New TT for ~$1500

I have a HW-19 mk iv. Sounds pretty good to me, i could upgrade the arm ( Jelco 250sa) but its east to repair if needed, sounds good and looks nice and it was cheap used

+1 VPI HW-19!

In my opinion....

I have always thought that the VPI HW-19/III with a typical arm installed on that table is a very good performer and excellent buy.  The HW-19/IV with a decent arm can be tweaked into an excellent performer much above competition at over twice it's price point.  Either table comes in well below your $1500 price point.  

Both are not so rare and usually in very good shape used.    

Sent you a PM earlier. 

Wow. America's just not as great as it thinks it is.

@stereo5 Haha, it's true. St.Petersburg is my home town.

To refresh your memory you have to watch this, because from this point of view the architecture of St.Petersburg is even better,sadly we can't fly like birds.  

@chakster 

what part of Russia are you from?  I ask because 5 years ago, my wife and I were in St. Petersburg for a week.  I was drooling over the architecture and the beautiful women. In all my travels, I have never seen so many beautiful women as I did in St. Petersburg. Everyone was so friendly, what a beautiful country.  A Facebook friend and his wife from Moscow, flew out To meet my wife and I.  They both spoke English well and they showed us all the sights, one of the best vacations we ever took!  We even went to a real Russian Tea Room. The statues of Peter The Great were quite impressive as well. 

There are very good reports regarding the SOTA Escape. Worth looking into. Has the Phoenix Engineering speed controller integrated which is an excellent way to obtain speed control with a belt drive table. 

Alternative version: Luxman PD-441 (Direct Drive), not with Fidelity-Research tonearm, but with simplest tonearm. 

TEAC TN-300 this is attractive for you ? 
I'm afraid with a belt drive turntable like this you will never understand what is analog playback, those Music Hall, Pro-Ject and Rega are the same. Buying a turntable like this for $1500 is absolutely crazy, it must be $500 turntable max. 

Audiogon became a platform for questions like this, always Rega, Pro-Ject and related belt drive entry level stuff for systems based on wireless speakers or even usb devices. About 10 topics per week. 

The industry already buried ? It's crazy 

We have a local music club that (up until recently) meets at a local hifi dealer and we have listened to the MOFI Ultradeck 2 or 3 times now for a couple of hours each time.  Seems to be a very good table.  Lots of body and dynamics.  I own a Music Hall MMF 7.1 and that's a very solid table.  I think the newest iteration of it is in your price range.  I owned a Clearaudio Concept for a short time.  It's a very good table, but it was the most sensitive to footfalls of any table I've ever owned and I have springy floors, so it didn't last long in my system.

Thanks for the responses everyone. The problem that I have with the Technics is that I (personally) find it to not be attractive, and there is an element of WAF as well. So I would prefer something with the more standard modern appearance a la Rega, Pro-Ject, etc. I know you guys want to roast me for that preference, but we all have preferences, right?

BTW, do you currently have a turntable now, or will this new purchase be your first?

@robelvick this will be my second TT. I currently have a TEAC TN-300 which has actually sounded quite good to my ears. Pre is a Pro-Ject Phono Box SE II into KEF LS50 Wireless.

@noromance,
You would definitely win that bet!

you certainly cannot go wrong with the Technics 1200 GR

Another vote for the Technics 1200GR !!

BTW, do you currently have a turntable now, or will this new purchase be your first?

Why does everybody have such a problem typing the word 'lose' ????!!!!!!!!

Nothing Toulouse if you're in France :) 

@thecarpathian
It irks me too but Chakster is Russian. I bet his English is better than your Russian!

I'd go for a Technics 1200GR. 
Save a little longer. You know why? Because if you go the cheaper route with those belt drives, you will be back here in 6 months with a new post looking to upgrade to a table in the ~$2000 range.
The Technics will give you great bass, great timing, and sparkling highs. 
If you must, the Clearaudio is probably the best of the rest. 

Why does everybody have such a problem typing the word 'lose' ????!!!!!!!!

I have no experience with the Rega or MoFi tables you mentioned (other than an acquaintance having had a P-3 which really sounded good in his system...don’t know what cartridge he had).  My (thoroughly enjoyable) years with a Music Hall MMF 5 would lead me to be the most curious about the Pro-Ject...seems to have great reviews.  The latest iterations of the Music Hall MMF 5 and MMF 7 are at the low and ($100 past) high range of your budget, respectively.

Technics mk7 DIRECT DRIVE for $899
Do NOT buy a belt drive turntable if you have just $1500 (you will loose)

if you want the best in this price add $200 and buy SL1200GR in silver or black for $1700 and you will not find anything better than this (new) even with $4000 except luxury Technics higher model "G"