Direct Drive

"If you want to buy a direct drive turntable you might as well buy a digital front end - its the same sound."

Bill, I totally agree with you, ABSURD. what a lack of understanding displayed by that statement.

I say: Analog does overtones, time and volume delay better than digital. Getting the speed PERFECT for the fundamental yields perfectly timed overtones.

Perfect speed, highly desirable (look at all the belt drive speed controllers) has nothing to do with platter weight, bearing design, isolation techniques, arm design, cartridge, phono stage, all the things that vary the audible results in the TT world.

Ortofon Red is a decent easy start, but nothing special.

You will get superior results from advanced Stylus Shapes, however they MUST be properly aligned.

https://www.sound-smith.com/articles/stylus-shape-information

You can move up to an excellent advanced stylus shape for $300.

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/cartridges/type/moving-magnet/vm540ml-h

After that, if you get deep into Vinyl you will want to move into the world of Moving Coil cartridges.

Later! Get Started!

I love my Direct Drive JVC TT81. I encourage DD, certainly Technics knows how to do it superbly.

Auto-Lift is a TERRIFIC feature!

Built-In Phono EQ to Line Level (can be turned off to use an existing or future external phono stage) is easy, and may sound darn good. I actually preferred my AT120’s built-in to my McIntosh C28’s phono. Later I turned it off and used my McIntosh mx110z’s phono stage which sounds wonderful.

Included pre-aligned Cartridge is an excellent feature for a beginner. I would encourage acquiring a few tools and skills to mount and align cartridges, so other cartridges could be pre-mounted on headshells, waiting to play: MC; MM; Mono ....

The arm base looks like it adjusts height easily, important if cartridge heights vary.