I got one of those $100 6-in-1 wooden Victrola nostalgia boxes from Walmart about seven years ago and it's always been perfect. I'm not an audiophile by any means so a sound snob probably wouldn't like it, but I've run records, tapes and CDs on it every day for nearly a decade with no issues.

What kind of music do you listen to? In my experience, records produced after the 70's have a noticeable downgrade in general quality. Every new record I've ever bought skips right out of the store. Records older than the 70's seem to do fine, though. As much as I love records, I wouldn't recommend them to anyone listening to music from the 80's, 90's or later. Get a tape/CD player.

Never get a portable record player. It's a waste of money and it'll ruin your records.