Possibly Looking for a Turntable/Cartridge Under $1000

I would narrow down the choices by looking at features YOU want:

- Height adjustable feet? Not on Rega's but can be upgraded with TNG-spinner.

- Automatic or manual? I would go for manual, as automatic has more parts, which cost money and can break. 

- Built-in phono amp? I would go without, as it costs money and can be added separately at different levels of quality.

- Cue lever present? [shockingly, some <$1K TT's don't have a cue lever!]

- Options for upgrades?

- Is switching 33/45 important? How easy is it? Button vs. belt change (with or without removal of platter)?

- Look? Do you like 80's DJ appearance or modern minimalism?

Re sound quality, they all will play records, at $1K level not the best SQ. Direct Drive vs belt drive is irrelevant here. Agree with other posters to take cleaning old records into consideration. Cleaning has more effect on SQ than any TT attribute.

Enjoy your vinyl!

@licarijo 

The turntable matters greatly. If you can’t hear much difference, that doesn’t imply that others can’t. Also, couldn't disagree more about cartridges. Apparently, these differences are irrelevant to you, but they are not to others.

licarijo

I generally agree with you, it’s the cartridge that makes the most audible difference, and I wish I had auto lift, my after-market gizmo stopped cooperating.

Ortofon older 2M body is only two options: red spherical or blue elliptical, both on aluminum, no advanced stylus for the older 2M body

Ortofon New 2MR body https://ortofon.com/pages/2mr

has a full range of stylus shape choices up to LVB 250 which is Shibata, and the only one that is Boron Cantilever, all others have aluminum cantilevers, spherical/elliptical/fine line/Shibata-Boron/78/Mono

AT95 older design has a full line of stylus, but they have limited channel separation 23db, and all are aluminum cantilevers

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/cartridges/line-series/at-vm95-series

AT’s NEW VMX series includes 3 advanced shape stylus with boron cantilevers

 https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/cartridges/line-series/vmx-series

As I mentioned above, most of these basic TT’s have fixed height arms.

1. removable headshell, then you can get a headshell that provides azimuth adjustability, 

2. What inexpensive TT has a height adjustable arm? Easy is nicer, on the fly is terrific, but by any means (better than none), what is out there?

I saw an Origin tonearm, it has the least friendly height adjustability, but, it does allow it: you need to loosen the mounting nut below the plinth, then adjust the similar nut above the plinth on the arm post up or down, then re-tighten the below plinth nut. Better than not possible.

TRACKING FORCE.

Always pay attention to the tracking force. Given any matching amount of contact surface, heavier will wear itself faster, thus ’less longer stylus life’ and wear your LP’s grooves more. Heavier is ok, but IF you can find a great choice that happens to track lighter, that’s my preference. My heavy trackers are only 2.0g, some are 1.25g, and lightest is Shure V15VxMR at 1.0g.

Anti-skate is tricky, often set wrong. Lighter tracking has less inward skate naturally, therefore less force is involved opposing it, and by any amount of error is likely to be less force involved.

I found ALL my dials to be inaccurate, I use tools and methods that measure and reveal visually and audibly.