A very brief comment:

My expectations were as low as possible when I went to the local Barnes and Noble branch, which now sells not only vinyl LP's but different brands of turntables, and bought a Crosley unit.

I didn't pay very much for it. I had a choice of two different models. I bought the one that was turntable only: no compact disc player, no cassette tape player, no radio receiver. It also had no USB. Just the basics.

The sound is not all that wonderful. But I now have something on which to listen to the Máire Ní Scolaí vinyl LP from 1971, acquired second-hand, from which only a handful of titles have been re-released on compact disc or uploaded to YouTube as a "video." And I can plug in my set of headphones, so that the neighbors in my apartment building have no clue what I'm up to. And that, for the moment, is all I need.