Upgrading Turntable

I get the impression from your post that you are looking to buy new. I rarely give advice but since you are "new to analogue, and actually to Hi-Fi in general," I would tell you that turntables get upgraded frequently. Consider buying used. There are incredible deals on Audiogon for tables that were many times your budget selling used for pennies on the dollar.
Also, when you decide to upgrade again, which is likely, you will recover a larger portion of your original investment. FWIW

I like the Traveler. Also consider Avid's Ingenium and Consider Sota's new Comet 4. It comes in wood finish and Rega 303 arm. I have one on loan for review and its very good for the money. For more money consider the Origin Live Aurora and Origin Live Silver arm combo. Cheers.

I went from a Pro-ject Expression I to a HW-19 mkiv. Excellent jump, deeper base, wider soundstage. A good used one will run 1200.00 or so with arm depends on how long you want to look.

Also you may want to upgrade your photo stage if you upgrade the TT

I'm with Lindisfarne, but would supper suffice in lieu of service? Give a man supper and he eats it once, give a man good warranty service and he might get hungry but his item gets fixed. Also, I love my Linn Basic/Akito table but have also been looking at replacement possibilities and, although the Rega RP6 with the TTPSU appeals to me, I'm bothered by the lack of VTA adjustment as even my local Rega dealer says the recommended cartridge is bright. Spacers seem like a lame solution when there are lots of options in that price range that allow useful VTA tweeking. I can't find anything about a Comet 4 so that must be very new...the search continues.

Look for a used Basis