Good Turntable between $300-$400

My mom's looking for a good turntable between $300-$400 to play old lps, I've been out of the turntable market for so long I wouldn't know where to start.

Any specific models that have great sound quality, easy to use, and most important easy to set up?

Looking at http://www.crutchfield.com/p_033DP300F/Denon-DP-300F.html?search=turntables&ssi=0 would this be decent?

I can't really help with a good turntable as I haven't bought one in almost 30 years.

However I am thinking about buying a USB turntable and dumping my LPs to digital. Parts Express carries an Audio-Technica turntable for under $150. It also provides Line and Phono level analog outputs. The specs look OK and it gets good reviews but I don't have any first hand experience.

If I get one for Christmas I'll post an evaluation.

Good choice Countryboy. Looks like a good machine. Maybe Mom will let you borrow it. It has a built in phono preamp which makes it easy to connect to almost any kinda of receiver or pre-pro. It is full auto capable and comes with a cartridge which can be replaced if needed. What more can you ask for.

I bought this Sony a year ago and have been pretty happy with it. It is belt driven and has a strobe and a slider on the right side to adjust the speed. I'm going to replace the cartridge that came with it in the near future but it has been adequate so far. It does not have a preamp like the Denon so keep that in mind. It is only $200 (maybe less if you shop around) so you could upgrade to a very nice cartridge and stay within your budget. From my analog days I was told to spend my money on speakers then the phono cartridge to get the best sound for the money. I think that advice is still true today.

Music hall might be another option... that is if they are still in bussiness. Not sure if they are or not. If so they should have some good options for you to take a closer look at.

Looks like they are still hagin in there. Found a link to their home page here

http://www.musichallaudio.com/

I just picked up a Music Hall MMF 2.2LE turntable for $299 on Audiogon. I've only spun it for a couple hours so far, but I'm really quite happy with it so far.

The Pro-ject Debut III is a very similar table that retails for $349 and would be a good choice for the original poster's use.

I had the Gemini TT-USB1100, stay away from this. The motor fluctuates in its RPMs...my music was dipping in pitch by nearly a 3rd at some points. I got the same model from Numark and its getting the job done. Simple, but effective.

Missed this thread back in Nov and Dec. My guess is that countryboy has already chosen a deck for his Mom, but if not I'd probably steer away from the Pro-Ject Debut III. Yes, I own one and think it's fantastic, but unless you also purchase a Pro-Ject Speed Box device that allows you to change the speed from 33 1/3 to 45rpm by simply pressing a button, there's one small caveat: Going from LPs to 45s requires you to manually remove the Debut III's platter and do some fiddling with the belt each time. It's not a difficult operation, but if his Mom is anything like mine, it's probably a bit more challenging than she's willing to deal with. Just thought I'd share…

That speed change is just like my AR XA. Kind of like gear changes on a bike except there's no derailleur.

That AR will be 48 years old this year and it still runs fine - maybe I'm afraid to compare it to one of the newer models.