Hi Phil,
There are a few options to explore. It depends on how far you want to go with vinyl. I rarely play CD's anymore is the vinyl sounds so superior. I eventually went with a tubed phono preamp kit. It made a substantial difference from the phono stages I had in my preamps and receivers.
More info is here: http://www.bottlehead.com/et/adobespc/Seduction/seduction.htm
I might also suggest stopping by www.audiokarma.org and posting a question in the turntables and tape forum. There are alot of folk who know vinyl very well.
Good Luck.
