Advice and recommendations needed for a turntable rig...

'Mass Loading' Is this a term you can expend on, as Heavy TT can be produced by including a wide range of singular materials or an even wider range of differing materials in the construction ? 

Do note 'Mass' needs good Support and a Wall Shelve is usually one method that can be discounted if the Wall Structure is questionable for the purpose.

$3.5K will be a substantial allocation on monies to get on board with Vinyl, if you are not needing to build a Vinyl Collection from 'all analogue production' of LP's.

Digital / Analogue Hybrid produced LP's will not be cheap but more affordable than an all analogue version.

Used LP purchases will have a mixed bag of opinions, and cleaning the LP will become a Buzz Word Topic, if one does buy used it will be their cheapest route into 'all analogue production' LP's. 

The LP is the Source, everything else to be achieved is attempts to have a optimised data extraction and optimised energy transfer for creating the signal to be sent Upstream in the signal paths circuitry.  

Wow, you guys are giving some awesome advice and I thank you. I know analog guys are out there and the luv of vinyl is strong. Younger generations are getting into albums for a reason and I think that helps keep HiFi alive. Some others have mentioned Technics and VPI, anyone out there with experience with those two brands?

Last year I purchased the X8 with an Ortofon Quintet Blue MC cartridge from a local dealer (I live in Austria where Pro-Ject is based). The TT/cartridge combination is offered as a package here, so everything was ready to go out of the box. I also went with the Pro-Ject Phono Box DS3 B phono stage to take advantage of the balanced output option of the X8 (the DS2 does not have that option). Additionally, load impedance on the DS3 B can be set continuously via a potentiometer. Adjusting impedance during playback has been a fun feature to play with. I have tested RCA and XLR back and forth, and the XLR balanced connection through the DS3 B and my rig produces about a 6db gain with a lower noise floor. I am really happy with the X8/Ortofon/DS3 B combination. The table weighs 33 lbs and is very well made. I have not listened to the Sumiko Blue Point MC cartridge, so I cannot comment on the difference to the Quintet Blue (which is a low-output MC design). The 9cc EVO carbon tonearm has an integrated headshell, so if you are interested in swapping cartridges in the future, it will not be the easiest rig to manipulate.

You can buy a Pioneer PLX1000 for $700 and then spend more on a mc cartridge like a $1300 Hana. Herb Reichert gave the Pioneer a very positive review in Stereophile. I bought one to add to my TT collection and am very pleased with it!

I have an older Technics 1200 and the PLX1000 is at least as good in all aspects!