Ever since moving into a new home with a 'bonus room' I have hoped to set up the room as a library/music room.

I already have a set ot Omni Sound tower speakers (Omin Sound was a high-end AV shop in Dallas that sold off the shelf gear as well as a complete line of speakers designed and built by Omni Sound owner Randy McCarter) that did not fit well in my living room, so using them in a music room was a no-brainer.

I bought a new av reciever for the living room and moved my Sony STRDA555ES receiver up to the music room.

This week I picked up a Pro-ject Debut III turntable to replace the crappy, plastic turntable I bought from crutchfield 5 or 6-years-ago. Wow! Huge freaking difference in the sound. Even bargain-bin records of questionable recording quality sound really good. I don't know of any better turntable bargain for only $299 w/ cartridge.

I also picked up a Sony BDP-S300 Bluray/DVD/CD player for the theatre set up and moved my old Samsung DVD/CD player to the music room. Not sure if it's the new BDP-S300 player or the switch from component to HDMI connections, but regular DVDs look much better, don't have any Bluray disk yet, so can't comment on that.

So far I've only had the chance to listen to a few albums and one CD, but I think I'm a vinyl convert now. The cd (Chemical Brothers Push the Button) didn't sound like 'all-that', but the albums (2003 rerelease of Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, random 60's jazz) sound amazing.

I'm flat broke, but loving the new toys and hearing things on my modest album collection I never heard before.<ul><li><a href="http://www.needledoctor.com/Pro-Ject-Turntables-Debut-III-Basic-Black?category=-110">http://www.needledoctor.com/Pro-Ject-Turntables-Debut-III-Basic-Black?category=-110</a</li></ul>

most of my record collection is composed of $1-$5 used bin finds ,yet so many are in good shape with some restorative cleaning. of course, new vinyl is great too.
I suspect that you'll come to another revelation (and deeper in love w/ your LP collection) with the addition of an dedicated outboard phono preamp, to bypass the one that's in your Sony receiver.

Thanks for the advice!

I need to set aside some time and give all my albums a good washing. Found a great article on the Needle Doctor page on proper technique.

Once the disk are clean, I have a good brush for dry cleaning and a Zerostat gun that is at least 25-years old, but still works great.

I've got good quality interconnects and speaker wires throughout, so I was thinking my next upgrade would most likely be a good set of headphones and possibly a dedicated headphone amp. But I've got to pay off the huge Visa bill I've run up first :-P

Robert

I have one of these; it's a phono preamp with a decent headphone amp built-in. seriously good quality for the asking price. it would effectively kill two birds w/ one stone, for you. for 'phones listening of your vinyl, you could bypass your receiver altogether with this jobbie.<ul><li><a href="http://www.needledoctor.com/Bellari-VP129-Tube-Phono-Preamp?sc=2&amp;category=-110">Phono preamp/headphone amp</a></li></ul>

I also have the HD-A20 HD-DVD, and the Sony blows it out of the water.

The best looking Blu-ray movies recently have been Hellboy, Night at the Museum, and Black Snake Moan. The latter looks INCREDIBLE in blu-ray on my 1080P plasma.