The big mistake many make is to think that vinyl and digital will sound the same. Tied to that, many think that different turntables from low priced to high priced will have different SQ levels similar to the gradations of SQ as you go up in price on digital gear. The truth is that vinyl always sounds different than digital and that less expensive vinyl sounds nothing like top-tier vinyl whereas the difference in sound between less expensive digital and state of the art digital-though significant-is much more "compressed". So first and foremost, before spending your hard-earned money-readjust you expectations. The top three contenders are probably the VPI Scout, the Rega Planar 3 and the Marantz TT-15 and you can't go wrong with any of them but among the three, the Marantz is the sleeper. It is a rebadged Clearaudio that offers a few extras for the price. It has better speed accuracy and a better tonearm than the Rega and it is less finicky to set up (right) than the VPI. With all three, you will need to budget another $600-$1000 for a very good cartridge. But don't forget-you need a good perfectly level stand and there is a formidable learning curve when it comes to proper TT set-up. Your last sentence about clicking "play" on Tidal suggests that convenience is important to you. That does not bode well for your interest in vinyl.
