[William Noble]

when I had this issue, I made a tone arm lifter - I used an optical
interrupter to detect when the arm was in the end grooves, and a very small
28V solenoid and a thin wire to lift the tone arm - worked well, cost about
$1 to build plus a couple of hours of messing around.

If you want an automatic TT, I have been very happy with the Dual 1019 and
1229 - there is a little more friction in the arm than in a full manual arm
(SME III and the ilk) but it is a find TT and you will be happy with it -
they are on ebay for $50 to $200.

"bone" wrote in message
...
I am pretty low end for this group, but I have a Rega Planar 2 with a
couple upgrades and I have come to realize that where I live is far
too noisy to be worth the hassle of having to lift the platter up and
move a belt every time I want to play a record of a different speed.

Also I end up leaving the needle spinning in the exit groove for hours
sometimes as I do listen to music while I'm cooking/cleaning/on the
net and not seated in my comfy chair equidistant from my speakers
turned slightly in sometimes.

What would be the best (short list) automatic turntable I can buy for
$500 and under?
I am open to other suggestions as well.