My point is in all of this, if you are on a budget but really want to experience good vinyl playback. DO NOT BE AFRAID to look into and try a Made in Japan table made between say 1975-1985 or so. Again short of the cheapest models these tables in stock form are better than many may think. The Japanese industrial base at the time put a lot of money into competent to high quality turntables. Do not let any vinyl snob try to tell you that these were all junk. There were many very good choices from that era of turntable production.
Les_creative-edge...care to name a few examples of what you deem to be good examples of the above that meets the criteria of the OP (i.e., <$500)? Thx