Help me pick a phono, pre and cart

Thanks all- very sincerely! The question that plagues my mind is where and how I can audition these different preamps and turntables, or more importantly combinations of same - and at the same time separate the differences in the carts or other gear the dealers have.  With other gear, I have been working with Johnny Rutan at Audio connection. He sells VPI and Basis. I haven’t talked to him yet about turntables, but from what I’ve seen the Basis units are out of my price range. Another local dealer sells Clear Audio and Pro-Ject but I’d rather not give him my money (bad history). Ultimately,  it seems that I need to just make a decision that leaves me with modification options in the future. 
Since the major difference between the Technics and VPI seems to be belt vs Direct drive, perhaps that’s the area I need to concentrate on as far as my listening preference.
Interestingly, Technics own website states that DD was/is mainly considered for DJ use, while belt drive was for “Hi- Fi” use. 
I guess I’ll just have to find some different dealers and audition different turntables. Still I  don’t know how I will differentiate it does sound quality between turn tables versus other gear that the dealers use.Uggh.

@jetson

Technics own website states that DD was/is mainly considered for DJ use, while belt drive was for “Hi- Fi” use.

That’s not true, historically Technics SL1200 is a japanese hi-fi component than later became an iconic turntable for DJs worldwide. First DJs started with Thorens TD125 and even with Garrard turntables. EMT was a professional turntable too. As you might know that Technics supplied SP-10mkII and EPA-100 tonearms for Radio Stations in the 70’s, at that day DJ equipment was way different from todays junk.

Dear @sbank : Please can you attest  if what i listened at your place were a phonolinepreamp and a pair of monoblocks by Atmasphere manufacture you owned in your audio system?

Sorry to disturb you about, thank's in advance. Appreciated.

R.

You're talking about the new tubes, not the expensive vintage NOS tubes that are by far superior to the any new tube. 12at7 is what you use? The very best of this type can be $50-150 each. Same with phono stages. The NOS tubes are extremely expensive if they are good. New tubes are not equal to the old tubes from the 50s,60s and even 70s. The owner of the tube gear will spend a fortune on the tubes.

@chakster 

Yes- new tubes. We don't recommend NOS tubes for either the output tubes or the phono tubes. In the case of the latter, its just too hard to find NOS tubes that are actually in fact quiet- those were sold off the shelves decades ago and all that are left now are the dregs unless someone got extremely lucky. So we don't recommend NOS tubes for our phono sections- we encourage people to use new tubes if they want the best noise floor and lowest microphonics.

does Ralph have a stand alone phono pre ?

@tomic601 We don't- we feel that a stand alone can't sound as good due to the cable connection problems and further, we have what seem to be the best line stage circuits anywhere owing to their unique direct-coupled outputs- they play bass better than other preamps (tube or solid state) and are fast in the mids and highs like solid state but without the glare.
We've considered a phono section many times, the problem is that to get around the interconnect connection issues we have to put in the circuitry that is in the output buffer of our preamps. The problem there is that the buffer (which is used to prevent the interconnect cable from having any effect on the sound at all, regardless of length or cost) has a slight gain loss, so when we add that, then its the same circuit we're making in our full function preamps! So literally the difference would be a phono section that was all the same circuit as we make now, only missing the input selector switches and volume control.

I've always been into vinyl- our preamps were built to optimize phono playback.

Modwright has a new tube phonostage PH 9.0 coming out soon. I will be a beta tester and will be comparing it to a Rogue Audio Ares Magnum (another good tube phono pre). The 9.0 has the controls on the front it uses 6922/6C45 tubes versus the 12AX7/12AU7 in the Ares. The ART9 is a great cartridge also can recommend the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze.