its nice to have a budget like that. the rega planar 3 is a bargain, great place to start, leaves room for good electrinics for stepup. forget the AT440ML, too hifi, the AT-OC9 at $200 from audio advisor is a bargain, used to retail for 700. the lehman stepup is not bad for the $. there are lots of opinions out there, spending someone elses dough is easy isnt it. for serious bux, the basis tables are good merch. i say start wiht the rotel,oc9,lehman combo and learn. it couldnt hoit!
