Looking for a new turntable and cart 2-3K

Agree with Winoguy. The "trick" IMO is to have the CMB and the wood body cartridge. More musical than the "old Clearaudio house sound". Also, consider direct wired with no break from cartridge pins to phono stage.
Good Luck.

the emotion is on my short list but I don't have a local dealer to audition.

I'm also considering a new Rega P5 or used P7 with an Ortofon 2M Black or a VPI Scout II or used Scoutmaster with an Dynavector 20x or possibly a Well Tempered Amadeus with my current Ortofon 2M Red.

My local dealers only sell Linn, Rega, Nottingham and Pro-Ject so anything else I would have to mail order.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

A new Well-Tempered Amadeus goes for about $2750 and completely outperforms a Rega P9 IMHO. So if you are willing to stretch your budget just a little you could get the Amadeus and Dynavector's entry level MC cartridge (~$450) and wind up with an incredibly musical vinyl front end.

Try to listen to a Well-Tempered Amadeus

Does anyone have a list of Well Tempered dealers? They seem hard to find.
Thanks