What you'll need

Of course, you'll need a turntable, tonearm, and cartridge to play records. But you may need another component, called a phono stage. To determine if you need a phono stage, check the back of your amplifier or receiver for a pair of PHONO inputs (right), which will allow you to connect a turntable directly to your system.
 
If you don't have PHONO inputs, you'll need a phono stage (a box that provides the same circuitry as PHONO inputs) and an extra pair of cables, which can be plugged into AUX inputs.

Even if you already have PHONO inputs on your amplifier, you may wish to have a separate phono stage because the sound quality of modern phono stages is often superior to the PHONO inputs of old amplifiers. In fact, one of the reasons for the revival of interest in vinyl is the development of high-quality modern phono stages, like the Clearaudio Basic (left).
 
Why do you need PHONO inputs or a phono stage? Because the signal from a phono cartridge is weaker than the signals from other hi-fi equipment, and requires extra amplification. Also, a cartridge's signal is compressed (using a standard called the RIAA curve) in order to squeeze more music into the record grooves, and must be decompressed when played back.