At your price level most turntables will give you the same performance be it DD or belt but stay away from built in phono stages as if it were the plague . Why ? Because the phono stage is the responsable of converting those extremely small electrical signals pickuped by the cartridge to a servicable level by the line level outputs of the preamp .
It is also responsable for the Riaa conversion process in order to get your signal back to a flat frequency response , so you can imagine the work the phono stage has to do . The phono stage in a LP playing system is extremely important . Don't skimp on it .
To go with a integrated amplifier instead of a reciever is excellent advice as the phono stages of most recievers are compromised . If you can swing it new you can get a Rega integrated which would cost about 500.00 . If you go used Rotel has design some excellent integrated with very good phono stages . Marantz is also a candidate .
One word of caution... if you go used , remember you might have to install sooner or latter new capacitors in the integrated unit depending on the age .
Almost forgot...good thing about turntables is that they are highly modifiable in order to optain better sound as changing the mat , adding mass to the tonearm ( depending on cartridge ) footers , turntable mounts , etc .
It is also responsable for the Riaa conversion process in order to get your signal back to a flat frequency response , so you can imagine the work the phono stage has to do . The phono stage in a LP playing system is extremely important . Don't skimp on it .
To go with a integrated amplifier instead of a reciever is excellent advice as the phono stages of most recievers are compromised . If you can swing it new you can get a Rega integrated which would cost about 500.00 . If you go used Rotel has design some excellent integrated with very good phono stages . Marantz is also a candidate .
One word of caution... if you go used , remember you might have to install sooner or latter new capacitors in the integrated unit depending on the age .
Almost forgot...good thing about turntables is that they are highly modifiable in order to optain better sound as changing the mat , adding mass to the tonearm ( depending on cartridge ) footers , turntable mounts , etc .