Help me to choose turntable below 1600$.

Sometimes things that sound like an excellent proposition are not.....

I had a friend, who is now a dealer......purchase a Marantz TT15 on my recommendation, because on paper, it seemed a killer value.....I think he paid about 1290.00 new for it.....

He owned it for about a month.  It was one of the worst turntables I have ever heard......and I've heard 10s of dozens......

Very muted, motor noise....wasn't ideal, but overall it was lack of dynamics that made it a boring table overall......Clearaudio pedigree isn't worth anything.......many of the lower cost Clearaudio tables are also rather anemic.....

If I were shopping in this range, I would adjust your price range, to between a grand and two grand.....and if you select one in the upper range, just save up some more money, instead of buying it over again and spending more......

I would consider the brand new Oracle Origine.....the dealer friend of mine who had the TT15 has one that he ordered when I ordered my Delphi MK VI and he thinks it is a fantastic table for only 2 grand list
and that is with an ortofon cartridge...

Other than that, I would try to find a gently used VPI Classic 1.  These can routinely be had for well under 2k and they obliterate tables at twice the price.......I've owned several VPI tables and you'll find them to be very unfinicky and they will last a lot of years with good support.....

oh yeh GEM

you will want to audition that one for sure

to be honest, you will need to audition 4-5 of these on the same music, same system - Sota, Rega, VPI, Pioneer, Technics...

not possible to decide w/o hearing them

I'll just mention Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm because no-one has. If you can find it used. I doubt you could do better for this kind of money, only different. Stock record mat should be replaced. The arm works well with a wide variety of not heavy cartridges. I am not going to let mine go unless I can afford something like top of the line Pear Audio, or maybe even if I can. And with minimal proper care it should last forever, with the exception of the motor, which is very reliable.

The PLX-1000 was reviewed in Stereophile AFTER ADJUSTING ITS LOOSE TONEARM BEARINGS. Mine came with loose tonearm bearings too, and after being advised by the vendor not to attempt adjustment, I sent it back. Too bad, because in other respects, it seemed solid.

The Marantz TT-15 is an excellent-sounding table. Its weakness is the motor, IME. But it has a 5-year warranty.

Wow & Flutter is the Anti-Auto-Tune. :)

aeinstein, you don’t care if it’s plastic or wood? Do you also don’t care if it’s direct drive or belt? Black or red? s-shaped tonearm or straight ? Spikes or pucks? Heavy or light? Motor in or motor out? Dust cover or not?

Hope you get the drift of where I’m getting at.

The fact that YOU don’t care about the inclusion of a cartrige in a turntable, and YOUR indifference to wood or plastic has no relation to the merits of a turntable, be it that nice Marantz TT-15 or any other ’table for that matter.

You asked for suggestions up to $ 1,600. I still think that Marantz TT-15 is a steal for the money. So you don't want the included cartrige? You could easily sell it and get your own. Let's suppose you can quickly get 400.00 for it, if purchased used, that TT will end up costing you well under 1K.....and I bet you never heard one !