Turntable help/recommendation with specific setup

Make sure you can get a tonearm lift from VPI 1st. Otherwise good buy & TT
VPI Industries Aries Scout JMW9 with Ortofon Quintet Blue | Turntables | East Hampton, New York 11937 | Audiogon

This may be the best of the lot
VPI Industries HW-19 mkIV w/new Jelco 750EB and SAMA! | Turntables | Manchester, Missouri 63011 | Audiogon

Generally a good brand
Pro-Ject Audio Systems 2Xperience SB Turntable - Beautiful Walnut w/ Sumiko Blue Point #2 Cart. | Turntables | Ormond Beach, Florida 32174 | Audiogon

Ive had several VPI’s and the Music Halls which are rebadged Pro-ject . Can't go wrong w/ the VPI. Scout is the newer model and got rave reviews when it came out.  Take your choice. Also look over in Us audio mart

For just starting out and at this price level buy the one you like the looks of the best. I am not kidding. Totally serious. Because this is something you really only learn by doing. I can tell you that Rega are light and fast which is great if you like that but also what nobody will tell you light tables are more susceptible to vibration and what you put them on, but you will only really appreciate this after having experienced it for yourself.

Unlike other components that are plug and play turntables are all about setup. Yes you can plug and play and maybe even get quite good results. But the difference between the same rig plopped down somewhere vs carefully set up is night and day. What this means, you can wring tremendous performance almost regardless of what you buy, if you put in the effort. Along the way you learn so much that buying the next one becomes a whole lot easier.

You are off to a good start by the way. Way too many guys ignore speaker sensitivity, and get trapped into high power. You have made some pretty good choices so far.

Most important thing now is take seriously the little things. The easy way seems to be spend as much as you can on a table, get a good cartridge, and enjoy. But all kinds of little things like Townshend Pods or Synergistic PHT make so much difference you won’t believe. Whatever table you get, add Pods and PHT and it will be way better than the same total money spent on just a table. So buy whatever you want, just keep all these other things in mind, you will be fine.

Wow, thanks for all the helpful responses and insight. Some really great suggestions, especially that Marantz TT; seems like great value.

Elliott and Dan,

Those look like nice cartridges. I’m open to new and used. I’m still trying to piece together how to best match cartridges to the Luxman but I’m assuming those should obviously work fine, right? And I don’t have any alignment tools. Other than my old roommate who had a basic TT, this will actually be my first TT, so a whole new world for me. A little in over my head but I’m trying to explore all the options and get a feel for everything turntable related.

Artemus,

These are some good deals -- and that Pro-Ject looks nice with the walnut. Hard to decide whether to go new or used especially without really knowing what I’m looking for but there’s undoubtedly a lot of value in going the used route. I’ll keep checking the marketplace.

Miller,

Thanks for the advice. Truthfully, I do care about looks a bit and would ideally have a TT in walnut or matte silver, but it’s not an absolute must. I’ll admit, it’s all a bit overwhelming trying to get all the information I can before making a decision -- and thinking about having to carefully set up a TT for the first time is even more daunting, albeit exciting. Perhaps I’m overthinking it and, as you say, need to just learn as I go, but it’s hard not to want to make the "right" choices right out of the gate. My main concern is keeping synergy throughout the system and making sure all the components are happy together, but obviously a large part of that is learned through experience/trial and error, as you alluded to.

I realize a majority of this post consists of me basically saying "I don’t know what I’m doing" haha. Nonetheless, thanks again, everyone.

If its worth doing well, its worth starting now when you aren't good at it yet.

Enjoy the journey.

I like the Rega P3 because there is an upgrade path with it.  And you may find you like what you got or you may look to upgrade your system so you have options.

The p3 rega would be just fine in your case but you will want to get a good cartridge for it do not bother with a rega cartridge at all go for something better like a dynavector 10x5 for now.