I’m coming into this area as a practical and philosophical result of:
- me wanting to own my music
- CDs are barely being made
2.1. If they are - they’re not being shipped to my corner of the world - Torrenting often failed me in terms of variety.
However - I am absolutely ignorant about equipment, maintainance, and know-hows of the audiophile world.
The model of record player you choose will have a direct impact on your experience.
At the bottom you have the cheap suitcase players with built-in speakers. These will play your records but the speakers aren’t great. People often find that many records won’t play well (or at all) on these cheap players. A record players is a machine and the cheap ones aren’t very tunable and have very low tolerances for scratched or imperfect records.
A nice player with a full size platter, anti-skate, and a counter weight will happily play the same records that won’t play on the cheap suitcase players. These more expensive players will not have built-in speakers so you also need amplified speakers or an amp+speakers. The sound quality will depend on what speakers you buy but will certainly be better than a suitcase player.
Then you have the high end luxury models. These can cost more than some cars! Are they worth it, well that’s up to you and your budget!