I agree that the Project turntables are very good and in the lower price range there really is only Project and Rega.
As someone has already said, it would be better to spend less to begin with until you are sure vinyl is for you. It is a labour intensive format that requires constant maintenance. As suggested you could go for a Project Debut but I think you should be spending less to begin with, and spend your extra money on records instead. The Project Essential is said to be good, but being a unipivot, can be a bit fiddly if you are not used to them, and cartridges can be fussy on unipivot tonearms.
I would go for an entry level Rega, the RP1 I think would give you satisfaction without spending too much and it has a reasonable cartridge (though I would change this for an Audio Technica AT95E). The arm can take better cartridges so you can upgrade a little with this deck.
If you wanted to go the second hand route, you could not go wrong with a Thorens TD150 or 160 or a Rega Planar 2 or 3, or NAD533 (Rega Planar clone).
The Thorens decks come in many guises i.e. some with and some without fitted tonearms, so you would need to decide if this is too much complication to begin with.
I hope this helps you.
Rge Spares by SoundsSupreme
As someone has already said, it would be better to spend less to begin with until you are sure vinyl is for you. It is a labour intensive format that requires constant maintenance. As suggested you could go for a Project Debut but I think you should be spending less to begin with, and spend your extra money on records instead. The Project Essential is said to be good, but being a unipivot, can be a bit fiddly if you are not used to them, and cartridges can be fussy on unipivot tonearms.
I would go for an entry level Rega, the RP1 I think would give you satisfaction without spending too much and it has a reasonable cartridge (though I would change this for an Audio Technica AT95E). The arm can take better cartridges so you can upgrade a little with this deck.
If you wanted to go the second hand route, you could not go wrong with a Thorens TD150 or 160 or a Rega Planar 2 or 3, or NAD533 (Rega Planar clone).
The Thorens decks come in many guises i.e. some with and some without fitted tonearms, so you would need to decide if this is too much complication to begin with.
I hope this helps you.
Rge Spares by SoundsSupreme