So, here the deal with "phono stages".
They are necessary. Historically, receivers (integrated amps, with FM/AM tuners) and integrated amps (receivers without tuners) had a channel labeled "phono" that had a phono pre-amp installed. Plug a turntable in and go. True audiophiles may have opted for separate components anyway, not sure, but if you buy a vintage amp, you'll likely have an active phono stage, so you don't "need" the turntable one. However, they don't always sound as good as a simple external stage like the base model (~$80) Pro-ject. I chose my 80s NAD largely because the phono stage sounded so much better than those on other vintage receivers I demoed, but a few months ago I tried the aforementioned Pro-ject stage with it and it sounded much better. Audiophiles will spend >$1,000 on a phono pre-amp anyway. Really good ones can be in the $400-600 range. In my limited experience with external phono stages, $100 is about enough unless your whole system is top-shelf.
SOME modern Integrated Amps include good stages, if you're looking at things like Rega Brio or the new Marantz stuff, you can probably avoid having an external stage.
But, because not all new amps come with stages, you're seeing that some turntables (usually lower to mid-range ones) come with a stage included. This might be a good deal if the included stage is a good one, but you should research or demo. Having a stage either external or with the turntable also enables you to skip the IA and go straight to a computer or powered speakers, but you're not going to approach "audiophile" that way. I don't have experience with modern powered speakers, but they might be worth looking into if not having an amp or receiver appeals to you. I'm not sure what you'll find, because I didn't go that way.
I'm happy to help you shop vintage or even fairly modern used, if it helps. I just bought a used Creek Audio integrated amp, that is pretty fantastic. The phono stage was an option that wasn't chosen by whoever owned it originally, which is why I briefly had 2 different external stages, but Creek had the internal card in inventory and sold it to me for cheap, I installed it myself XMas eve and it sounds great. The external stage that I had is going on eBay, because I like the internal stage at least as much and it's one fewer wall wart and set of RCA cables + one fewer thing to fail in my signal chain (same way I feel on a gig about boxes and pre-amps in fact).
I replaced my 70s Philips turntable with a new Rega P3, which I managed to get a deal on during relative quarantine when I put a premium on listening to music at home. The Philips turntable with a Grado cart made me really happy for a long time, but eventually the 45 year old plastic parts wore out.
I think that the Pro-Ject EVO Carbon is a nice turntable for the price ($500-600). I also really like the designs of Fluance, which is a Canadian company that I would check out. I haven't laid hands or ears on one, though, so take that for what it's worth. The thing with reviews on turntables in this pricerange is that they always give way to "but, if you spend $xxx more, then you'll be so much happier". Even with my Rega, which is more than I ever wanted to spend, even with my deal, reviews are the same. I can find people on-line who insist that they need another $1,000 in upgrades to be passable. There are $10,000 Rega turntables and there are some good brands in that range like VPI, but those were insanely out of reach for me. That's what "audiophiles" chase, though.
For me, I would have been okay, most likely spending a few hundred less on a turntable and though my Creek sounds objectively better than the vintage NAD that it replaced, it's marginal and I loved that thing. It had become unreliable, but I spend ~$250 on it 12 years ago and was blissfully happy with it until last year when it started acting up.
You're really going to have to think about:
- What kind of system do you want? Simple and minimalist? Component scalable?
- What will your sources be? My system approach is/was vinyl first, but I do play CDs, and I use it to play audio/video from my PC for things like Netflix and sound clips that you guys upload comparing strings and more and more, streaming things like Spotify, which is growing on me.
- Are you a headphone guy? That can be a factor as well. My Creek doesn't have a headphone output, but they do make external ones.
- If you keep soliciting audiophile advice, sooner or later, someone's going to say "the room is part of the system" and they'll be right. Having an amazing system in a bad space is not effective. You've got to consider the weakest piece of your system, including your environment and then piece together the best components to accomplish your goal without overspending on something that will not perform at a distinguishing level based on the limitation somewhere else in your system. (ever play on a bad stage/in a bad room?)
What I can tell you is that I LOVE what I'm hearing coming out of my speakers right now and I can hear bass in ways that I have only ever heard when I was playing or listening to someone play live. For another $30-50k I could probably get 90% the rest of the way, but it makes no sense to chase that unless you're stuffing your pillows with money, which most of us or not. I think that putting a good system together for under a grand is possible and for 2x that you'd be in a stage of audio-bliss that you never really knew was possible at home.
You can certainly find a way to play your old records for far less than that, but you said "audiophile".
