Complete vinyl system, TT to speakers, for $1500?

Fluance would be easiest ...

Denon, Technics and Yamaha make entry level gear and should be readily available!?

Wow….that would be a challenge.

Teac 3BSE includes an AT cart and RIAA Equalizer/preamp. Sells for $529.00 USD, here. Maybe less there…looks better quality than Fluance,with an SAEC knife edge bearings tonearm. For a small room, a Chinese FOSI BT20A is excellent and sufficient for $100.00 or so, even has BT and tone controls! I don’t know the Japanese speaker market, but a $K pair should be easy. To keep the budget really low, a pair of Dayton Audio BR1 kit is $300.00 here, and is not at all bad. That’s a good playback system under a grand, and she gets to know a bit about what’s inside to boot.  Complete with WBC cables, of course.

Go with a TT and powered speakers. See which brands are available from where she would be most likely to shop and go from there.  Different electrical standards to consider as well.  

I would think that something like an Audio Technica 120 would be available or the equivalent from Pioneer or Yamaha or Denon some other respected brand.

Same for the powered speakers.

This should not be so hard, essentially a starter system for a studio apartment. I had a similarly small apartment 20 years ago in London and did exceedingly well with a CD boombox (no kidding) for the one or so years I was there. Tucked in a bookshelf nook, I got pleasing sound reinforcement. Small spaces don’t require 3/4 of the audio niceties that are deemed so critical in our hobby.

Rich

I’d get a Music Hall or Pro-Ject turntable, install an Ortofon 2M MM cartridge, (available at different price points), a Rega Io integrated amplifier (has built-in MM phono preamp and headphone amp), and a pair of bookshelf speakers. The Rega Io (30Wpc) will produce great sound for an apartment and could even make the move into a small house; the Io will take two more source components beyond the turntable, so easy to eventually add a CD player and music streamer (or one of the tiny DAC units that connects a laptop to a stereo system). This is my setup for my kid’s first apartments.