Help me pick a turntable set up

I suggest that you consider versatility and ease of set-up. A well set up front end in your price range will out-perform a poorly set up SOTA.

A turntable is nothing but a device to turn the vinyl steadily. A tonearm is nothing but a device to hold the cartridge in the optimal position.

But how this is achieved is the rub. Every bit of noise in the turntable matters. Every tonearm adjustment should be available, easy, and stable. At your budget, perhaps you should compromise on easy.

The phono stage is nothing but a low voltage amplifier with 3 filters. Every bit of distortion at this stage is magnified, and can make records noisy - what you think is surface noise may be phono stage distortion. Ralph Karstens talks about this in great detail.

IMO, each of these elements matter more than the cartridge - what’s more, they don’t wear out like cartridges do.

If you are uncomfortable with setting up a turntable, read some books, or get a dealer to help. Another reason to spend everywhere but on the cartridge - it’s hard to break a turntable, tonearm, or phono stage, but all too easy to break a cartridge.

Good luck!

bignamehere mentioned some good options to look at in that price range.  I'd also take a look at the MoFi Ultradeck.  I heard one recently and was impressed.

I have the Clearaudio Emotion which is very similar to the Marantz and it's a great turntable for the money.  I owned the Concept and thought it sounded great, but it didn't work in my system.  I have springy floors and couldn't wall mount it.  Very sensitive to footfalls.  I have a Music Hall 7.1 and that may be my best turntable.  I currently have it setup with an old Shure V15 MKIV cart with a Jico SAS stylus, neither of which are very expensive.  Sounds great!

Take  look at VPI turntables - they have a couple of models to suit your budget.

Also the Music Hall MMF-7.3 Turntable


Regards

Under the heading “high value, high performance” the moving magnet AudioTechnica VM540ML is almost in a class by itself. The big deal here is the micro line stylus profile that delivers 2 to 3 times the operating hours lifespan of elliptical and Shibata, while tracking is for almost all intents and purposes just as good as the Shibata. 

Music Direct has a refurbished Marantz TT 15 with Clearaudio Virtuoso Ebony Wood cartridge for $1199.00. That would leave you $800.00 for a preamp.