Go for it.  I would suggest a cost effective upgrade from the Carbon to the Pro-Ject 1 Xpression III.  A little bit better, and a better platter (and it's better looking too, cool white/transluscent acrylic, bellissima!).  Worthy of upgrading the cartridge now, or later if you want.

I would say you are lucky; not screwed. Carpe Diem!

Once you get the system set up you can always add other sources to it; a CD player or whatever.

If you already have the 10.4 speakers, you have some pretty good ones.

You must be driving them with some kind of amplifier; perhaps you can just keep that and add a Musical Fidelity V-LPS phono preamp. it is excellent; far better-sounding than the phono stage built-in to the Marantz or other integrated amps. It runs $195 in the US.

The Music Hall MMF-2.2 is under $450, and is an excellent turntable. I suggest that you consider it, although the Pro-ject is very similar. You would have to spend close to $1000 to get a better one.

If you get the MMF-2.2 and V-LPS, that is only an $650 outlay, so the speaker upgrade may not have to wait very long either.

Nellomilanese wrote:

Great ! My wife got the hi-fi bug from me !!

And I've been planning to sell my Wharfedale 10.4 and upgrade to Focal Chorus

Guess that's out the window for a while...

Anyway she wants to get into vinyl 'cause that's what her father was playing all day long when she grew up; when she read my stack of hi-fi magazines she realised vinyl back with a vengeance! 

Budget for Int Amp,tt and speakers is about $ 1650 (or 1300 €) 

The system would sit on a big wood cabinet in our bedroom (wood floor, 8mt x 4mt, or 24ft x 12ft if you prefer) facing width wise. 

Listening from armchair at about 7-8 ft.

I did estensive research these few last days. I want to keep it simple, less cables , so i'll go with an Integrated Amp with phono input like the Marantz PM8004 or 5004, or Rotel RA line. Other suggestions here?

Now the hard part....no experience on turntables so i'm thinking Project Carbon with Ortofon 2M, or Rega RP1 as these are easy to get in my area and good value/quality, or another in the same price range, under 400€ ?