thinking of trying vinyl

A used MMF5 is not a bad idea by any means, and if you decide the whole process is not for you, then selling it will get you almost all of your money back.

Personally, I would take the opposite tack from Almandog. I find 'old pieces of junk' to be excellent places to start. Many old Japanese DD TTs can be found in garage sales and thrift stores for almost nothing (if you have such places in your area). I'd do a tour of the local stores, write down the names of what they have, do some research (check Vintage Knob website for a fair bit of info, and there are other sites, and the archives of the Vinyl Asylum on AudioAsylum.com are always helpful to dig through), and plunk your $25 down for the one you want (make sure it works first). Buy a cartridge, print out a protractor from the Vinyl Engine website, and do some research on how to align your cartridge (there are various websites out there (Walker, the FAQ on AudioAsylum, the archives on Audiogon, others)), and start spinning garage sale records (wash them first). A good used MM cart will do wonders.

The weak point in your chain at that point m-i-g-h-t turn out to be your phono stage. Some older integrateds/recievers had quite decent phono stages in them, but I do not know if your Rotel (or any Rotel) is one of them. Others may have an opinion. I think phono stage quality is crucial. If I had $500 to start a TT system with to see whether I wanted to play with vinyl, knowing what I know now, I'd lurk around the thrifts, garage sales, and craigslist for a great old TT (have to do your research though) for $50, buy a good quality used MM cart for <$100 off Audiogon, and then spend $250 on a used phono stage, then the remaining $50-100 on used ICs to go from phono to integrated (or roll your own).

People's reasons for doing vinyl are different. If you want it to beat your CD player for $300 all in, that may be tough (though not impossible). With a $50 thriftshop table, a $150 cart, a few dollars in vibrapods or spikes (depending on what else is under your table) and a good protractor, you can get good sound (assuming your phono stage is up to snuff). But I would not know if it would 'beat' your CD player. People's tastes are different.

Rhljazz' point about sticking to the silver discs is one which has credence, but for a different reason. I think the MONETARY COST is actually a limited input if you buy used. Far more important is the cost of time and effort. It takes time to find a TT, to learn to set it up, to look for vinyl, to clean the records when dirty, and then, if you end up not appreciating it, it takes time to get rid of the stuff.

For me, the lower monetary cost was one reason I went to vinyl. I can find any number of old records in fine condition which are 25cts to a few dollars. If I wanted to buy those on silver discs, it would cost me several dollars per disc used and $10-20/disc new. In order to listen to 1000 classical albums from the past over the next few years - albums I had never heard before - it would cost me $5,000-15,000 in silver discs + no dollars for my CDP... or... it would cost me $1,000-3,000 in vinyl, a few hundred dollars for a record cleaning machine, and then something for a vinyl setup. At the end of it, I could resell the vinyl and the setup or I could sell the extra 1000 compact discs. The CDs cost me more upfront, and the CDs will lose more on my investment than I will lose selling the records and vinyl back out. To me, for that reason, vinyl is the low cost solution.

If you want to keep your experiment well below $300, I'd suggest the garage sale or thrift store TT route. Phasecorrect has mentioned the families of tables I would look for. There are a bunch of them out there and they punch above their weight (cost, not lbs).