Get yourself a brand new technics mk7...they now come in color of your choice. For a cartridge, grab a premounted (on headshell) audio technica of your choice. Amazon sells a ton of AT cartridges. The AT520eb is a good one. The mani will suffice as a phono preamp, but I’d maybe look for a musical fidelity lx2 lps, great sounding budget phono preamp. Or even a Graham slee communicator. I own a technics mk7 in black, it’s a great turntable. The others I own are significantly more expensive, but the technics sounds good and is fun to use (important). As far as starting a record collection, look to thrift stores and eBay, also discogs. Unless you are looking for some rare hard to find record for big bucks, you should do OK finding some good quality records. Lastly, you will need a way to clean the records. I’d recommend a manual set up such as vinyl revival (UK). Thorens is selling a great line of turntables...check those out as well. Almost forgot, the music hall classic turntable is very nice for the money...uni pivot arm, removeable headshell, and comes with pre-installed mounted cartridge. You don't need to spend a fortune to get decent sound.
