Help with turntable purchase


I've decided to buy a turntable to make use of a good bit of vinyl I still have.  I have a smallish budget (pregos wifey) to put something together and was hoping for some help.
I can pick up a Rotel RP 3000 with extra Shure V-15 cartridge for $300 or a new Music Hall mmf 1.5 for $321.  Any thoughts?  I picked up a pair of B&W CM2 bookshelf speaker for $100 at an estate sale but I need a recommendation for cables and amplification.   Thanks in advance for any suggestions even if that means going in a completely different direction with TT and speakers. 
shimanole
Just looking at them I would go with the Rotel. The MMF is basically a piece of MDF with veneer and some holes drilled in it. Its belt drive which is fine but it has a built-in phono stage. So part of the budget went into a cheap phono stage card which whatever that amount was the one thing we know is it didn't go into the tone arm, motor, platter, etc. 

The spare cartridge will be nice, if for nothing else than to try it and learn a little about the differences between cartridges. Good practice mounting/aligning. The Rotel is direct drive so no worries about replacing an old belt. Ask about bearing lube. Main thing on some of these older tables, the bearing oil can go dry after many years. Same for the tone arm. Basically if you set it to zero VTF zero anti-skate it should float smooth and not stick. If all that checks out and you like the way it looks go for it. You will be buying a fully depreciated table that will hold its value many years. 

For best sound quality avoid receivers like the plague. Find a good integrated, either with a built-in phono stage or buy one separate. Either way will be light years better than the one in the MMF.
Great! Thanks very much.  I'm going to pull the trigger on the Rotel and look for an integrated amp with phono.  Any recommendations there would be great.  I've heard mixed reviews on the B&W speakers as far as pairing goes but I think I'll just wing it and see how it goes there.  Thanks again!
Sounds good,just play it with the Shure v15 the stylist may not have to be replaced.Play and enoy.
Shure v15 the stylist may not have to be replaced.


you never know, it's better to replace the stylus than your record collection :)