Best bang for the buck turntable?

Thorens 125 turntable with SME Arm,or an AR Table with Sumiko Arm .Both these tables with these arms may be hard to find,But if u find one its a huge bang for the buck at about 300 to 350 tops.

I have a KAB 1210 and am very happy with it. KAB sells a number of mods that bring this table to a new level - all for less than a grand.

I would suggest a used SME 10 table with V arm ($3400 or less here on Audiogon) and a new Sumiko Celebration cartridge ($1500). I don't know of a better analog front end for under 5K. (Of course, I am biased because this is what I own, and I paid double at full retail.) You will also need a good cable and phono amp, another 2-3K used. Vinyl is a big committment in time and money, but it can sound glorious. Good Luck.

Seandtaylor99 - I'd be interested in a bit more detail around your opinion that getting into vinyl would be a mistake. I've considered (many times) getting a TT and experimenting, and recently have been doing so again.

I have several thousand CDs, all loaded onto a music server, and love the convenience and variety of my music collection. I have zero LPs at the present time.

While I might be interested in finding old albums, I'm very intrigued by some of the new music that is published on vinyl, so if I bought a TT, it would be to slowly grow an ancilliary music collection - ie, not to replace my existing collection, just to have a choice of formats going forward, with the occassional backfill of a title that I don't have or you can't get on CD.

I'm not really cost-constrained - I'd like it to be "cost effective", but I could / would spend more if needed.

So, I've thought about it many times, but always stop short, wondering how many times I'd actually buy vinyl, and then how many times I'd listen to it. I'm assuming some of your perspective mirrors this - one would have spent several thousand dollars just getting setup with the gear and enough music to enjoy the endeavor, and the same amount of money could have expanded one's CD collection and upgraded the playback of one's full CD collection, which would be a better investment.

Anything else on the Con side of whether to get into vinyl if one currently has no LPs?

Kthomas, if money is not a problem then you can buy whatever you want. If you are purchasing a TT to be able to explore new music not available on CD then that is also a very good reason.

Where I think it is a mistake to purchase a TT is if the goal is to replace an extensive CD collection for sole purpose of improving the sound quality. That is where I think the money is better spent elsewhere in the existing setup, whether a better CD player, amp or speakers. Just MHO.

I started out with a turntable and a record collection 20+ years ago and added CDs and a CD player. I'm committed to both formats. However if I had never owned a record collection I don't think I'd start one now, since the cost of a decent TT setup would enable either better CD playback, or several hundred more CDs, and personally I don't hear the improved sound quality of LPs ... I just hear euphonic distortion, which can be pleasant on some music, but is ultimately inferior to CDs.