Larry, glad you've decided to journey down the road to a better cup. I'm sure Rolex Addict and other will be able to help you. I've been roasting green beans for about 25 years. Once you find the right combination you won't be disappointed. There's a shot of my equipment below.
★ what Coffee are you trying and how do you like it?
Have tried a lot of different beans. My taste buds seen to prefer Ethiopian Yirgacheffe the most so that's what I use.
★ Favorite brand?
I don't use any brand. Strictly my own roast.
★ What equipment are you using?
The pic below is a Jura F50. over 25,000 cups on the counter without the need for any service so far (touch wood). It uses an internal adjustable burr grinder. I picked up the iRoast 2 counter top roaster before they went out of business. Best scoop I've made in a while. It has a programmable temp and time roast profile feature. This feature alone is worth it's weight ...
★ Any tricks or special things you do to get that perfect cup of coffee?
I was going to tell you the best tip is to roast your own bean in small batches but now that you're going there I'll throw in a couple of roasting suggestions.
1.) Remember when your roasting beans you should treat the process very much like roasting any food with an internal oil component (nuts, seeds etc). Slowly bring them up to temp especially up to just before the first crack. Too hot, too fast and the results will be disappointing. Then you can crank them a little more at a time until the results are what you want. Experiment with different (temp/time) profiles.
2.) Look at them regularly during the roasting. Your eyes will be the most important tool you have.
3.) Notice in my pic the beans aren't shiny. When you see shiny you're seeing oil. Oil carries flavour. When brought to the surface it starts to evaporate and flavor is lost. There will be many who will argue this point so it's up to you to determine.
As Rolex Addict has said I'm willing to share any of my experiences with anyone if they want to ask. Just send me a PM.