Need help on which budget turntable to buy for my son

Hello,I need some help on which turntable to buy for my son that will work well for sampling only. He has the Mpc renassiance and a Focusrite 18i20 interface using a PC. $150-$200 budget. I know nothing about turntables or recording music and I'm buying this as a surprise birthday gift. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

well... the issue is, in that price range... you might as well go to your local music shop (maybe where he got the mpc and interface) to see what they sell at that price.. perhaps even the best buy might have something. I think you will wind up only finding things like ion audio or numark type stuff .. maybe denon. They are all pretty much the same caliber.

Those wont be any good for scratching, they are the type you need to treat gently.. and the needles wont be high end, they will be pretty basic and entry level more for listening to music.

With the mpc ren your son has, he will be able to hook it right up to the back and use it just like that.

With your price range, I'd recommend Audio-Technica AT-LP120 with Audio Technica CN5625AL or AT95E cartridge.

I'd recommend NOT to use USB connection on AT-LP120, use PHONO OUT, not LINE OUT, connected to external phono preamp for the best sound quality out of it (preamp in the turntable is pretty noisy, and the DA converter is cheap too, so I’d just bypass it. Since MPC Ren has phono preamp build-in, I’d use Ren’s phono preamp.)

CN5625AL is pretty competent phono cartridge, and super cheap (about $20 on Amazon!) and it is durable enough for back cueing (in fact, DJ Q-Bert used to use it)

AT85E is better sounding cartridge, but I don’t think the stylus is suited for DJing.

Personally, I'd look for used turntable that were made in 80s' (they are generally better bulit), but you have to know what to look for.

My dude, I would recommend you go $50 higher & get the Audio Technica lp120. It will be all you ever need in the capacity you specified will last for years. there are a bunch of sellers here: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=c ... ca%20lp120
And here is a blemished one for $200: http://www.zzounds.com/item--AUTATPL120 ... haR8P8HAQ=
Here's a great review: http://djbooth.net/dj-equipment/review/ ... -turntable

JVC wrote:With your price range, I'd recommend Audio-Technica AT-LP120 with Audio Technica CN5625AL or AT95E cartridge.

I'd recommend NOT to use USB connection on AT-LP120, use PHONO OUT, not LINE OUT, connected to external phono preamp for the best sound quality out of it (preamp in the turntable is pretty noisy, and the DA converter is cheap too, so I’d just bypass it. Since MPC Ren has phono preamp build-in, I’d use Ren’s phono preamp.)

CN5625AL is pretty competent phono cartridge, and super cheap (about $20 on Amazon!) and it is durable enough for back cueing (in fact, DJ Q-Bert used to use it)

AT85E is better sounding cartridge, but I don’t think the stylus is less suited for DJing.

Personally, I'd look for used turntable that were made in 80s' (they are generally better bulit), but you have to know what to look for.

Sorry, I missed this post until after I hit submit, but I cosign all of it.

Thank you all for the advice it's really appreciated.