how much should I spend to get a better turntable than my current turntable?

@grislybutter, u mention pro-ject. you already had one, i beleive. i htink those musical hall tables are rebranded pro-ject. the evo is a junk table with a nice cartridge. youve already been thru this once. 

If the OP bought his MH from a local dealer they owe it to him to make his lemon right. I work for a Pro-Ject dealer and we handle cases like this when they come up. Pro-Ject models below $500.00 may be regarded by some audio snobs as junk, but all of them have very decent arm bearings with little play and low friction, and use quality leads and replaceable output cables. The Fluance table I have seen had lots of play in its bearings and Rega Planar 2 output cables are captive and utterly ordinary. For the OP I would suggest he take a look at the X-1, or take the DD route and go Pioneer. 

@grislybutter Sorry you had a bad experience with the Music Fidelity MMF 2.2, I am having a good experience with a used MMF 5.3. However, I purchased from an online retailer that set it up properly. You may want to make a trip to a dealer or find someone locally who can properly set up whatever you purchase, if you don’t buy new, from the factory. I dropped $1,100 on the used MMF gear plus another $400 or so to upgrade to a decent hi-output moving-coil cartridge. Before that, I had attempted to get two used DJ tables operational but never managed to eliminate hum emanating from an unshielded transformer. I finally solved the setup problems I was having with the MMF purchase. Cartridge setup and turntable maintenance is not for the faint of heart.

just my $0.02.

Should have bought the mmf-7.3 to begin with....a fabulous sounding turntable as is....

Perhaps take a look at the VPI, Rega or Clearaudio ranges of turntables to find your price/budget point. Then you can begin your search for a cartridge!