First of all, why do you want turntables?
Second, it’s a dying breed, even in clubs. Why invest in getting a set at home?
Three, if there was a way to buy the club standard (which really doesn’t exist beyond the old SL1200s) for less money, don’t you think the clubs would be buying them at that price too?
While in some way CDJ type players have varying functions and might have buttons in different places, transitioning from one kind of CDJ to another requires no more than a few minutes for an experienced DJ.
With vinyl however, there is absolutely NO rocket science whatsoever. If you know how one works, you know how all the others work. Period. There is no standard vs flagship vs … whatever.
The only TT that will survive in club use is a direct-drive one (this means without a belt). So they are exchangeable entities. If you get a beltdrive, it will be non-direct, if you get a direct drive it will be belt-less.
There is no LEARNING a difference between belt and direct drive TTs. The belt ones just have too much drawbacks to be used seriously by DJs.
Finally, if you are too tight for money and want to get into TTs on a budget, keep in mind that buying the TTs over the lifetime of a TT is by far the lowest amount of money you’ll be spending. Count on buying lots of needles and timecode vinyls each year at substantial cost. And if you want to play real vinyl tracks, add a significant lump of cash for those.
Back to my original question, why would anybody want to start to learn TTs in almost 2015? I can think of a few reasons SOME people might find a good answer to that question, but they will be farther along the path than you seem to be, based on the questions you ask.
Hope this helps some.
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