I have to replace a turntable because the one in my office was damaged during a break-in a couple of weeks ago. The young thugs who were stealing the stereo dropped the turntable on it's head, obviously not requiring the obsolete device. In the end they left the stereo behind, because a neighbor interrupted them (thank goodness!). The turntable works, but I don't trust it to continue to work, or to be up to it's old self. It wasn't a particularly expensive one, and this weekend I picked up an inexpensive Sony (the place carries only two of them, and truth be told, I have another, much better older one in the other room). I had to chuckle, when the sales guy was so ernest in cautioning me that (as he pointed to a receiver button in the store shelf) "Your receiver has to have a button for Phono." From his expression, I thought he was going to tell me something serious, like it was going to need a different type of plug now or maybe a critical tip for wiring speakers.

SRS