Help with turntable purchase

At your price level most turntables will give you the same performance be it DD or belt but stay away from built in phono stages as if it were the plague . Why ? Because the phono stage is the responsable of converting those extremely small electrical signals pickuped by the cartridge to a servicable level by the line level outputs of the preamp . 

It is also responsable for the Riaa conversion process in order to get your signal back to a flat frequency response , so you can imagine the work the phono stage has to do . The phono stage in a LP playing system is extremely important . Don't skimp on it . 

To go with a integrated amplifier instead of a reciever is excellent advice as the phono stages of most recievers are compromised . If you can swing it new you can get a Rega integrated which would cost about 500.00 . If you go used Rotel has design some excellent integrated with very good phono stages . Marantz is also a candidate .

One word of caution... if you go used , remember you might have to install sooner or latter new capacitors in the integrated unit depending on the age . 

Almost forgot...good thing about turntables is that they are highly modifiable in order to optain better sound as changing the mat , adding mass to the tonearm ( depending on cartridge ) footers , turntable mounts , etc .

I have recently returned to my vinyl collection. I purchased a Fluance RT-85. It was $481 with a discount code. It comes with a ceramic platter and and ortofon blue cartridge. It also has the great function of turning off at the end of the record. It does not return to the start but simply turns off which I like. I was looking to spend more but after being impressed with reviews I gave it a shot and it sounds great. I had a smaller budget also.

Thanks everyone for all of the info.  I'm going to look at the integrated amps that were mentioned and see if I can find a deal.  Can't wait to play my vinyl.  I haven't listened to most of these albums since the late 70's but have kept them in perfect shape.  Getting excited!

You can’t go wrong with a NAD 3020 series integrated amp. The 3225PE is the 3020i with NAD’s Power Envelope technology that makes the 30 watt amp perform like a 50 watt amp. They can be hard to find though. 

Looked everywhere and can't find an old 3020 in the US.  Found a 310 and a few others but I'll keep looking.