Turntable suggestions for a newbie

I've lived with a MOFI Ultradeck for several years now. Upgraded to a HANA ML cart and added a Parasound JC3 Jr. phono pre. For me it's a great set up. Solid, firm, black backgrounds, it's dynamic and detailed, never harsh. Right now I feel I would be hard pressed to make a significant jump in performance and enjoyment, without a serious cash infusion. 

Technics (or other tt) with removable head shell is a must have feature for me. Easier to install cartridge and use multiple head shells with mounted cartridges dependent on sound profile I want. 

Get the MoFi, it's a great deck, and easy to live with. 

Got into vinyl a little over 2 years ago, last time I purchased a record was in the late 1980's. No idea what happened to all my old records, or even my old stereo, think my little sister stole it when I left for the service, anyway...

Vinyl is very analog. Think about that for a second. Everything about it is analog. From taking the record out of the sleeve, put on the TT, run your carbon brush over it, turn on TT, lift tonearm, place on record... It's all manual, and analog. As other have said, records need to be cleaned. Even new ones have crap all over them. You will also invest in a record cleaning supplies. It took me about 6 months before I purchased an ultrasonic machine. Expect to spend another $500-3000 on cleaning kits. 

The needle also needs to be cleaned all the time. Even a clean record can pull grit out of groves. Thought I was doing a good job with that, until I bent my needle trying to clean it, that was hopefully a one time mistake. 

Then there is setting up, out of box you don't need much, but once you change a cartridge, or really want to dial in one, you need all the setup tools. Another $100-1000 there. A good digital scale is almost a must. It also saves a lot of time. 

Now let's talk about storage, records are heavy, and take up a lot of space. I got a 800 LP storage unit, that was filled in less than a year. Got another one, and had to rearrange my music room. 

After all this, you will start to fine tune everything. Getting better cables, better needles, better carts, isolation platforms, speed boxes, etc..... 

My point is, getting into vinyl is a lot of work, it takes a lot of time, effort, and money. It's so much more involved over any other music medium.  Sadly, vinyl is also getting more expensive, records have gone from $20-25, now $30. Almost everything is a double or triple LP $40-75. 

It does sound better over other mediums, helps me connect to the music, almost forces me to listen to entire albums, brings me enjoyment. Finding a hard to find album is almost like winning the lotto, until you see how much it cost! I try to budget $500 a month for records, sadly go over that a lot. Just picked up a sealed Hendrix, that I have been searching for. 

Thanks again all for your knowledge and words of caution.  I like tweaking with things and love gound sound so it's sounds like analog will be rewarding. 

I just talked to a local dealer and he has a Clearaudio Performance DC table with a Clarify Carbon tone arm and Virtuoso V2 cart. He says it's in mint condition.  Asking 3300. Anyone have a thought on that deal?

OP: I bought LPs and cassettes back in the day. Between my wife and I, we had quite a lot of LPs, but after moving to Canada from the UK, I started into CDs and left my Garrard deck behind. Then I inherited all my brother's LPs (he was replacing them with LaserDisks and did not want his wife to know...). So nearly twenty years ago I decided to buy a turntable again (it was a Rega Planar 3) and have never looked back.

But what you did not mention is whether you already own any LPs. I'm not sure I'd do it (even from my current perspective, with two turntables, four tonearms and a pile of spare tonearms and cartridges)) if all I had was CDs and SACDs. The digital disks sound nearly as good (after many, many CD players), but I needed to be able to play LPs that were not available on CD. Having started, I now buy on LP as a first choice, and CD if vinyl is not available or is crazy expensive. Should you (or anyone else) start on that road if you don't own any LPs? Hard question!