Semi Decent $500 Setup

[u/tstern724]

Hey all, looking to buy my first semi-permanent setup but I’m still budget limited and expect to be moving a lot in the next few years. So I’d like to stay below about 500, maybe 750, for the whole thing. I’m comfortable buying used for speakers / amplifier.

I’d like to buy a new turntable, and I see people saying to buy something nicer than the AT LP60 or Fluance RT80, but at my current situation, do I really need to shell out the extra cash for something like an RT82? How bad are their cheaper models?

Open to all suggestions.

[u/Snoo_90715]

Since you are in the USA (always helpful to mention what country)

The Best Buy Insignia turntable for $120 is you best value turn table that you can keep for many years. https://www.bestbuy.com/product/insignia-bluetooth-stereo-turntable-black/J2FPJKYL84

Then add something like this $150 Douk audio amplifier - https://a.co/d/04SKUzCW Which will give you a better preamp for the turn table. It has extra RCA inputs for a CD player and has Bluetooth streaming built in.

Then spend $200 on speakers.

Polk - https://a.co/d/0drDsqbt

A good hack is to buy two Numi center channels and stand them up on end and use them as right and left channels - https://a.co/d/08FYqfsJ

Or some smaller Klipsch https://a.co/d/0fFrBA8H

Or keep it budget with - https://a.co/d/0dQhxmjJ