hiwattnick

I would go for a Technics direct drive. It doesn't have to be a SL1200 because they're getting pretty expensive. But there's other like the SL1700 & so on. I'd check ebay and get familiar with the Technics direct drives. Any of them are good really. Especially for a beginner. I've got a Technics SL 1200M3D & love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. They're also easily moddable so you can upgrade them. I hope that helps.