The Essential Phono USB turntable is well made and adds the MM phono stage, stepping up the output for those amplifiers that have no Phono input. It also has USB output, so you can copy your LPs to your computer more easily. In the old days, and to some degree still today, there were turntables with thin, lightweight plastic shells for plinths, rudimentary platters and arms, and pickup cartridges of a basic type. We would prefer that vinyl not be judged by the results from those ones, which was certainly enough to drive people into CD! For us the Project Essential is where you should start off (if not higher) to get a good result from vinyl. What does it offer? A solid plinth, heavy metal plateer with non-reseonant sub-platter, an isolated motor driving by belt, and an arm that is a properly constructed one-piece metal tube with tracking weight adjustment and an antiskate weight. To top it off there's a fitted Moving Magnet cartridge, so with a bit of basic assembly it's ready to go.