Will an entry level Project or MusicHall be enough

I have a Krell AVS,300S,DT10 with N802's and I just added the MMF7 with Goldring. After owning a big rig TNTIII,JMW,Ruby I can say I am pleased. I know it is very musical using it with a Monolithic & power suply. I was thinking of others but the MMF7 reminded me of the TNT in a smaller package and I will probably get a glider 2 cartridge before I ever did sell it. It is a very enjoyable purchase and doesn't have you thinking of alot of upgrades.

You have to go with the Rega, nothing else in the price range comes close. This is not an exagerated claim. The Rega's have arms and cartriges that all make for the best system synergy/compatability you can find. And yes they will generly smoke one thousand dollar cd players. The build of the Rega's is way way better than the Projects,MusicHalls etc. at this price point.

VTA *is* crucial, no matter what a salesman might tell you. So is adequate suspension/isolation and speed/rotational stability.

So be it.

If you are looking for the most bang for the buck, you would be best off with a used AR ES-1 or a model they sold under the name of "The Turntable". You would be far better off with one of these than you would be with one of those new and highly touted "particle board" turntables with no suspension or isolation and arms without VTA adjustment.

While the stock AR arm limits you as to what cartridges you can use due to the low mass design, ALL arms limit your selection one way or the other. It is a good basic design that shares a great amount of similarities with the Graham arm.

A Harman Kardon T-60 is also a decent table, uses an arm of similar design, comes with a factory record clamp and can probably be purchased even cheaper than the AR. Both of these show up on Ebay on a regular basis.

Invest the difference between one of these tables and a new "particle board" TT in a second hand record cleaning machine and enjoy. To do better than either of the tables / arms that i mentioned, you will have to spend quite a bit more money. While the leap in performance would be sizable, so would the price increase. Sean
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The best starter table around is the Rega P2 hands down. Smokes the MMF and Project stuff.

You'd be better off buying a Technics FG servo belt drive w/ plug in cartridge tonearm than one of those glass and particle board TTs. Their speed stability simply sucks.

If you know how to deal w/ TTs, get something better in the used market. Perhaps a Linn...

For under $500 you could afford a new Music Hall MMF-5. For $600++ you could get a used MMF-7.

See my response in your other thread.