To the OP
Not sure whether they were sold in the US but Yamaha’s YP-800 is a good bet for a modestly priced entry into Japanese DD tables. The included arm’s okay and I’d second the Goldring 1042. With a budget phono I was surprised how close that combo got to my EMM Labs cdp particularly with vocals. Be prepared to have the power supply re-capped, certainly in the UK well under $1000 would be possible.
When the EMM died rather than repair it I picked up an SP10 with Jelco arm, added an AT33 ptgii and decent phono and haven’t looked back, way better sound than I ever achieved with a digital based system for a good deal lower outlay
Why do people buy CD or Stream? It's easy, you can get decent sounds
As for the vinyl, it took a good deal of time and effort setting up to take it from good to great
Not sure whether they were sold in the US but Yamaha’s YP-800 is a good bet for a modestly priced entry into Japanese DD tables. The included arm’s okay and I’d second the Goldring 1042. With a budget phono I was surprised how close that combo got to my EMM Labs cdp particularly with vocals. Be prepared to have the power supply re-capped, certainly in the UK well under $1000 would be possible.
When the EMM died rather than repair it I picked up an SP10 with Jelco arm, added an AT33 ptgii and decent phono and haven’t looked back, way better sound than I ever achieved with a digital based system for a good deal lower outlay
Why do people buy CD or Stream? It's easy, you can get decent sounds
As for the vinyl, it took a good deal of time and effort setting up to take it from good to great