[ext23]

hey all,
 
i am a modest hi-fi enthusiast, not good with any of the technical aspects but i think i have a pretty clear idea of what i want. my brother is the audio/technophile of the family and he built me a pretty rockin' custom cmoy amp which he swears would sound better than just about any other home-made amp owing to some vintage components he sourced from hard rubbish collections.
 
my headphones of choice are my grado sr225s. probably won't be upgrading them or the amp any time soon. also i don't really plan to use the turntable with speakers, at least not for the time being.
 
i've never had ANY experience with turntables. i just want to get acquainted with the 'vintage' sound and the experience of listening to vinyl. it requires a certain investment of time and patience and encourages serious music listening and enjoyment much more than the digital/ipod/mashup age, where we flick through songs every 30 seconds..but that's another topic altogether!
 
although i'm in japan now i'll be buying in australia and i'm happy to spend up to $300 for some nice kit. like i said i already have the headphones and amp (and some vinyl...not nearly enough, but some!) so i need everything else.
 
i'm happy to buy second-hand and/or online if head-fi users vouch for that particular brand/model. as far as sound goes...i mostly listen to rock (or some derivative of rock), but i do listen to almost every other genre. with the vinyl, i want to start listening to more vintage rock (60s-70s beat/mod/punk/rockabilly/folk), jazz and vocal jazz (including but not limited to miles and ella), as well as well-produced electronic albums (such as air, cut copy, etc). anything that suits these genres AND would pair well with my headphones would be a plus!
 
please recommend models that fall into this price range and good places to buy within australia, or places that can deliver to me in australia without breaking the bank! like i said i'm a bit of a n00b so please go easy, let me know if there is any other info you need.

 

[Uncle Erik]

For $300, go vintage. There's a good thread here about vintage decks. You might be able to find a used Technics SL1200 in your budget, even. It's a good deck.

Your brother sounds like a good egg! If he isn't playing with vacuum tubes yet, spend some time persuading him.

 

[ext23]

if i was getting something in good condition that i wouldn't need to upgrade for a while, i could probably spend a little more than $300. i believe i need some kind of pre-amp too, right? would my $300 be able to cover that too?
 
i've heard the technics model talked about on here before. a quick ebay search didn't give me many results, are there any other good sites for this kind of thing?

 

[falis]

Maybe audiogon?