if you could stretch to say $750 you could get very, very nice starter system. a brand new rega r1 w/ cart would be ~$395 and a used rega brio integrated (which has a mm phono stage) would be $350ish. that amp only offers 40wpc so speaker match is somewhat impt. arcam also makes some nice integrateds with phono stages that can be had used in teh $300-$500 range (there is actually an alpha 3 listed now for $200 that you may want to check out - that plus the new rega r1/cart would be right at your $600 number). a one box amp saves on hidden costs since you only buy one ic cable (table to integrated) and there is only one power cord to upgrade down the road.
