Buying advice Turntable without snake oil

[Robin L]

Robin L's photo the Dual looks like it has a flip-over stylus. That would indicate a ceramic cartridge. A "'modern" magnetic cartridge will give you much better sound, but perhaps not the "vintage sound" you're looking for. Ceramic cartridges have higher output (into a very-high impedance) and frequency response that roughly approximates RIAA EQ so they don't need a phono preamp. Tubes are "naturally" high-impedance so it was easy to have a compatible input in the tube days. (The ceramic cartridge won't work with anything "modern".)

I found this about ceramic cartridges:

I've made a number of transfers of 78s using a simple BSR turntable with a ceramic cartridge with a flip-over stylus. Could just plug the turntable straight into a cassette deck and get the right EQ. The way the cassette deck filtered out the treble on peak levels helped as well.

 

[JeffS7444]

AT91 at 2g sounds a lot clearer than the rather-soft-toned 3600L 3g tracker (in my experience they're patently NOT the same as some have indicated!!!)

I've found nothing to suggest that AT91 and AT3600 are significantly different, but I think current offering as the latter.

AT3600L with gray stylus housing is most common, "L" appears to denote Low Compliance.
AT3600 with red stylus housing (which is what I bought) tracks at around 2 grams.

Both have carbon fiber cantilever + bonded conical stylus.

 

[JeffS7444]

Portable turntables can be fun too! Headache Sound's Omni and the newer Korg Handytraxx models look great, but cost more than I wanted to spend. So I built my own, based upon a secondhand Numark turntable, with 3D-printed parts of my own design, AT3600 cartridge, and phono preamplifier from Jesse Dean Designs. Tracks very well at around 2.25 grams.

 

[DSJR]

I've found nothing to suggest that AT91 and AT3600 are significantly different, but I think current offering as the latter.

AT3600L with gray stylus housing is most common, "L" appears to denote Low Compliance.
AT3600 with red stylus housing (which is what I bought) tracks at around 2 grams.

Both have carbon fiber cantilever + bonded conical stylus.

We had an aluminium cantilever version called the AT91R with red stylus housing. I think it's gone now, the replacement effectively being the VM95C.

Over the decades, I simply found the 3600L rather bland and a bit dull. Maybe these memories are wrong (our cheapie was always the AT95E which we bought in OEM 'egg-trays' rather than boxed) and of course, AT have had some decades to tweak or 'improve' it

 

[dav0043]

Arguments about digital vs analog are perpetual and personal. If looking for a vinyl rig, ignore them. In my experience the table should be accurate & quiet. For your budget, direct drive has more rumble than belt drive, in my experience, although I have not used the latest models. For a cartridge, get whatever AT microline is in your budget (e.g. AT540ML). You can't go wrong there. As a general rule of thumb, if the turntable has plastic on the base, platter or tonearm, pass. Phono stages are all over the place. Pick one of Amir's recommended ones and you'll do just fine. Especially those that have balanced SNR between channels and good conformity to RIAA. Save some budget for a record cleaning system (preference to vacuum if affordable). Does wonders for most records.