Which budget turntable will provide me the best service?

The lower-priced Music Hall and Rega turntables both offer good value and performance, but you should definitely have the VPI HW Junior on your list. It can be upgraded over time, so you can improve your analog system as you acquire more LP's, or the quality of your preamp, etc., improves.

I sold my Linn/Ittok/Asak when I found a Rek-o-kut Rondine 34 at a garage sale for $8. I just repaired my neighbor's old Elac which he dusted off from the attic and it's right up there with my Rega3/dynavector 20X. I just might sell off the Rega and buy a ton of records with the money. Good luck!

Listen to the Psychic...modified Technics SL-1200MKII. It's the best turntable under $1000. Built like a tank, reliable, extremely long service life AND musical.

Mine has Phoenix Gold interconnects instead of originals; a Sumiko HS-MMT headshell w/silver Litz wires; a JA Michell record clamp; an old Disctracker by Discwasher headshell damper. It's sitting on a marble cutting board w/brass cones underneath. There is a silicone fluid tonearm damper you can buy from www.kabusa.com/ for $149. I'll buy it sometime in the future and rig it w/an Ortofon low output MC.

Don't believe the Voodoo crowd. It's NOT a DJ turntable. It was designed as a budget audiophile TT for those who could not afford the more expensive Technics DDs. It's a pretty much indestructible TT. That's why DJs love it. As for its musicality, I'm currently using a Grado Prestige Blue and it's not that far from my Cambridge D300SE CDP + Soundstream DAC-1 combo (I'm using Phoenix Gold digital cable). This morning I played a Linclon Mayorga direct to disc and was completely wowed at the performance. Once I buy the tonearm damper and the Ortofon MC cartridge it should outperform the digital rig.

Regards,

Thanks for the input. I auditioned both as well as a used Rega Planar 3... All things being unequal, I went with the Rega

Psychicanimal has it about nailed. Technics quart locked direct drive turntables are a good bargin. The SL-1800 MK II is a cosmetically more pleasing SL-1200 MK II, the latter really was intended for DJs. They made it so essentially by making the speed control a slider instead of a rotated dial button. The SL-1700 is the same table as the 1800 but with the auto lift off at the end of the record, and the 1600 is a fully automatic version. While I've not heard any of the 1600 or 1700 tabels, I've owned two 1800 Mk IIs for nearly 20 years. They are not far from the performance of my current table, an Oracle Premier IV, limited edition with SME 345 arm. The frequency extremes are superior on the Oracle, and some trackability because of the superior arm. Still, vibration resistance is excellent with the Technics tables -- another reason for DJ's love for them.

If I were you, I'd by a used Technics table, upgrade the cable, and dump as much money as possible into a MC cartridge.