Entry level recommendations???

Arthur Salvatore has a nice listing of entry level gear on his site check it out.

Belt drive Rotels are underated and not in denmand,
I have a Rotel 850 that sounds better than my Rega 2.

One of the biggest myths in Audio is that Jap DD's don't sound good,A Sony X-5,6,7 or top Sansui will better a Linn,I've seen it proved more than once.
A DD Dual 701 is very sweet but no secret so not easy to find or cheap when you do.

In your shoes, I wouldn't spend equal money on the table and phono stage. The cheapest ($150 or so used) phono stages can be very acceptable sounding as a stop-gap. I'd put the bulk of the money into the deck, as that'll give you a good foundation to work from - upgrading the cart and phono stage down the road. The lowest end dec will only take you so far, and you'll most likely have to replace the deck if you upgrade anything around it to hear differences.

I'd be a bit Leary of used decks, but that's just me. People buy and sell them all the time, so I know I'm in the minority on that one. Too many things can go wrong in packing, shipping, set-up and breakdown IMO. Then you're at the mercy of the seller's honesty about cartridge life and wear. For me to buy one from anyone other than a local dealer, it would have to be in the original box and packed they way it came from the factory.

Not sure of exact prices, but I'd look into a Rega RP-1, or see if anyone has a P2 left around. I'm pretty sure the P2 was discontinued, but maybe not.

I'm not a fan of the Music Hall decks, but the MF 2.2 is a good deck. I own and really like the Pro-Ject decks. They're made in the same factory as Music Hall decks and share a lot of critical parts, yet for some reason, several dealer's I know have nothing but negative things to say about them. They all dropped them and carry Pro-Ject, and praise Pro-Ject's track record. I think it has to due with some design flaws.

I own a Pro-Ject 1Xpression that I upgraded the platter and cart on, and added a Speed Box to over the course of a year or two. Couldn't be happier, but then again if I had it to do all over again, I'd buy a Rega P3.

If you're looking for a solid deck that'll stay with you for a while, you can tinker with it, and it'll show improvements every time, buy a Rega. If you want to set it and forget it, and vinyl will be a change of pace rather than a major source, a Pro-Ject may make more sense.

I've owned the Debut III and 1Xpression. The 1Xpresion is far better and easily worth the extra cash. The Debut doesn't do much better than the stock cart; the 1Xpression easily showed me an improvement with my Dynavector 10x5, which cost almost as much as the deck itself.

Just a few thoughts.

Take you at your word that DD's can sound better in which case Audio Technica is a good company.

WOW, thanks for all the info! I was actually considering a Project Debut III to get started with. Luckily I know a dealer who sells them locally... United Home Audio in MD. Aren't they and Jolida one and the same?

To those curious, My current deck is a JVC DD from some time in the 80's...with a low end Audio-Technica cart. It sounds pretty crappy.