Vinyl woes / cartridge upgrade

I recommend a Shure based product and basic technics direct drive.  I got mine for $10 at yard sale.  Added a custom matched NOS sperical needle and Stanton body $450.

I trust these guys advice and put your $ into the cartridge.  Then put your cheap turntable on bubble wrap and leave the cover open. 

KAB cartridges
https://www.kabusa.com/frameset.htm?/

PS: Almost all old vintyl is trash. Warped, poppie, scratched or all three. These need an amp with both low and high filters. I have a large collection of half speed masters from the 1980s and many of them are full of pops. 
The modern discs are good quality but they all have a charming floor of stone needles scaping through bumpy grooves.  Don't get me wrong!  I just sold an un opened MFSL UHQR limited edition (total 5000) Sgt Peppers for about $700. I bought it as an investnent for $55 in 1982, I think.   Shipping address AmConGen APO Frankfurt. 

I like SACD or MQA streaming bluetooth 5.0 from Tidal.  However,  I own half speed masters that were never re-issued.   Plenty of them from the old days. John Klemer's "Touch" is what I used as a sonic benchmark.  Still have a sealed copy. 

"PS: Almost all old vintyl is trash. Warped, poppie, scratched or all three."

I find the opposite to be true. Last night I spun Tom Rush "Tom Rush". I bought it a Goodwill for .99. Played nearly dead quiet. BTW great sonics on this lp.

Almost all old vintyl is trash. Warped, poppie, scratched or all three.

For this reason we have GRADING SYSTEM and according to this no matter how old is the vinyl, it can be MINT- condition or even STILL SEALED. So any vinyl release from the 60’s can be as new even in 2020. Just don’t buy VG condition and you’re fine. Actually even strong VG+ should be fine if the seller is honest.

An old pressing is superior to 99.9% all those modern re-issues made for audiophiles, because even if they are using original tape as a source, the tape degrade in time, but nicely stored original vinyl is still fresh as new. It’s a perfect media.

Honestly, most of the reissues made from the digital copy, some digital copies made long time ago when digital was sucks. Most of the re-issues are digitally remastered which is sucks if you love analog.

And finally: a lot of great records will never be properly reissued because the musical taste of audiophiles behind the reissue labels like Analogue Productions is very strange (at least not for younger generation). Also, in most cases, original master tape has been lost if it wasn’t a major label. You can’t buy half-speed mastering re-issue from analog source if the artist wasn’t big, but there are tons of great music released in the 60s/70s on very small independent labels, you can only buy an original or crappy re-issue made from the copy recorded from original vinyl, not from the original master tape.

Added a custom matched NOS sperical needle and Stanton body $450.

Sperical needle is the worst on the planet and must be avoided for any cartridges.
Stanton cartridges are great, but ONLY models with Stereohedron stylus (Not conical/spherical or elliptical). 
Stereohedron stylus alone cost about $450 NOS, but this is one of the best stylus profile in the world.  

If you decide on a V15 and need a new stylus, I would recommend a JICO replacement. If you can get their SAS, it is a stellar performer. I have one on my V15 Type III and I love it. A lot of info is available out there.

This is true, SAS is great and here is more information why, but the SAS stylus alone cost more than entire new cartridge or very close. Any other styli from JICO (except very expensive SAS) are nothing special.