Best Analog for $10K

I recently purchased a TT setup from a dealer in CA that has a fairly large inventory of a variety of turntable/accessories and manufacturers. I also liked their website in that it was easy to navigate. I spent a lot of time looking at different manufacturers and reading a lot professional and amateur reviews (HA! Not many bad reviews of anything out there!) It was a good way of, at least, becoming familiar with what’s out there. I was getting back into analog and critically listening to music for enjoyment once again after 25 years! I was into home theater for much of that time. Anyway, spent a lot of time looking at stuff and doing some reading. I enjoy the process!

If I were to make some suggestions: I wouldn’t select a system based on the size of your vinyl collection. There still so many pieces of vinyl out there on the market in good to excellent condition! There’s probably100 times that much sitting unused in peoples basements. I pulled that estimate out of the air; who really knows! When I bought my TT set up six months ago ($10,000) I only had 275 albums in my collection. I’ve acquired a few more since then and I have been pleased at the condition of vinyl out there. Have fun listening and getting new! I forgot how exciting it was to pick out an album and hurry home to listen to it! Check out discogs.com. It’s an online clearing-house comprised of buyers and sellers. Also I’ve had luck at the lady at the farmers market who specializes in vinyl, per say. She has a picker who buys the for her, and she puts them into boxes and lays them out. The only form of separation is condition. Trash goes out front and the rest in the back. You’re on your own after that!
I stop at garage sales and ask if they have any albums. Never have I seen albums as part of the sale. It’s amazing how many people have them sitting in their basement but never put them out or say, "I don’t have any but my father has a stack!". Sometimes it’s because they never thought of it or they want to keep them.
Anyway, I spent 10k on my set up and don’t regret it for a second. I am loving what I’m hearing.
Whatever you do, give the cartridge great consideration! Excluding the vinyl, the cartridge is where any and all sonic quality begins (it ends with your speakers).
I would try to get a 13K system for your $1k by taking advantage of dealer discounts and dealer discounts on discontinued items. I got a discontinued Soundsmith cartridge, that for years, retailed at $4K. The was selling them for $2k. I got a discontinued VPI turntable on sale and had the dealer swap out the existing tonearm (for a credit) and upgraded to a better tonearm (for an up-charge). I got the Manley Chinook phono-stage on sale. In addition, the dealer set-up the tonearm, mounted and aligned the cartridge.

I’m not sure if you can name dealers that you purchased equipment from, so I’ll refrain from doing so.

I’m in a similar situation you are as far as auditioning things. As a result, I didn’t audition any of my TT setup.

Whatever you get, I'm sure you'll love it!  Enjoy the ride!

You will continue to receive responses ad infinitum, because a $10K budget leaves a lot of room for a lot of optional choices. I personally won’t bother to bother you about my own personal preferences. I would only suggest that for your first high end rig, you might want to stay away from novelties, like the DS Audio cartridge. It may be excellent, but you would not be in a position to know that if you have never heard a conventional cartridge in your new system-to-be. You will be confused enough trying to choose among Moving Magnet (MM), Moving Iron (MI), and Moving Coil (MC) cartridge choices. Further, maybe you should save out about $2K for new LPs to expand your collection. Have fun.

Piccolo2 and Cornet3, best $1000 you will ever spend.  Add an upscale Rega and MC cart to round it out.  With money saved get some NOS tubes.   

A SOTA table is a great choice on that budget.

Dear @iamgoodwithtools :  Well important as is the hardware the software is more important and 200 LPs could does not makes " an analog experience ".

"""  Two things I do not want. One is to get on a spiraling upgrade path. The second is to avoid too much fiddling and tweaking and adjusting. """

Those just does not exist in analog, here does not exist " plug and play " not even over time because VTF, cartridges, VTA or AZ always needs to re-set or the choosed tonearm/cartridge alignment.

In the other side today digital technology already ouitperformed the best analog and digital will continue its growing up developments when analog already stopped many years ago and will stays in that way.

10K or 20K is not the issue, the issue is that digital beats analog no matter what.

Yes you want live the experience of analog and what you will get will be a different sound but certainly not a true better sound.

Could be better to use those 10K for up-grade your digital whiole rig and you will be more happy than using that money in analog.

Only an opinion but I know that the best opinion is yours.

Btw, I like analog and own over 7K LPs that can't beats digital not even the D2D recordings.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.