Wow I listened to my old AR ES1 last night

If you like a "lush" sound go with a VPI 19Mk whatever or an Aries basic and slowly but surely do the upgrade path.Got a Loaded Aires extended w/a 12.5 (yeah thos edeals are out there) for $2500 and it ROCKS (or jazz's as my case would be).Now I can upgrade my Grado Sonata when ready and add an SDS controler.Fremer speaks highly of this Final Tool and it looks spec and build wise like a winner for $2K.Like the idea of multiple arms as instead of swapping arm tube you could have a seperate cheaper arm for trashed recods or another witha mono cartridge mounted (believe me mono records sound better with a mono cart-more important than having a mono switch on pre-amp).

Look for George Merrill, Underground Sound, he used to hot rod/modify the AR tables... you might save yourself $$$ and end up with a KILLER analog front end.

Well, it depends on what you mean by improvement. A Well Tempered Classic can be had (used) for around $700 and it will put to shame just about anything short of the big buck turntables. If you want a serious improvement, you'd have to consider a VPI Aries or a Basis 2001... I'd just as well spend the difference on buying records. I have a WTT and a VPI TNT 2.5. Yes the TNT is better but I can listen to the WTT without fell like I'm missing out.

I dropped a wad of money on Basis 2001, Van Den Hull Frog, modified Rega RB300, and Sonic Frontiers Phono One. This system kills my old AR/ES-1 in terms of detail, soundstage, etc, and it demonstrates the superiority of analog over cd to new-bees, BUT.....

my old AR/ES-1 with stock arm and a simple MM cartridge (Rega) sounds WONDERFUL. It sounds rich and beautiful and certainly has enough detail for me to enjoy the music.

I don't regret my purchase - my system is awesome - but I can tell you that if I had to live forever with that AR/ES-1, I'd be happy too.

Art

Take a look at the Teres turntables at www.teresaudio.com
They are great sounding tables in the price range you are looking for.