best "entry level" audiophile TT?

There's probably not a "best." It's a matter of what compromises you're willing to have at the $400-700 (+ cartridge) price range.

A local store stopped carrying Music Hall TTs, citing motor reliability. Pro-Ject 'tables are also made in the same factory in the Czech Republic. They prefer the Rega P1, P2, and P3 in your price range for reliability and upgradability.

I myself am smitten by my Technics SL 1210 M5G. I got it for $500, the cost of a P2 and significantly less than a Sota Moonbeam, Pro-Ject RM-5, MMF-5, or Rega P3. Unlike the Rega, the rotation speed is dead-nuts accurate with better wow, flutter, and rumble figures. In spite of the "audiophile press" assertions to the contrary, it's a very quiet table and I can't hear any motor noise, even with headphones.

It's certainly an old school arm, but the S-curve breaks up resonances and the detachable headshell makes cart mounting and changing a breeze. You can also bypass one cartridge-to-tonearm "joint" by getting an Ortofon Concorde all-in-one cartridge/headshell from http://www.kabusa.com.

And you won't touch the Technics' SL 12x0 series' durability, smoothness of controls, and build quality for under $2K.

Most of all, I like the way it sounds. It has no trouble sounding better than my CD/SACD players, it's rhythmic and involving with lots of pace and slam combined with decent microdynamics (certainly better than CD) and inner detail.

Taking pains to get this 'table acoustically/vibrationally isolated pays off big sonic dividends.

Question about Dennensen platforms:

I have three Dennensen air suspension platform pistons

Do you have a link or any information about these isolation devices?

...now I have to step back and reconsider how much of what I have read is hyperbole.

I got the impression that Psychicanimal was being sarcastic about his isolated background.

Whatever the situation, fortunately, there are some reviews that compare KAB-modified Technics SL1200s with more expensive belt-drive rigs. Here's one from TNT-Audio where the reviewer compares a KAB-modified SL1200/Ortofon/Creek rig with a near twice-as-expensive Music Hall MMF-9/MH Maestro/Creek setup.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/technics_sl1200_2_e.html

Also, Ed Kobesky has written a lot about the SL 1200 and has had a wide array of turntables and cartridges, plus he reviews for Positive Feedback.

04-20-07: Artizen65
...The last piece of the puzzle is the phono pre. I use the internal phone pre in my integrated.

Could I achieve better sonics and tone with a dedicated pre probably but not without the cost factor of the pre and cables.

It depends on how good the phono section is in your integrated amp. Some integrateds (e.g., Creek) have good built-in or plug-in phono sections.

Given the cost and quality of your digital front end, I'd be surprised if you had an inexpensive integrated.

However, if you think you'd be better off with an outboard phono section, I'd recommend a Creek OBH-18 or Bellari VP 129, either of which go for about $250. I haven't heard the Bellari but it's a Stereophile Class B component, where most of the others in that group cost $900 to $1500. I have heard various Creek phono units and always liked them. To keep costs down on the extra interconnects while getting good signal transfer, I recommend the Audioquest Blue Racer or Black Mamba interconnects available at Audio Advisor. I have two pairs of Black Mambas and a pair of Blue Racers. The great thing about either of these is that they're made of single-crystal OCC copper, and the difference with the Black Mambas is that they're also 99.9999% pure copper. The Racers are $65 and the Mambas are $85 for a 1 meter pair. That's cheap for that level of copper quality, especially from AQ.