Happy to share!
I went in hoping to go used with my amplifier and speakers, but found a deal on speakers that beat anything I could find on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Craigslist, etc...
-
Turntable (new, but on sale ~33% off from Audio Advisor): Pro-Ject Essential III SB (
https://pro-jectusa.com/product/essential-iii-sb/). I was going to go one level up with a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon, but decided the automatic speed change was more important given my collection of 45s & 33 1/3s and the hassle that would have came with manually changing the belt speed.
-
Integrated Amplifier (found on Facebook Marketplace for ~$100): Marantz PM5005 (
https://www.marantz.com/en-us/product/hi-fi-components/pm5005). Frankly, this was an absolute steal. This model is a bit dated for a newer Marantz amp, but it's still going for $500-$650 online.
-
Speakers (40-50% off on Klipsch's website): Klipsch R-51M (
https://www.klipsch.com/products/r-51m-bookshelf-speaker). They sound great, but I do prefer the look of the RP-500M (
https://www.klipsch.com/products/rp-500m-bookshelf-speaker).
On top of that, the other things I added were mostly accessories (e.g., basic record cleaning kit, anti-static brush, LP holder from Etsy (
https://www.etsy.com/listing/505086585/beautiful-lp-holder-1-5lp-record-stand), cork slipmat from Etsy (
https://www.etsy.com/listing/548640854/premium-turntable-slipmat-by-tazstudio), speaker wire, banana plugs, and once my new puppy is well-behaved, a Mathmos lava lamp (
https://www.mathmos.com/mathmos-telstar-rocket-shaped-lava-lamp-3021-0.html#yellow-red)).
If you are a Redditor, the subreddit /r/BudgetAudiophile was immensely helpful to help get support on the mix & match process, alongside even more "simple" things. For instance, this was my first exposure to speaker wire and banana plugs.
.
As far as how this combination sounds, my ears aren't fine-tuned enough to notice the quality difference between my audiophile set-up and something that is 10-20x the cost of what I put in, but it is certainly lightyears ahead of any basic speaker system I owned previously. I have a decent blend of genres in my collection. The best sounding records are rock & roll (e.g., The White Stripes, Alabama Shakes, Gary Clark, Jr.), but the speakers have enough bass to them to bring hip-hop to life (e.g., Outkast, The Notorious B.I.G.), and don't bring down the quality of anything in between (e.g., Amy Winehouse, Arlo Parks, The Avett Brothers, Kacey Musgraves, Sturgill Simpson).
Outside of that, I've mostly been building up my record collection. I'm trying to find them "in the wild," though I have caved on a few on Discogs.
