Turntable help/recommendation with specific setup

Wow, thanks for all the helpful responses and insight. Some really great suggestions, especially that Marantz TT; seems like great value.

Elliott and Dan,

Those look like nice cartridges. I’m open to new and used. I’m still trying to piece together how to best match cartridges to the Luxman but I’m assuming those should obviously work fine, right? And I don’t have any alignment tools. Other than my old roommate who had a basic TT, this will actually be my first TT, so a whole new world for me. A little in over my head but I’m trying to explore all the options and get a feel for everything turntable related.

Artemus,

These are some good deals -- and that Pro-Ject looks nice with the walnut. Hard to decide whether to go new or used especially without really knowing what I’m looking for but there’s undoubtedly a lot of value in going the used route. I’ll keep checking the marketplace.

Miller,

Thanks for the advice. Truthfully, I do care about looks a bit and would ideally have a TT in walnut or matte silver, but it’s not an absolute must. I’ll admit, it’s all a bit overwhelming trying to get all the information I can before making a decision -- and thinking about having to carefully set up a TT for the first time is even more daunting, albeit exciting. Perhaps I’m overthinking it and, as you say, need to just learn as I go, but it’s hard not to want to make the "right" choices right out of the gate. My main concern is keeping synergy throughout the system and making sure all the components are happy together, but obviously a large part of that is learned through experience/trial and error, as you alluded to.

I realize a majority of this post consists of me basically saying "I don’t know what I’m doing" haha. Nonetheless, thanks again, everyone.

If its worth doing well, its worth starting now when you aren't good at it yet.

Enjoy the journey.

I like the Rega P3 because there is an upgrade path with it.  And you may find you like what you got or you may look to upgrade your system so you have options.

The p3 rega would be just fine in your case but you will want to get a good cartridge for it do not bother with a rega cartridge at all go for something better like a dynavector 10x5 for now.

+1 on the Rega P3. I like Rega TT's and the P3 is a great value.

However,  if you can push your budget to $2K, the Rega P6 with the Exact MM cartridge is, in my opinion, the better way to go. I really liked the P3, but by the time I had added the upgrades I eventually wanted I was in the price territory of the P6 and the P6 was still the better table. 

+1 for the Rega P6.  Put a very nice phono cartridge on it, of which several good choices are mentioned above, and you are well on your way.  And it looks very nice, too.  As you get on with it then eventually you will want to upgrade to a higher level cartridge and your turntable/arm will be very well capable of revealing the sonic benefits.  I hope this helps you.