In the September 2020 isssue of the Absolute Sound a strong endorsement is made for the Technics 1500C, which at $1199 seems to fit the bill for you nicely. I believe any Technics TT is worth consideration. Thorens makes good TTs and I have owned a couple over the years, but must say that in my experience the Technics products (and in fact Japanese TTs in general) have proven to be more satisfactory.
With respect, I believe you should carefully reconsider your cartridge choice. From your description of the problem you had with the 2M Black it likely has at root the Shibata stylus. The Shibata is fussy about set up and the condition of record grooves. If all is not perfection itself, Shibatas are prone to be noisy. I use Shibata on mint condition records, older records and especially mono records are often better served with an elliptical stylus. If your new TT has a tonearm with removable head shell it would facilitate having more than one cartridge. Were I you I would probably buy an elliptical stylus mounted on an aluminum cantilever type cartridge. There are several good brands.
Believe me, sometimes less is more. I have two TTs side by side, one is a $15K item fitted with an $8K cartridge (stereo) and stepped up through an almost $6K SUT. Next to it is a $4K TT with an $8oo cartridge (mono) connected directly to the built in SUT in my phono stage. Depending on the record it is very possible for the less expensive rig to sound better than the more expensive rig. My point in telling you this is to advise you not to get hung up by labels or what other people are using or claiming is "the best" whatever that is supposed to mean. When you are playing a record, what matters is how well your needs are served. It is really all about the music.
Regards,
Bill
With respect, I believe you should carefully reconsider your cartridge choice. From your description of the problem you had with the 2M Black it likely has at root the Shibata stylus. The Shibata is fussy about set up and the condition of record grooves. If all is not perfection itself, Shibatas are prone to be noisy. I use Shibata on mint condition records, older records and especially mono records are often better served with an elliptical stylus. If your new TT has a tonearm with removable head shell it would facilitate having more than one cartridge. Were I you I would probably buy an elliptical stylus mounted on an aluminum cantilever type cartridge. There are several good brands.
Believe me, sometimes less is more. I have two TTs side by side, one is a $15K item fitted with an $8K cartridge (stereo) and stepped up through an almost $6K SUT. Next to it is a $4K TT with an $8oo cartridge (mono) connected directly to the built in SUT in my phono stage. Depending on the record it is very possible for the less expensive rig to sound better than the more expensive rig. My point in telling you this is to advise you not to get hung up by labels or what other people are using or claiming is "the best" whatever that is supposed to mean. When you are playing a record, what matters is how well your needs are served. It is really all about the music.
Regards,
Bill