I very much like the U-turn turntables for a budget vinyl setup. A couple of upgrades are very much recommended over the bone stock offering (especially the tonearm lift, which makes the base price $220), but if all you have is $180, you can do much worse. The only caveat is the unipivot arm which for some users is a bit finicky to use, although it's not difficult to get used to with a bit of practice.
For a nicely configured setup, the "sweet spot", choose "custom" and select the tonearm lift and the Ortofon 2M Red for $294
The acrylic platter is also a nice option (with above, $369) and the Pluto phono preamp is by all accounts excellent (won a shootout at Stereophile against some slightly more expensive competition) for a total of $458, but those can be added later if necessary. The built-in phono preamp option is also worth considering, for a small savings over the standalone unit ... the same circuit in both.
You may also consider just buying a cartridge from elsewhere and keep the budget included Audio-Technica for a spare, as the additional cost for the Ortofon is $75, pretty close to the street price of $99 retail.
An excellent alternative cartridge to the Ortofon Red would be the Nakaoga MP-110 or Sumiko Pearl, both about $120.00, or the sleeper bargain Tonar 555 (made by Nakooga, and once sold by them as Nakaoga 555) for about $145.00. One thing about a unipivot tonearm is they are top shelf trackers so any good cartridge will be at it's budget best.
I've shopped at Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor both in person and online (Minneapolis MN) and another online vendor for cartridges and styli is LPGear (whom I've never dealt with but come well recommended by others).
