Go for it! I just bought a turntable at the beginning of March, and acquired at least 200 albums in the next 2 months for probably $300 or maybe less. Even most of the vinyl I've fished out of the dollar bins and thrift shops have been very clean sounding. I do a pretty picky visual inspection before paying, though.
I bought a Technics SL 1210 M5G and alternate between Ortofon OM 10 and Shure M97xE cartridges mounted on their own headshells so switching is easy. I play it into an Amber Model 17 preamp that has both MM and MC inputs. It cost me a whopping $130 at a pawn shop.
I *really* like the Technics DD tables. They're very rugged, built to ridiculousy close tolerances (1/2 a micron, anyone?), speed is dead-nuts accurate, they're *very* quiet, and the controls are intuitive and silky smooth. You can elevate the clarity and soundstage significantly by placing the turntable on a thick maple or butcher block cutting board slab with shock absorbing footers under the slab, such as Vibrapods or Mapleshade Isoblocks.
