3k to spend...

Sota Comet with 303 tonearm $1400.00
Croft Acoustics RIAA phono preamp (tube)$995.00
Grado Sonata mm cartridge $600.00
Total 2995.00,5 bucks under your budget,can't beat that!

I would go with the Well Tempered Labs/Dynavector combo.It looks to be the best value and highest performing of the other suggestions. IMO.

Sorry Yogiboy, IMHO,
Simplex over the Comet in a heartbeat.
17D3 over the a Sonata in another heartbeat.

Rega RP6 with exact 2 $1990
Clearaudio Basic plus $1000

Total $2990 for a hassle free good sounding setup. If you do not want to fiddle constantly with lost of arm adjustments or pre-amp settings then the Rega/Clearaudio set is great. Set and forget. Just listen.

Personally, I'd grab a restored table from Vinyl Nirvana fitted with a cart of Dave's recommendation (he knows the tables and the tonearms quite well and often offers discounts on new carts), then pick the preamp based on the output of the cart. You'll get a unique jewel – a handcrafted, one of a kind restoration –and you get to support a small business (and a good guy...I own one of his tables...he really is an artist).

He's got a gorgeous Thorens 160 refurb on his site now for just under 2K - add an Ortofon 2M Black and a Hagerman Cornet 3 (which sounds fantastic) and you'll squeak you in just under (or at) the wire.