I need some turntable guidance

daveyf, the LP12 is way overdue for extinction and there is no way to upgrade it to make even remotely competitive it is so poorly engineered.
The SME, SOTA and Basis turntable are all excellently engineered suspended tables and so much better than the LP12 it boggles the mind why anyone would want one. It was not even a good table in it's day. It was just one of the only 1/2 decent turntables available then. It's like the Garrards. There are a mess of cheap ones around used so everyone is twisting a screw here and there then waxing about how much better the table sounds. When I was young I bought a used TD 124. It was a boat anchor and reliable. It also rumbled like an express train. I had no illusions that it was magically going to get better regardless of what I did to it. But it was all I could afford and it served it's purpose. The problem for these turntables now is that there are so many decent inexpensive tables out there now that outperform them. 

@mijostyn Kirk (RIP, BTW) at SOTA offered to set up my Series III for anything during the upgrade he performed several years ago and noted arm mass was no longer a consideration with the Series V suspension I had him install.  If I read the website correctly,  they're now on Series VI. I know my Phantom Supreme is no lightweight in any event and it works very well indeed. My preference is toward crisp with flat frequency response so I generally prefer DV.  The OP has speakers that may not be favorable for that balance depending on his preference, and Koetsu could be more appropriate. Ortofon is another option too.  As noted, this is a hobby and having fun is key.  That can often be found in the journey itself.  My two cents anyway. Enjoy the ride!

Noromance, you have your system set up the way you want to hear it. It is what you are use too. On top of that audio memory is very short. On top of that we hear what we want to hear. So, I am afraid that kind of comparison has no validity. Hook your turntable up to an oscilloscope and measure the rumble. It will be much higher than any belt driven turntable 
that has an undamaged bearing. I never mentioned anything about sound. I only talked about rumble. There are four additional hard contact points in an idler wheel turntable. The motor bearing, capstan to idler wheel, the idler wheel bearing then idler wheel to platter. Each one is a source of noise. Idler wheel turntables are dinosaurs. Radio and DJ use has been transferred to the much better direct drive turntables but for audiophile use the belt drive reins. It keeps the motor as far away from the cartridge as possible and has no hard contact points between the motor and platter so you are only dealing with the noise of one bearing.
Effischer, I did not know that Kirk had passed. RIP. I was talking about the effective mass of the tonearm in relation to the cartridge. The absolute mass of the tonearm is critical to a suspended turntable which is why the SOTA's  compensate with lead shot added to the well under the tonearm board. You can compensate to a large degree but there are some arms like the 4 Point 11 that are simply too heavy to mount on a SOTA. You run out of lead shot to remove. I use my Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum on a 4 Point 14 and I get a resonance frequency of 8 Hz. You could add mass to the head shell of a lighter tone arm to get the desired resonance frequency but then you would lower the resonance frequency of the suspension. You would have to remove the arm board and remove lead shot. There is some lee way in the resonance frequency of the suspension so you can play around a bit without getting into trouble. 
Anyway the point is to make the music sound better and avoid situations that would interfere with the enjoyment of same. 
Enjoy the music!

@mijostyn. Your post above needs something added to it....these letters: IMHO.

let me ask you, when was the last time you heard a Klimax level LP12? Or, when was the last time you heard any Linn table...
Let me guess, you either have not heard a Klimax model, or better still, you heard (maybe owned!) a LP12... but it was twenty five years ago, lol.
While I agree with you that the Basis tables are superb, they are generally far more $$ than the Linn. The SOTA isn’t in the league of the Klimax LP12...and the old oil rig you mention...well that is no step up either....oh, yes, IMHO.