Kent,

First of all a 200g vinyl is very high quality.  Second, don't fret about tossing away the old turntable, unless it was a good belt drive.

There are new, affordable turntables out there, with great audiophile quality provided a good cartridge is used.  I use a SOTA Moonbeam; I think it ran around 350$.  They're made in California, and the company makes many others, but the prices go up..this is one of the lower end models.  They are all BELT drive, which is essential for good analog sound reproduction.  There are many other makes of turntables these days with the audiophile in mind, and sky is the limit in terms of price.  I also use a record cleaning machine, which looks like a turntable itself.  You put a cleaning fluid on the disc, and a vaccum device sucks up the fluid, with all the debris, dust and grime, so the grooves are super clean.  No, it won't get rid of scratches, but the fidelity improves with the groove cleaning.  I still find that good vinyl recordings give excellent sound, and there is a "warmth" to analog, I don't find in digital.  Also, not all digital remixes sound better than the original analogs (older recordings).  Sometimes, I find the digital remix is not nearly as good.  I enjoy both formats..Digital for the convenience and the better sound/noise ratio, analog for preserving the warmth, flow of older recordings.

Now..I think I have another belt drive turntable in my closet, that I stopped using when I bought the SOTA.  I can check, but I recall it being in fine shape, and..most importantly, it's BELT drive.  You are welcome to it! 

Lemme Know,

Gene