Turntable upgrade recommendations: SME vs AMG vs Technics vs other

@drbond - most important to match the phono stage to the cartridge and your system in general. Turntables should have no sound - improvements are the elimination of distortion caused by vibrations. Of course you need to make sure the arm works well with the table, that's why I like the integrated ones like Rega and SME and it's good to know you're leaning towards the SME. From what I've heard their V5 arm is about the best out there.

@drbond Florida Audio Expo is a nice show, which was growing until Covid slammed everything shut. I'll be attending for a couple days, coming up from Sanibel. Dealers tend to show there also, so they tend to bring what they have on hand in terms of analog. The usual strong ex-US presence of manufacturers unfortunately will be reduced due to the current state of affairs for travel, etc.

@sokogear

What particular specifications in the phono stage do I look at to match with the pre-amplifier and the cartridge?

(I learned the hard way (from @dover pointing out to me in another thread) that one very important specification to be met is that the input sensitivity of the amplifier needs to be less than the output voltage of the pre-amplifier.  I was, however, well aware of impedance matching in the components.)

Thanks.

@drbond - you need to make sure the phono stage has lmpedence (load) and gain settings that match what is recommended for the cartridge. Many good ones have several or even continuous settings for these.
 

Some phono stages are made to work with their own cartridges. I have a van den Hul cartridge and if I wanted to really splurge, I would go for their phono stage, but I don’t want to exceed what I spent on everything else for a cartridge and phono stage. From the numbers you were throwing around, it might fit your budget. I was told that combo was part of  a $400K system that won best in a show against 7 figure systems.

The output from the phono stage can go to any regular line input of a preamp. Ideally, the preamp is just a switching box and volume knob without affecting the sound. Personally I like to KISS and go with an integrated amp and avoid an extra interconnect and power cord and save $$.

So, I went to the Florida Audio Expo today, and I've been reading and reviewing more turntable recommendations and possibilities:  firstly, the expo was pretty good insofar as talking with some other audiophiles and dealers about their systems.  Unfortunately, they didn't have too many turntables set up for playing:  I think there was an Acoustic Signature Typhoon, an Audio Note lower end TT, and a Dr Feickert Woopecker that wasn't set up due to a missing part.  A Haniwa TT was set up with some odd one cone speakers.  Overall, my system sounded much better than any system that they had there, most likely because all the components that they set up was around the $10,000 price range.  

My bias towards SME has diminished, and now it has fallen out of favor because of the inability to adjust the tonearm (azimuth in particular), and many comments abou it being overly analytical. 

My interest in TechDAS is piqued, as well as the Dohmann Helix, and J. Sikora.  
I also looked at TW Acustic options. 

So, in summary, currently I'm looking at tables that weren't even on my initial list, and I'm not so interested in the SME, AMG, and Technics after doing more extensive reviewing, reading, and reflecting.  

Does anyone have much experience comparing the strengths and weaknesses of  the Dr Feickert vs. Acoustic Signature vs. J. Sikora vs TechDAS in the $30k-50k range? 

I probably plan on making a decision before 2023 rolls around.