Hated my Pro-Ject Debut III looking for another budget option. Kind of thinking Thorens

Hi,
I finally got rid of my Pro-ject debut III and I am looking for another budget.   The ultimate deal breaker for me was that it was crazy noisy, loud hum,  also would generate a ton of static a couple of minutes into playing a record.  I always use an anti static brush,  and I started using an antistatic gun from work but the problem always continued. 

Lifting the plate up to change speeds was also way more annoying than I expected, and I listened to less of my 7" records because of this.   that fishing line counter weight was so corny,  for something that cost almost 500.00 USD I think Pro-ject could try a little harder (also has anyone ever had the knot come undone, took me over an hour to rethread the weight)  its like they finished designing this thing on a friday before a 3 day weekend. 

I am looking to get another turntable in that price range.  I can get a Thorens TD-170 next time I am visiting my in-laws in Germany for 380.00 USD and swap out the power supply for the US.   I like the idea of a built in phono stage so I can run line level straight into my passive volume control in then into my amp for even lower noise. 

Any suggestions?   people seem to say great things about the decked out U-turn but other than being less expensive at its core looks like the same thing as the debut III/carbon,  Music Hall,  entry level rega,  etc  

Also to note a lot of my records are relatively rare and have never been re-issued or released so I am not always listening to perfect 180 gram virgin vinyl. 

Any suggestions would be welcome.  Thank you,