Best Analog for $10K

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.

rauliruegas"the issue is that digital beats analog no matter what."

Actually this has been clearly shown, demonstrated, and revealed to be completely, totally, and without reservation false and inaccurate it reflects a profound misunderstanding of the nature of analog and digital processes and implementations and in particular there are analog tape technologies that will wipe away any advantage that digital may have at its fundamental core and basis but if all analog is to you is a cutrate turntable and homemade tonearm then it is likely to lead you to this conclusion that is erroneous in nature and claim.