I have the debut carbon going into the Marantz PM6005, and it sounds great. I haven't done any upgrades yet, but there are several prescribed paths to take with platter and speed box as two ready options. It is fairly idiot-proof with the hard stuff installed already in the box, and the 2M Red cartridge plays good music.

Given the quality of the rest of your system, I think you would be selling yourself short by going with such a cheap turntable.

I would strongly recommend the Music Hall MMF-2.2, which is a very good turntable for a modest price.

I hope you can make your budget stretch to accommodate it.

It is good enough that you can eventually upgrade to a very good cartridge, and have an even better system.

But as I understand it, the Pro-Ject Speedbox will work with the carbon, but not any of the cheaper tables, and aside from a better power supply, the Speedbox allows you to change speeds with a button press. Lifting off the platter to move the belt is a minor inconvenience, but when you have already put on a anew record (and maybe it is new, and not marked as a 45), it can be annoying. I can say the extension into bass and treble is a breath of fresh air with the carbon. Makes me wonder how much is just the cartridge...