First TurnTable (< $600) that I won't regret while building a hi-fi system.
I am looking for some advice to check myself while getting into a mid-fi / hi-fi journey. I little background to explain where I'm at. I love music and appreciate sound, but I have never really had a hi-fi setup. The most I've had is a 5.1 setup that was given to us. I loved being able to listen to music louder without distortion and the wider stage but was always disappointed in the lack of hit to the sub. I have had a couple of cars with decent factory speakers plus a sub and enjoy those. I know that hi-fi is one of those things that when you hear something better, you can't go back and your expectations then also rise. I am a tinkerer, I don't mind putting in some work and adjusting things. I actually love researching and fully understanding how things work to then be able to make adjustments. I'm not worried about having to align things or things that have ways to adjust this and that. Though I do have young kids and don't have time for a restoration at the moment.
To start, I am looking into getting a first turntable. First, Budget and Location, I am in Florida, U.S., the Tampa-Bay area, and am willing to spend up to $500-$600-ish on the turntable itself. I listen to a range of jazz, brass-band, New-Orleans funk/blues, rap, hip-hop, electronic (whatever re:um and Labrinth are), and electronic dance. Though I don't expect to listen to the electronic dance on vinyl. What I am looking to do, is start to get some equipment, a turntable first, with the understanding that I will acquire better equipment down the road. What I would like to avoid with the turntable, and everything, is that I don't want to get some good surrounding components, speakers, amps, etc., and then realize that I need a whole new turntable in the next 5-10 years. I don't want to get a good set of speakers or amps to realize my turntable sucks and can't keep up. So, I am hoping to get some advice on a solid turntable that I can expect to be happy with for years. For instance, I like that with turntables, you can upgrade certain components to get a different experience, thinking about cartridges in particular. But maybe also upgrading to a new platter or new arm and bearings.
I have been looking at Fluance, Pro-ject, and Rega, among others. Maybe the Fluance RT81+ is a good place to start. Or maybe I should start with the RT82 and leave an upgrade path to an RT85? Or maybe I should just get an RT85? I do have some young kids and I wonder how sensitive the turntable will be. It isn't like they will be using it much but could one clumsy drop of the arm ruin a $200 cartridge? Also, am I cutting myself short by jumping straight to nicer equipment and losing the appreciation that comes with hearing the difference of an upgrade? Though it appears much costlier to upgrade a turntable compared to getting one with the upgrades from the factory. Does the Rega have a longer upgrade path? It seems like Fluance has a better value than Pro-ject for new turntables, but I have recently seen a used Pro-ject Debut Carbon Evo for $465. Might that be a no-brainer? Though I wonder about buying used turntables if the entire point is for it to respond to the vibrations of micron level grooves, when parts wear or it hasn't been treated great, that ability must be affected. I have read of course about plenty of people being happy with their vintage turntables purchases. But I am skeptical of how well I can evaluate a used turntable in those 5 minutes when you go to see it.
How I'm thinking of hooking up the turntable. We have been listening to music on a Sonos Move for years. Recently, I found a pair of Edifier S1000db on marketplace which has reawakened my interest in better sound and stereo. My intention is to first get a turntable, with or without a built in phono, and hook that up to the Edifiers. I have a concurrent project of bettering our whole home audio. To that end, I am leaning toward making a raspberry pi, with an audio hat, into an Airplay 2 receiver to hook into the Edifiers. It looks like I should be able to stream to both the pi and the Move over Airplay 2 to get better sound spread around the house. From what I can tell, it looks like some of the pi hats from HiFiBerry will accept a phono line-in to then run the RIAA correction and then send out to the powered Edifiers. So, to start, I'm wondering if I can get away with using one of those pi-hats as the phone pre-amp. I also have a small SVS sub that I bought from a neighbor, it is powered and its only has an LFE input. I am hoping, but not sure if it could work, to run the Edifiers off of the digital output from the pi-hat and the sub off of one or both RCA outputs to get an Airplay 2 receiver 2.1. I'm not sure how that will all work and is maybe best addressed in one of the diyaudio subs. This would probably be located in our dining room which is in the middle of the house. It is about 14'x20'.
Assuming that initial plan works, the upgrade path would be better speakers, that I will probably want to make myself, which would need an amp so I would probably take the A/V Receiver route and move the turntable and the "better sound" to the living room and leave the pi-Airplay 2 receiver with the Edifiers in the dining room. And then run the TV through those speakers, maybe eventually running PC games through the receiver to the TV.
To end, I have been stuck, perseverating on this for a bit and I understand it is a bit of a stream of consciousness. I have gotten stuck wanting a good turntable that I won't regret and trying to figure out if it will fit in with the wider goals.
I don't post much on Reddit, but I will keep the thread open for a while to respond. I appreciate anyone that is willing to read all of that and offer their opinion. Thank you! If this is better posted in a diyaudio or the turntable sub, please let me know.