Sell Me Your Women, Your Children, Your Vintage Turntable...

Once I had the VPI Avenger and an Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 Classic.  Now I only have the Garrard 301.

*If* talking new tables the STST Motus IIDQ is a giant killer. I sell them so I wont go on and on, but do some research...( oh and meets the budget easily ).

A lot of decent advice already on vintage idler. You can do some good things in vintage DD at this price too. I love them all but have a slight preference for good DD .

Of course my dream team would be at least one of each type ;)

Just a couple of thoughts here, without any conclusions.  This is a good discussion.

(1) I like the idea of investing in a new cartridge first.  There are exceptions of course.  Wouldn't put a $5K MC cartridge on a $2000 turntable. 
 
(2) Looks do matter to me.  Aesthetics are important to me.  They are not the first criteria, but they certainly are one of the criteria.

(3) Some modern turntables look like they should be in a NASA physic lab.  How they heck does one dust some of those machines.  Point being here I need one that I can effectively and easily operate at all times of the day (nudge nudge) and be able to keep clean and functioning well without too much fuss.

(4) What does rumble sound like?  I'm not sure I ever heard it. I'm sure I couldn't have discerned it on my old Pioneer systems.  Now my system should have very little of it, but I have never done an A-B for rumble. That would be interesting.  Not even sure how I would go about it.

(5) Hats off to you DIY'ers.  If I was skilled enough to create the beautiful plinths that you all do, I certainly would be displaying it front and center in my system.  Always wanted to be better at wood working than I am, but I still have all my digits!

In any event, more questions than conclusions.  I will say, without wavering, I love my vinyl.  

Spin 'em my friends.

Without going into the gory details of which drive system is best or whether vintage turntables or cartridges are worse than, equal to, or better than modern ones, my opinion is that the biggest gains in vinyl reproduction over the last 45 years (roughly my tenure as a vinylphile) are with respect to the electronics. Modern well designed phono stages are just eons better than anything that was available back in the 70s or early 80s. With respect to solid state options, this is not even worth debating. Modern SS designs are in another universe from vintage, if only because modern transistors and ICs are faster and lower in distortion. With respect to tube phono stages, I would say the same is true. One, but only one, reason for this is the availability of much better parts with which to build these stages. Another reason is the evolution of design philosophy. I think the same is true of cables and power cords. These devices enable us to appreciate the virtues of vintage turntables and cartridges to an extent we did not dream of, back when they were current products. The same reasoning applies to linestages and amplifiers, of course. The very best speakers of yore still hold their own against modern efforts, provided the drivers are in good shape, in my opinion. But I do think there are more great speakers available these days than was the case 45 years ago. This is all without considering cost, which is slave to inflation over time.

If you had seen the just restored Garrard 301 I saw last Saturday at
Woolsons Audio you might understand.
It looks nothing like today's stealthy models.
I looks more like that 50's Buick Roadmaster your
folks may have had. 
Specs are said to be good but I am no TT expert.