3k budget for Turntable and Phono Noob- do I need external power supplies?

I added an Sbooster to an EAT eglo petite and did not hear a difference. External Power supply is easy to try, but I would only get one with guaranteed return policy. Maybe your local shop has a loaner power supply you can try? 

NO!

You are putting the cart before the horse. First buy the best TT you can afford. Then listen for a while before you even think of  an aftermarket PS. 

"Is it worth adding a $500 Sbooster or IFI Elite to either the TT or phono or both?"

Too much audio forum/audio website reading and brainwashing.

Something like this. Look around and get without cartridge for $1500

Mobile Fidelity UltraDeck Manual belt-drive turntable with pre-mounted cartridge at Crutchfield

Schiit Audio: Audio Products Made in USA

Set it up, avoid audio forums and enjoy 

@lewm

+1

Absolutely. Best you can possibly afford before extra upgrading extras. Enjoy for many hours... the phono stage will need breaking in as well as the cartridge. 200 hours of vinyl play is listening to around 500 album sides. Rega or Project are great options. 

I like the Pro-Ject Extension 9 and the phono preamps. Pro-Ject makes good analog stuff. 

For that level of TT and cart, NO WAY!  As suggested, get the best you can afford now, buy a few hundred albums, listen, listen, listen, then forget the power supply and upgrade your TT a few times before you ever think PS again.  (Unless of course it is to upgrade a wall-wart PS to a real PS, which is generally well worth it!).

Hi check this out Music Hall makes a great turntable for the money quite reasonable, this table with the Ortofon 2M black Beethoven cartridge is as good as it gets for the money. Great Deal and then you can buy yourself a great phone stage for even better sounds.  The Vincent 701 is a superb starter phono stage.

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650104539-music-hall-ikura-double-plinth-a-special-offering-of-this-exceptional-turntable-with-ortofon-2m-blac/

You could try this combo out, Pioneer DJ PLX-1000: All specifications & features

Amazon.com: Pioneer PLX-1000 Professional Direct Drive Turntable - Black Bundle with Headphones, Slipmat, Cleaning Kit, and Austin Bazaar Polishing Cloth : Electronics

parasound  ZPhonoXRM + the audio technica AT33PTG/2 | Audio-Technica

All this for around $2,000.00

This is a great turntable for the money, along with a phono preamp and cartridge.

Leave the PSBS for later. At $4k you're getting into some pretty nice gear. I'd start with a Hana SL MkIi. That leaves $3200 for the table. VPI, Clearaudio, MoFi, Rega, for starters. Not flaming, but no Technics 'cuz they ugly. Their design was marginal 50 years ago, and hasn't improved with time. If you have a phono preamp with MC support you're set. If you only have a MM preamp, consider the Hana SH MkII High output - no extra gainstage needed. If you buy  a TT and cart together, expect at least a 10% discount on the package. That might cover a decent preamp if you don't have any.

Save some money for the record collection. You can only listen to DSOTM a certain number of times before your friends stop coming by, your significant other  finds some other place to be significant, your family will shun you, the dog will run away, the house plants will die, and the fish will drown themselves.

Got a couple questions for you. 

1. Have you done vinyl before? 

2. Do you have any vinyl now?

3. Do you want to get involved in a fully analog laborious process?

4. Do you have storage/space for records?

5. Have you thought about all the ancillaries, vinyl needs?

6. Do you like to constantly fiddle with things? 

Records are very time consuming, and all manual. Even taking the record out of the sleeve can be a patience sucking maneuver. 

If you go in with eye wide open, enjoy, it's also a lot of fun, and very satisfying. Plus records sound great!!!

That all being said, I have a Pro-Ject X2, works great for me, easy to setup, easy to maintain, sounds great. But it's big, and heavy. Also the stock Suikmo cart sounds wonderful. 

My advice, get a TT that is easy to use, easy to setup, and does not require a lot of maintenance. Use it, learn all the ins and outs. Wait till you destroy a needle to upgrade the cart. With the TT, buy a carbon brush, needle brush, and a basic record cleaning kit. Learn how to use all of it, then start the upgrade path.

Buying records is very addictive. Also they all cost more then you think.  It feels like every trip to the record store is a $300 experience. 

Excellent advice from @vettegood 

And the Vincent 701 has its own external linear power supply.

But to answer your original question, generally speaking you can spend $500 on a SBooster power supply or $75 on the AliExpress version. The difference between the two is that the latter will leave you with $425 to buy LPs with 🙂

Or no aftermarket PS at the outset and have all $500 to buy LPs. 

Don't rush in, get started and ascertain if you will stick with Vinyl before spending real money.

I advise picking a Quartz Locked Direct Drive TT model with a tonearm with removable headshell type. I had one of these for years, a great start IMO

AT120 has optional phono EQ, has AT95 Cartridge Body

You simply upgrade to a different Stylus, no re-alignment needed

Change Stylus to Shibata Shape

Once you find you will stick with it, and begin a collection, learning along the way, you will have a much better ability to sort choices.

you can easily try a better cartridge in it's own headshell, eventually have a small collection, pre-mounted/aligned ready to play.

I did a big upgrade beginning in 2019, during Covid stay home years, a mixture of used, NOS, new, and took a risk on a few used ones, ass well as had a few re-built.

My favorite cartridge is a used one I just bought, price was low enough to risk, got lucky.

Better to start with an advanced stylus shape properly aligned, far more difference in sound than a power supply change.

You don't have to buy Soundsmith, but they have good information

https://www.sound-smith.com/articles/stylus-shape-information

Fluance Belt Drive has a Removable Headshell

It comes bundled with Ortofon Blue 2M, which I do not recommend because it is an elliptical shape on aluminum, good but not exceptional. I’d much rather you got an advanced shape, i.e. MicroLine or Shibata shape, on a stiffer cantilever i.e. boron

The advanced shapes cost more, however they have much larger contact surfaces in the groove, less wear/last longer, and they produce less wear to your LPs simultaneously. If it cost twice as much, last nearly twice as long, tracks lighter, less wear on your lps, that is win/win/win.

the cartridge body’s technology combined with the stylus cantilever suspension and lightness/stiffness of material, advanced stylus shape has to be excellent to produce both wide channel separation and tight channel balance: they combine to far better imaging abilities, always check those two specs, then research reviews about it’s ’sound’.

It does NOT have an optional Phono stage, thus you need to decide/buy a separate one, whereas the AT120 gets you started, you learn and get phono stage when you know more.

I tried IFI, sent it back, I tried Cambridge Duo, sent it back, I liked a $14. unit from Pyle more, used it, kept trying others that were returnable, because it is ’preferred’, not ’better’ when it comes to phono eq.

Here’s the $14. Pyle Phono

Ridiculous, Sounds like I do, but I don’t love cheap sound, after rejecting several in a row, I find reading reviews and price does not mean much, use your ears.

I have used it while searching, and loaned it to several friends until they settle on something they try, all shocked at how good it sounds, until they FINALLY find something they like. It’s always good to have a spare setup when something goes wrong.

I had a highly respected McIntosh CC28 SS Preamp, hated the sound of it’s MM Phono. I preferred the AT120’s dinky built in optional phono eq. I now love my McIntosh MX110z Tube Tuner/Preamp MM Phono EQ sound, and use a SUT for my MC so I can continue to use the MX110z for the RIAA EQ and Gain.

I used the Pyle temporarily up here, rejected several, finally found I really like the MM built into the little Luxman Tube Integrated in my office. It has a single setting for MC, never tried an MC cartridge up here, now I might.

I have my NOS AT440ml MicroLine on Aluminum here tracking at 1.25g. My new to me used AT160ml is MicroLine shape on Beryllium Cantilever, also tracks at only 1.25g, I just realized, I am sitting dead center, amazing imaging out of these restored AR-2ax speakers, I’m gonna listen to/compare other cartridges up here. The Mitsubishi LT5V Vertical TT is Linear Tracking, very easy to adjust tracking weight, no anti-skate involved here.

just to show OP, I have ’gotten into it’, assembled this TT with 3 Tonarms, had 2500LPs, inherited 4,000 more LPs, sold over 2,000, need to sell more.

Near instant comparisons of my friends and my cartridges: I can play with all 3 arms simultaneously in the groove, and choose which arm on the SUT’s 3 inputs. Henry posted a video of his similar JVC TT showing no drag effect as he lowered 1,2,3 Quartz Locked Direct Drive keeps speed perfect