You have landed on your feet here! The 1202 is the best of the 1200 range, being based upon the top of the range Beogram 3000.
Couple of notes:
1. Make sure the little pegs are in the correct holes - the outer ones are slightly longer than the inner ones. They can get mixed up after cleaning!
2. The best cartridge is the SP12 which suits the deck very well.
3. If your Sony does not have a dedicated Phono input, you need a RIAA. Lee at Lifestyle AV sells some suitable ones.
Welcome to Beoworld.
If I were looking to get a value amplifier to go with this, I wouldn't but would look for a Beomaster 3000 or even a 4400 which are ridiculously cheap at present! I like the sound of valve amplifiers but they sound all warm and pleasant because of the type of distortion that they produce! All amplifiers do have distortion but most valve amplifiers have more than most. Most of the valves are not actually audio products but produced for completely different purposes! And beware some devices that purport to be valve amplifiers but turn out to be almost completely solid state with a couple of valves whose only purpose is to light up!