Turntable under $1500 ..... Rega, clearaudio, or ?

I would seek a used SOTA Sapphire or, if you want new, a Rega RP3. In both cases you will have an upgrade path as budget allows: SOTA factory upgrades or Rega TT PSU, upgrade belt, Groovetracer subplatter, platter, counterweight.

How about going vintage? Some people are getting spectacular results from the Empire 208/308's of the 1960's. These were manufactured to extremely tight tolerances. Worthy of putting on a modern tonearm. See, for instance, Ralph Karsten's version at the Atma-Sphere site,

http://www.atma-sphere.com/Products/Atma-208

or Doc's version at the Bottlehead site

http://www.cognitivevent.com/av_empire.html

These are potentially world-class, and compete with many of the high-dollar tables sold today. Of course, any used turntable will need careful inspection, but there's not a whole lot to go wrong with the Empire. The Pabst motors are a clever 3-phase design and are extremely good. The bearing and main platter were outstanding. You might have to replace the thrust plate beneath the main bearing with a Delrin one, but the results are well worth a bit of time investment. And you might just get one that's been cared for its whole life and needs nothing!

Mine is a recent purchase, with an SME3009R tonearm, and it really makes nice music. About to put my Scoutmaster up for sale as a result!

There's a Well Tempered Classic with a MC cartridge for sale here now that's close to your price range. Best of luck.

You can get a really nice used VPI Scout for around $1200.00. Killer 'table.
Regards, Sam

If used I am with Slovell in getting the best used VPI you can afford. If new, for $ 1500 you cannot beat the Marantz TT-15 for value. The included Clearaudio cart. alone is worth almost $ 1000.