Well, for new I had looked at the Music Hall and Goldring decks in the posts above as well as the Pro-Ject Debut III. I think they're probably all comparable at the $300 price range.If I could find a Technics like Manualblock was talking about for an outlay of $100 that I could confirm was working correctly, now that would be the way to go to get started IMO. Leave more for the preamp.