Surprisingly several yrs back, I went to an audio show where one room featured great SET tube amps with expensive single driver speakers and very mediocre sources. I'm talking a sony close n play TT and a 1st gen. Technics cd player and it sounded incredible.
Having said that, I got rid of my Rega Planar 3 a few years ago and went with a fully automatic TT and it sounded great. It was an old Kenwood with the corian type plinth. There are a lot of very nice fully automatic tables from the 70's that I wouldn't hesitate to buy. I'm now just too lazy to get up every 20 minutes with a fully manual TT and like it when it plays on continuously.