My advice is to buy the VPI HW-16.5 machine. The machine is very effective and reliable, and it's definitely the best bang for the buck.
Yes, it's loud, but that shouldn't pose a problem unless you have a baby sleeping down the hall or some similar circumstance. (In those instances, you're probably similarly restricted with respect to the volume level of your audio system, so you might as well go play golf. :>)
In my experience, it takes a lot of continuous vinyl cleaning to cause any sort of heat issues with the machine. Your modest collection should not pose any problems in that regard unless you decide to clean the entire collection at once (and without any soaking time in between records). Seriously, if you use a cleaning solution that works best with a 5-minute soak, you can clean vinyl all day long with my VPI 16.5 RCM and never noticeably heat up the machine.
Yes, it's loud, but that shouldn't pose a problem unless you have a baby sleeping down the hall or some similar circumstance. (In those instances, you're probably similarly restricted with respect to the volume level of your audio system, so you might as well go play golf. :>)
In my experience, it takes a lot of continuous vinyl cleaning to cause any sort of heat issues with the machine. Your modest collection should not pose any problems in that regard unless you decide to clean the entire collection at once (and without any soaking time in between records). Seriously, if you use a cleaning solution that works best with a 5-minute soak, you can clean vinyl all day long with my VPI 16.5 RCM and never noticeably heat up the machine.