Looking to get a turntable.

See also the Audiogon archives, as there is a lot of information from similar question.

I believe your preamp has a phono stage. If so, you won't necessarily need a separate one. You didn't mention if your price range was for the turntable only, or if it was for everything (turntable + tonearm + cartridge).

Some possibilities:

Music Hall MMF-5: Includes a Goldring cartridge. The cartridge is OK, not great. You'll do better with some of the Ortofon offerings. Unfortunately I found the tonearm's low mass to be limiting in terms of the number of cartridges it worked well with. Nevertheless, it will get you decent sound with good quality records.

Project Debut: Similar in many respects to the Music Hall (I believe they might actually be made in the same factory). Pros/cons similar to the Music Hall.

Technics SL-1200: There seem to be two camps; one thinks it's the best thing going under $1000, the other thinks it's overblown. I currently have a KAB-modified Technics (from kabusa.com). It blows away the Music Hall and Pro-ject I've had in the past. It works well with a wider range of cartridges, is built like a tank, easier to adjust various tonearm settings, and has its own dust cover. (Don't underestimate the importance of that latter feature, particularly if its in a rather dusty room.) It's by far the best sounding turntable I've owned, and has a clear upgrade path through mods from Kevin at KABUSA.com. The turntable-only price will be in your budget, but you'll need extra for a cartridge.

Rega P1: They have a good following, but I've never listened to one, so I can't in good conscience offer an opinion one way or another.

You'll also want to consider budgeting for accessories such as a record cleaning machine with cleaning fluid and a cartridge alignment tool.

I hope that helps.

Michael

Just out of curiosity, why are you limiting yourself to belt-driven tables? Direct drive vs belt drive is one of those classic audiophile debates, like digital vs vinyl, tubes vs solid state, planers vs cones... Clearly there are plenty of people on both sides of the fence.

Of the tables I mentioned above, only the Technics isn't belt-driven. And yet in my system it's the best sounding table. Go figure. Several years ago I used to wonder why a few people so passionately recommended their modded Technics turntables; now that I own one I have a better understanding.

You can have custom acrylic dust covers made for you by a plastics company. (Check the archives for suggestions.) I believe they cost something on the order of $50-80 when I was considering getting one made for my Pro-Ject RM6. The point being that the presence or absence of a dust cover doesn't necessarily matter, but you'll have extra cost getting one made for a table that doesn't come with one.

Michael