Best turntable for the buck

For $4K without question the VPI Scout 21 and Hana SHshould be high on your list. Bought together there would be enough left over for decent cables as well. I would go with the high output SH version as it eliminates the need for a MC preamp and extra cables with no compromise in SQ. And while some will rail on endlessly about unipivot arms, my experience is that they are a little scary to handle at first, but in practice they perform flawlessly. No other $4K package will get you further immediately, and still provide a direct upgrade path if you wish. Arm base, 10 kg platter, feet, arm, motor, even the plinth, are all upgrades. The Hana has been a joy, far outperforming any MM I've heard in transparency and dynamics, and fully comparable to any $2-3K moving coil. It is a package that owes no apologies.

After reading a few reviews,

I can not see how reading a few reviews is a safe method to assess anything about a item.

Further to this I will not encourage any individual to prime themselves to part with 4K on any device/devices with out having had some form of a demonstration to support the decision to be made on a purchase.

A friend who I assisted with their purchasing of a Tonearm, through my loaning them an SME IV to compare to other options being made available for demonstration on their system. When having selected a Tonearm was loaned a Cart to try out from a Dealership.

After trying the Cart' compared to a few other Cart's that were available.

They bought the quite expensive Japanese Cartridge shortly be for the period of Covid and Lockdowns. The opportunity to hear this Cart' in use was a long time in waiting.

I read many reviews on this Cart' from many different reviewers based in different Countries. When I finally got my invite to audition the Cart', I was quite knowing what was to be expected - 'How Wrong I Was', this Cart' in use with the Selected Tonearm and TT, did not match the pre-conceived thoughts I had put together on its presentation.

The Cart' impressed the pant's of me, it is an indelible experience, and one I am always keen to revisit, even better now that the owner has carefully selected other supporting ancillaries to expand on it qualities.

More importantly the Owner was quite correct in their finding a way to receive home demonstrations and expanding on this by having options on comparison demonstrations.

This equipment purchased with a careful consideration, are keeper devices, there is no questions about other alternatives, as the impression made has surpassed expectations.      

@sokogear

Make sure you have the turntable isolated properly, especially if you are on a suspended floor.

Absolutely. I don’t know of a single turntable that doesn’t be benefit from this.

Some need it more, and some less, but they all need it.

To test feedback / resonance resistance should be easy for any modern reviewer, yet so few of them even think of doing it.

Why is that?

Even worse, some manufacturers don’t even want to publish detailed specifications.

What might they be trying to hide?

Rvpiano

i’ve been a VPI Prime owner for about three years. I bought a B-stock unit from Music Direct, and I’m located in the USA. if you can visit Cliffwood, New Jersey you can hear all that VPI has to offer. A used Prime or B-stock might be what you really want to consider based on price (usa) and performance. I’m currently using the 2M Bronze Ortofon cart and 3-D unipivot arm with second pivot. The cartridge was new with the Turntable purchase. I am a DIY kind of guy so I was looking for a “final” turntable that had upgrade potential that I could do myself. If you like an upgrade path the Prime certainly has one. Every upgrade I’ve made to my Turntable has been an audible improvement. I have successfully avoided buying a better turntable to get better sound.
lightly off topic to your hardware search is just how Important it is to have clean vinyl when playing your records. (and keeping your stylus clean). The quality setup you’re looking for WILL reveal sometimes unexpected presentations in your records and perhaps not surprisingly, the cleaner your records are the better they sound. I hope you already have a cleaning system in place, if not you should budget for one.

mr_putty,

Thanks for the input. I’m seriously interested in the Prime.  My local dealer has it and is willing to set it up for me, I’m NOT a DIY person.  I’m happy to hear you like it so well.  I just hope it will be a significant upgrade from what I have now. 
‘My cartridge is fairly high end, costing four figures and my phono preamp is a Conrad-Johnson. I do have a cleaning machine for my 2000+ records.