Best TT setup for 2k

Everything I have had from Jolida is freakin excellent for the price. I don’t doubt the phono preamp is very good and it’s one I’m considering. 
 

I just bought a Jolida 302CRC with some pretty nice tubes in it and kinda dumbfounded at how good it is. One of the amps I use and pushing 150lb speakers and it really sounds great. 

Agree with the positive comments regarding Jolida. Their new company, Black Ice Audio, is even better. Their Fusion MkIII phono stage retails for $850.

A Rega P6 with a Soundsmith Otello cartridge would come in right around $2k if you can find a P6. Unfortunately the Rega factory is overwhelmed with demand and due to logistics issues and inflation, prices are going up on January 1st. Still many vendors are out of Rega product with no end in sight.

Great hi fidelity sound from vinyl depends upon clean records. In addition to the TT, pre-amp, etc. have you or are you giving any thought to getting and keeping your records clean? 

Musical Fidelity has a little phon stage that is excellent. It's a few hundred bucks from memory. It has MM or MC. Verdant Audio sold me one. He is a nice guy also.

OP here.

So I kinda fizzled out and didn't do anything with the TT. About a week ago got it all hooked back up and set the tone arm weight correctly, cleaned the records etc. It was sounding pretty good. Before I was using an Emotiva 100 buck phono pre and it was pretty dry and 1 dimensional. I picked up a nice Sansui A9500 and the phono pre in that sounds waay better. Yesterday I picked up an Ortofon Bronze cartridge and it is pretty night and day better than the red that came with the Project especially for detail and 3 dimensionality. 

I want to continue on an upgrade path but not real sure where to go from here. An acrylic platter for 150 bucks for the Project may be a good upgrade? I guess lets say I had another 1500 bucks to blow. Upgrade from the Project all together and put nothing more into it, put more into it, spend it on a better phono pre?  What would you experienced peeps spend that on? I am vinyl ignorant. I'm really diggin the new cartridge and I think that's good enough for now and I could always use it on another TT. Tube phono pre sounds interesting. 

One thing I am learning is records are kind of a bitch to keep clean so probably need to invest in a reasonable record cleaner as well!

Thanks