Please accept this in the spirit it is offered. There is absolutely no doubt or dispute with anything you have said. You obviously have extensive experience at this and more importantly you have a true enthusiast's outlook and apreciation for vinyl and the equipment needed to reproduce it. When I see a question concerning a very simple aspect of TT purchase/repair or advice from someone who is very obviously a newcomer to vinyl I have found it best to be specific and brief. Someone asking for a recommendation in a price range of 200$ is probably not looking to get deeply involved in theory and mechanical repair. I belive they really just want a simple and basic idea of what they are getting into; what they need to do it and where to look. We grew up around turntables; I still have two of my old AR's sitting downstairs in various states of modification as I know you do also. I really don't see this guy looking to rebuild and modify a 40 yr old table. But if we steer him to a nicely functioning Technics that sounds decent( and they do) and requires no real maintenence and set-up is minimal; we have helped him and maybe encouraged someone to get into vinyl themselves. That is why I try to keep my answers short/sharp and to the point for these types of questions. I have also found that between the Linn and the Technics in my basement, most newcomers don't even hear a MAJOR difference in sound.