Nice vintage $2k Turntable, cartridge, and phono stage

Tomic, your experience buying your Denon is why I don't sell mine.  It is simply too good for the amount of money it could fetch.  I'd stack it against most $5K TTs bought new, once I had replaced the OEM plinth with a slate plinth and mounted my Triplanar on it. I preferred it to my SP10 Mk2 (also in a slate plinth) in a side by side comparison driving the same downstream components in each case. Which is why I did sell the Mk2.

Your comment on an older SOTA, "if you're not pitch sensitive" is spot on. (I also owned a Star Sapphire Series III with vacuum, for about 10 years.) Presumably pitch stability is no longer an issue with the Eclipse upgrade on a SOTA.

I appreciate the responses. There are several brands I had not considered. I was a little surprised a couple of brands didn’t come up- Pioneer and Linn come to mind. Any thoughts on those?

Luxman PD-121 Table, ADC LMF-1 Arm, Rega Exact 2 Cart , Lounge Audio LCR Gold Phono Pre - this is exactly what I use and was all purchased pre-owned in extraordinary condition for just under $2K. Its a VERY great playing/sounding rig and on looks alone is second to none. Just sayin...

OP,

You mentioned wood, I presume natural (not painted) wood.

Are you sticking to that? Many of the TTs mentioned are NOT wood.

Aside from the solid/veneer/wrap issue I mentioned above, Wood Plinth Construction varies.

1. a frame to drop the TT into

A solid looking wood plinth, however the top is perhaps 1 layer of 3/4" thick MDF with veneer. This one is a frame and top board, many appear like thick slabs but are not

Next are thick slabs, some solid wood, some layers of wood, some, like JVC and Denon’s (not all) are their 70mm thick 7 layer construction: 4 layers of wood or manufactured wood like MDF medium density fiberboard, with 3 thin layers of special compounds

Note: some have removable arm boards, you pick an arm, drill a hole where needed. future replacement armboards can be found, refinished, or made.

A SYSTEMDEK IIX  is a wooden plinth turntable that can be readily upgraded with any number of tonearms and phono cartridges. The initial purchase price of a stock IIX in nice condition should be no more than $300 to $400, which leaves plenty of money left for a good tonearm and cartridge and possibly even a phono preamplifier.