I would describe myself as a budget audiophile, I try to look for the best sound for the money without going broke. While I do have some expensive speakers and amp the rest is based on value for the buck that is why I bought the Denon Turntable. I have had it for two months and I will now write a review. I give this turntable 4 stars it is the best fully automatic turntable on the market. 4 stars because the turntable is hardwired instead of having RCA jacks so you can put on better quality cables The instructions on adjusting the tonearm are vague in one area, luckily there is an excellent U tube video that shows exactly how to set it up. I also purchased a scale to measure the tone arm weight this allowed me to measure what the actual weight, and it was .5 grams off of what the dial said on initial set up now its spot on. The cartridge that is standard has a Conical stylus, this rides high in the record grove and does not providing good high frequency response because it cant go down further in the grove. plus its harder on your vinyl, at the price point of this turntable the cartridge is the weakest point. I tossed it, and added a higher quality Grado Green with and Elliptical stylus. This is the only fully automatic turntable with a user replaceable cartage on the market, you can put on just about any one you can afford. All the other fully automatic turntable that I looked at did not have this feature so not worth the money as the cartridge is what produces the sound. I got rid of the rubber platter mat and exchanged it for a cork mat in order to reduce static and increase the sound quality which it did. I found out that both the phono preamps I had, the one built in my AV receiver (I am using my AV receiver as the preamp for a higher power amp in my system in order to drive 4 ohm electrostatic speakers.) and the one built in to the turntable did not supply a high enough output as I had to turn the volume up on the AV receiver to maximum to get it to a good listening level. I ended up purchasing a high gain phono preamp that increased the level from 40db to 60 db and it works perfect now. The turntable places the stylus on the record very smoothly no sodden drop, no wow or flutter or turntable rumbling. I cant comment on the sound as it would be discussing the upgraded cartridge and preamps sound.