How do you choose a turntable ?

Start with the budget..... and buy the best you can afford, you will save money in the long run. Don't let the people to tell you MM is fine, and MM these days are so much better... get the best MC you can afford and best tonearm you can afford. start with high end used gear that is the way you can stay in the budget and get the best gear for the money. you want your head to spin go to Axpona and ask as many questions as you can remember answers to, but going there in general is a headache for pretty much anyone.

@mulveling I never thought the day would come when we would differ, but your comments concerning the effectiveness of Isoacoustics are in contradiction to my own findings.  I will confine my comments to their GAIA isolators only as they are the ones that I have used.  Specifically I have used them underneath both speakers and turntables.  My Florida home is on a steel reinforced concrete slab, with a tile overlay, but the ground underneath is Florida sandy/swampy crap.  GAIA I isolators underneath my floor standing speakers made a remarkable improvement.  GAIA II isolators underneath my VPI HW-40, sitting on top of a custom built butcher block table ditto.  Same for GAIA III under my SL1200GAE sitting next to the the VPI on the same butcher block table.  Subjective impressions were confirmed be real time analyzer measurements.  BTW, that system incorporates two REL SX212 subs that did not require further isolation.  Almost exactly one year ago I put together a new system for our home in New Hampshire.  This is an older home that has spongy wooden floors.  Again floor standing speakers were found to benefit greatly from GAIA I.  The turntable in this system is my old HW-19 MkIII.  Even though the TT is suspended and I set it on a stone hearth, feedback was occurring to a degree.  It could be controlled with the volume control, but a set of GAIA III feet further ameliorated the issue.  In short we disagree about the efficacy of this product.

He just plays at 100db, so everything gets blown to hell.

I go by Aesthetics. Different.  "Cool Factor".  It just has to just sit there (as it will most of the time) with the wtf is that? Charisma.  Not just a box with a big circle in the middle and skinny thing on the right side.

J.A. Mitchell tables. Transcriptor, Gyro, Orbe. Which reminds me of SME tables. Maybe even a B&O 4002. 

1980's.  I saw this table that called to me.  I walk across the room to look at. It was a Technics SP10 with a Dynavector tonearm.  Yes, it was a box with a big circle thing.  But far from a stick on the right side. 

Someone above mentioned not getting a MM cartridge and said to go right to MC. I have both types and personally, I enjoy my MM cartridges much better than MC. There is a jump factor I get with the MM that I do not get with my MC cartridge.   Don’t count them out.