Turntable help Please

I'm not familiar with that table, but recently cleaned up/refurbished a few old Pioneers for friends (PL-12D, PL-15DII), and they're damn decent entry-level stuff. If you're easing back into the hobby, you might want to just clean it up and use if for a while. Oil the motor if necessary, check the belt, check the arm bearings, speed etc. If it's working OK, pop a lil' Grado on there, check the setup, and have at it, or replace the stylus on whatever MM cartridge is there (if available). I seriously doubt if that table is worth the trouble to change the arm or mod seriously, but it may be worth $50 and a little elbow grease and time to get it spinning again. Good luck.

It won't hurt to try it, you may be pleasently surprised. You may want to try it with a fairly inexpensive cartridge like a Shure or Grado. Then you could get a good inexpensive phono stage like a Rotel or Nad. Then if you decide you like analog, you can trade up when you can afford to. You could change arms but it would probably be better to sell it and get something else.

I don't remember the Philips 777, although this choice in the era of Duals, Thorens, and Denons suggests a certain frame of mind. In my opinion, bang for the buck in vinyl goes cartridge, arm, table, preamp, and cables, in that order. Ultimately, you may want to buy them all. Since your question suggests you want to go incrementally, I recommend replacing the cartridge with a decent moving coil like the Sumiko Blue Point or, for more money, the Micro-Benz Glider. You'll need a phono preamp; try the Lehman Black Cube for not a lot of money -- it's gotten good reviews. If you go this way and get to thinking about replacing the arm, I would consider replacing the table at the same time, saving the trouble of ripping out the old arm and trying to get a new one to fit. I would recommend brands like Rega, VPI, and Basis. If you replace the cables, try to get ones with decent shielding to avoid RF interference. Good luck.

The Phillips tables have more issues with the electronic switches etc than just sounding good. If it spins fine, use it! Get a phono stage, nothing too fancy(radio shack's aren't bad) and run it into the ground. Have to be careful of matching tone arms etc. Some great tables can sound really bad when mismatched. Takes a long time to know what works best with what unless you have DEEP pockets. Keep it simple & enjoy your LP collection with that 777.