turntable madness

What kind of price are you targeting? There are pretty good choices for most price points. I agree that the Thorens are good at the prices mentioned. If you insist on spending less, the old Duals were well made turntables. I had a Dual 1019 in college and regreted trading it in for a Benjamin Miracord 50H. Fifteen years ago, I was given another Dual 1019, and it remains in service today in one of my systems. (The BM 50H is in a closet.) Among the numerous weaknesses of the 1019 versus modern units are (1) a 10 inch platter provides less support than today's 12 inchers, (2) idler puck drive transmission instead of better isolation from motor vibrations with today's belt drives, (3) inductance motor is somewhat voltage dependant versus line frequency-driven hysteresis designs popular today, and (4) the built-in tonearm is attached under the deck to hardware used for the changing mechanism. For a used unit, key lookouts are the degree of wear of the rubber idler puck and the amount of friction felt from the arm bearings. If these are OK, the 1019 could be a serviceable table that should cost less than $100 (maybe a lot less). You'll have to put up with the sonic imperfections of an old design, as I have described, but I'd say it would be a good deal at a minimal price.