Best Turntable/arm/cartridge system for $30k

Dear ARWP: Money always help!!!!, but if this is really your first time with analog the first thing that you have to know is that analog source ( like a whole source ) is not ( far from there ) a plug-and-play source like the digital one.
So you have to learn ( very quick ) or to have someone ( audio dealer with the right know-how or an audio friend )to help you on the right whole set-up.

The second point is to have " software " ( LPs ) to play with. If you don't have it then you have to start to buy and develop a good collection with the kind of music you like.

Third point can be to conform your analog source and my advise is to go not with an entry level one but with something better.

Thinking on TTs: Galibier, Acoustic Signature, Raven, SME are some names that comes to my mind.

Tonearm/cartridge: I like the Dynavector XV-1s ( but other people likes other cartridges too ) and you can mate it with a Triplanar or a Phantom tonearm but you can choose the MM cartridge alternative too where there are several cartridge options ( like the MC alternative ).

If you choose ( example ) for the XV-1s that is a low output MC cartridge IMHO it will be best " served " for an active high gain Phonolinepreamp ( no step-up transformers ) that you have to buy too.
Here ( like you say ) try to find the " best " because is in the phono stage where the cartridge signal pass to a " severe " process that makes a degradation to the cartridge signal.
So, you want to add the less and lose the less on that cartridge signal to be nearer /truer to the recording.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

don't know about the "best", but this should be a safe bet.

TW Acustic Raven AC
Graham Phantom
cartridge of your choice
Einstein phono stage

new retails around $30k, you can get them for less in used market.

I'm sorry, but as much as I respect Raul's (and other's) very fine recommendations, you are asking someone who apparently has NO experience with vinylog, to spend a great deal of money (I don't care how rich he is!) on something that may not be the best for him. And, worst of all, he will never know it!

Or do you all think Mr. Arwp should buy SEVERAL assorted $30K analog rigs according to all these wonderful recommendations, and then decide which one he likes best ?? ;-) C'mon . . . . .!

If Mr. Arwp in fact wants to try vinylog simply as a cure for 'digital dissatisfaction' as some have suggested (are you Mr. Arwp?) then perhaps some 're-thinking' is in order. Either of those formats can be very satisfying with the right combination of hardware (and as Raul so beautifully points out, "money helps"!) However, the road to Audio Nirvana is littered with poor souls who were never really happy with either format. Y por que? Because they didn't spend enough time getting the most they could out of their room and their WHOLE system -- everything!

My point, Mr. Arwp, is that you've already spent Thirty Thousand Dollars on some VERY FINE digital playback equipment. At that $$ level, it should give you QUITE a lot of enjoyment, regardless of the brand (nothing is a 100% ;-) so perhaps your source equipment and the format aren't the problem? In the Vietnam War and now in Iraq, everytime there was a problem, they threw more money at it! That might work occasionally, accidentally, but it's NOT the way to learn anything ;-(

I'm not trying to discourage you from exploring vinylog, Mr. Arwp, just from spending too much money up front; not when I'm unconvinced that the (digital) format is at the root of your sonic unhappiness.
.

If there's not a digital rig made that you can enjoy, you won't like vinyl either, IMHO. Nothing's perfect and a certain amount of snap, crackle and pop is inevitable with vinyl even with the best gear you can buy. Can you tolerate that?