I think it's pretty stupid to worship one company
In the interest of friendly banter I came across the below quote on here. The person who wrote it doesn't need to be named
Lets count the number of times Rega are mentioned!!
"Yes, the right cheap turntable will sound good and you'll enjoy it. My system is fairly revealing but a good budget or older turntable still sounds great. If you get the right one..
My top recommendation if buying new or recent would be the Rega P1. It's not as well built as the more expensive Rega decks but it's still solid enough and sounds brilliant. It's ideal as a starter deck because it's very kind to worn old record and gets to the heart of the music. You're unlikely to find a record that won't sound enjoyable on a P1.
If buying used you might be lucky and find an older Planar2 or Planar3 for less than a couple of hundred. They're better built and are 'cooler' but they don't sound that much better than the P1 to be honest. All Rega decks are simple, reliable and can be fixed no matter what goes wrong with them. Little ever does. They are the top pick for budget to mid-range turntables for a reason.
An older deck like the Pioneer mentioned above is a reasonable option. These old Jap decks are well built, sound decent and often have nice features like auto-lift at the end of the record and push-button speed change. They are old though and any old deck is a risk. If the bearing is worn or you crack the lid, you cannot buy a new one. For that reason I wouldn't spend too much on one and only buy if it's in really sharp condition. And they do exist. Lots of people had a turntable on top of their stack systems which hardly got used, a proper Hi-Fi was an aspirational product back then.
I wouldn't buy a Dual 505. They are made almost entirely out of plastic, feel cheap and really don't sound very good. I have no idea why they were so popular. Possibly because they were very widely available, quite cheap and not Japanese? I don't know but anything with a Rega badge on it kills a Dual 505. Kills it, buries it, digs it up and kills it again! A Rega is proper Hi-Fi, a Dual 505 sounds like crap if you plug it into a revealing system. Just...don't.
I would not buy a ProJect deck either. Sound wise, they're alright to be honest. Sound soft and dull next to a Rega but enjoyable and improve a lot if you get the awful budget Ortofon cartridges off them and fit something with more life like an Audio Technica. But the reason I wouldn't buy one is that the build quality is terrible. Yeah, we're talking budget here but they cross the line and do things which are unacceptable at any price as far as I'm concerned. I buy and sell turntables but fun, fix damaged ones and I've had many ProJect turntables apart. They're just horrible. The best way to put is that whatever needs done, ProJect will find the cheapest possible way to do it. And they'll compromise strength and reliability just to make assembly a few seconds quicker. You buy a Rega, in thirty years time it's still going to be working perfectly. Most ProJects will be scrap long before then as the first slight mishap and it'll be broken.
There are other decent options. UK companies like Revolver, QED, Logic and others made solid budget turntables which typically don't sound quite a good as a Rega but usually sell for a good bit less. An AR Legend/EB-101 offers a lush sound for not a lot of money and a suspended Systemdek is a damn good record player if you can find a clean one with a decent arm.
Lot of options but if you want a simple, reliable, great sounding record player the advice is the same as it was forty years ago. Buy a Rega."
