So many new TT's at lower price, still better off buying used?

Brand new gets you Dealer support and a warranty, plus you know the table's history.  Some people place value on having piece of mind.   

Buying used gives you more options. When Technics discontinued their more sophisticated turntables and kept the crude SL-1200mk2 and its successors, they sent audiophiles to their competitors. I wanted a Technics turntable with great sound quality, mechanical robustness and convenience features. One out of three isn’t good enough for me, so I couldn’t buy a SL-1200mk2 / m3d / etc...  they’re overkill for rap-“dj”s, but not even close for audiophiles. That’s why I searched for a SL-1700mk2 and restored it myself to brand-new condition with a few little enhancements. By my criteria, that turntable out-performs anything offered new from Technics, and many other high-end audiophile turntables. This is just one man’s story. Your expectations will dictate what your turntable needs to deliver to meet your criteria. 

turntables take time to learn, and being extremely mechanical, and electrical/motor components are involved...this almost triples the level of lore required to make a truly functional one.

Lots of dilettante mediocre stuff out there, is what it comes down to.

Most of it sounds quite good but could sound so much better if the mechanical lore was there from the beginning and also being correctly applied.

That’s the real pile one has to dig through. Tons of mediocrity and very little perfection. that is the part which takes time to learn.

And everyone learns at a different pace in different directions, so consensus will be weak. Very weak.

Thus, far too many mediocre turntables being lauded as excellent. For most of us, they are close enough as they exceed the best of digital in ways that are important to us.

If you read between the lines, I’m saying slow it down, as it’s gonna be a journey, and cannot be anything less than a journey, if you seek best for the money.

Turntables appear deceptively simple. ’Appear’ being the key part.

1500 gets you a darn good new turntable in the pro-ject the classic sb superpack with all the fixins....I own it and love it...probably my last major tt purchase. The real walnut is beautiful. It's a poor man's linn sondek....