young and new to analog.

Chuck,

I will also remark that you should consider a Technics SL-1200MKII, with or without KAB USA mods. If your budget allows get the arm rewired and then the fluid damper. You can mount the damper yourself but have Kevin at KAB USA do the rewire.

Another vinyl route is to try to land a higher quality vintage table from any of the major Japan Inc. companies. Denon, JVC, Kenwood, Sansui, Pioneer to name a few. Back in the late 70's and early 80's each had very good quality direct drive with quartz lock designs. These will give many of the lower priced say sub $1000 turntables today a run for the money.

For amplifiers if you want solid state consider along with others noted here Cambridge Audio integrated amps. If you want to go tubes, do not be afraid of a good China Inc. brand say a Yaqin, Music Angel, Bewitched, Ming Da etc. These are better than many may think and go for very good values today.

Yes, in theory a manual table is said to perform better, less parts to add noise or vibrate, BUT! in reality a good say late 70's to early 80's vintage table of the higher end types even if they are semi-auto to fully auto will not sound bad and likely be hard to notice as being noisy in 99% of any listening you may do.

You will at times see on eBay better vintage tables of that era, just for example:

The higher end Denon's with the wood grain finish and the often glossy finish types. Some are auto lift (the tone arm lifts at end of play) others are fully auto but are designed to be as capable in dong so as one can get. They have tough high quality quartz lock direct drives and have earned a good reputation for pretty good sound playback. The Dynamically balanced type tone arms use servos to control movement and yes if the table has been beat on or not well used etc. can be an issue but you may find the good buy on these at times.

JVC: They had their line of higher end QL series starting with the matt black finished tables of the late 70's to the high gloss wood grain looking ones till the mid 80's. They have some with dynamic balanced tone arms too and the same issues need to be addressed as with the Denon's.

Kenwood: Has the marble like concrete resin tables which get good reviews from vintage owners. The higher end ones were well thought out and solid performers.

Sansui: SR series of tables from the late 70's to early 80's were like the others here well designed and offer great playback qualities.

There are more choices, most of the Japan Inc. manufacturers from the late 70's to mid 80's had a few higher end and better designed tables which are much better than the cheaper stuff they also sold especially once the CD became popular and Japan Inc. stopped caring about good turntables.