I'm not really qualified to speculate on how much better he could do with a couple of hundred more dollars. That's usually the case but especially would be true if he were buying used at $700 rather than new at $500.
Having said that, I bought the Jolida FX-10 used at $375, I think, for an office system and have been very happy playing it a few hours every day for a couple of years. It's not a lot of watts but works extremely well for me with a pair of relatively inefficient JohnBlue JB3 speakers.
It's been completely reliable and the auto bias is great. I don't use the glass case and clipped the leads to the blue LEDs under each tube. He might like the blue glow but it was just annoying to me.
Having said that, I bought the Jolida FX-10 used at $375, I think, for an office system and have been very happy playing it a few hours every day for a couple of years. It's not a lot of watts but works extremely well for me with a pair of relatively inefficient JohnBlue JB3 speakers.
It's been completely reliable and the auto bias is great. I don't use the glass case and clipped the leads to the blue LEDs under each tube. He might like the blue glow but it was just annoying to me.