Ok all you vinyl heads...

[Swish]

Ah yes, the wild, wacky, FRUSTRATING world of vinyl - Ultimately it's worth it in the end - according to this humble reporter. I bought a Empire 698 in August '07 and only this week after five or six blets and belt repairs - it's finally running at correct speed. Halle-f'ing-lujah.

Anyway if $300.00 is your budget you can look at Music Hall or Pro-Ject or Rega - though i think their entry level stuff usually includes a cartridge. You can probably find a Technics 1200 used (make sure it wasn't used by a DJ though).

Good luck ole man!

...it's just that I have thousands sunk into my HT system and never planned to go back into vinyl. My daughter and son-in-law bought me 4 LPs for Xmas and I tried to play them on my TT. I found out the stylus was shot so...I needed a new cartridge. Then the thing with the lack of phono input in my Rotel (I understand very few HT processors have them), and...you know the rest of the story.

I don't plan on going bonkers with vinyl, so I don't believe I need to spend more than a few hundred for decent performance. That's all I was implying. If $350 or 400 is the right number, then I'll pull the trigger and never look back.

Thanks for the info...to you and the others.

Swishdaddy

[Bernd]

All good advice so far. I think a Rega P2 would be a great choice. It is very tweakable (pm John Michael) and the arm is a peach. He tweaked his within an inch of its life and its sounds great by all acounts. This can all be done in stages big or small, and performs way above its price. Also the new Thorens line up is very good.
Welcome to the dark side Swish.