Need help picking budget Turntable

A Rega with a Rega cartridge is also for the plug-and-player.

HH4, sorry if this is a highjack.

I have the graphite Boston Audio mat (actually called a Mat 1). It is my belief that different mats will perform much differently depending on the platter compostion. On my Spacedeck, I did not like a felt mat or a sorbothane mat at all (though others with different tables swear by them). OTOH, I very much liked the Mat 1, even over a Mystic Mat which is abour 1/3 more expensive.

The venerable Regas aside. I cast my vote for the Pro-ject 1.2 or RM4. Very under rated. Fine starter tables with superbly musical sound both with stock Sumikos or upgraded Grados. A bargain at current asking prices. The RM4 is available at less than $450 w/cartridge.

But the Projects don't come with Rega arms. Man, this advice site is clear as mud to the prospective buyer: flip a coin, a twelve-sided coin! You're right about the Sorbothane mat, 4Yanx, it only works well on glass platters as far as my experience goes, but here it shines. And jeez, what's a Mystic Mat? I don't even know what Herbie's mat is yet! I'm going back to my matless Maplenoll! Someone's gotta make a list of the different mats and the types of platters they work with. And I thought French was complicated.

Used Rega planar 3 with a new super bias or elys cartridge. The planar 3 will resell for what it costs you if the need ever arises. There really is nothing to go wrong, so used is as good as new.

If you can afford the elys cartridge then the 3 point mounting means you don't need any tools other than the supplied allen key. The super bias is a bit cheaper and a bit trickier to mount since it only has two mounting points.

couldn't be simpler, and sounds pretty good too.