “real” turntable… that I want to hold on to for some years. and I realize I can upgrade it over time as well. Anything more expensive would be pushing my budget a bit too much for me personally… but wanted to check in and make sure there aren’t better choices before I do. If anybody has any thoughts, let me know. =)
I’m having some fun playing with entry level cartridges… no match for my Hana but still a lot of vinyl fun. But Grado ist not for everyone… I’m not really convinced.
The Grado red is very warm and nice, a good choice for old vinyl. But it dosn´t track very good and needs 1.9g tracking force to work well and about 1.5g antiscating on my SL-Q.
I think the Grado Prestige Silver2 is a better choice, because it can show a lot more details.
Edit… just buy Goldring, Nagaoka or Ortofon on a budget. The stock rega carbon is very nice too …