What would be a good turntable/tonearm/cartridge

I agree with Stringreen:

"VPI Prime/Ortofon Winfield ...hardly get much better without piles of more money."

Except: there are many other great cartridges to chose from.

You can start with much cheaper ones, and move up, per your own budget, and, taste.

Beware: you must understand the "anal" in "analog"!

You have to listen critically, to many records, for long hours, and make very fine adjustments, for best results.

The reason I suggested the Winfield because it can be had for much less than asking price, and the performance is much more than asking price. Its really a steal.

Music Hall MMF5 or MMF7. Comes all set up with dustcover and cartridge. Plug and play. You will need a phono preamp, of course. The other thing I would add is a Herbies mat. But that's about it. Prices are about 800 and 1600 respectively. I don't think you can go wrong with either. When I got back into analog, I bought a MMF5 and it was very good for the money. Definitely reminded me of what analog was about.

Hi, guys. FYI, I have Sonus Faber Cremona speakers, and about a $2,ooo budget for this. Yes, I know that I will need a phono preamp. Thanks! -Steve

Steve - if your budget is $2k I would second Chayro's recommendation of the MMF5 or MMF 7, mainly because I really like their dual-plinth design.

The MMF5 is good, but may require the old "Rega Nudge" for assistance in getting the platter up to speed quickly on power up - but it's not really a big deal - I've lived with it for over 30 years :-)

You can then afford a pretty nice phono stage.

However, I would prefer the drive band going around the outside of the platter, like the MMF 7 offers. It gets the platter up to speed faster and it may offer a more stable rotational speed.

The other MMF7 features I really like are
- non resonant acrylic platter
- motor sits on its own resonance damping puck
- counterweight’s center of gravity level with stylus tip

But then selecting the MMF5 would allow more to be spent on the phono stage

Tough choice, but I'd go with the MMF7. There are still some very adept phono stages out there for around $500

Regards