Best turntable/cartridge combo for $700-$750

"I would prefer more cartridge options than these combos offer. I realize my price range may limit my options."

not sure what you mean by that. You can get any cartridge you want.

A more relevant comparison (quality-wise) would be the 1200 to the newer, more expensive P3/24 which has much more potential for, and worthiness of, upgrading. In my comparison, posted elsewhere here, I mostly favored the P3/24. I would characterize the difference that I heard as more transparency and liveliness but a bit bright and edgy, compared to the Technics being more relaxed and opaque; just one controlled but somewhat limited shootout. I sell both.

dealer disclosure.

Johnny,

You're absolutely right. That would be an even more appropriate comparison.
The unit I compared was stock. I did put both on a large, thick butcher block on
a combo of sorbothane and isoblocks on my Maplenoll air bearing 90 lb. lead
platter on a large Room Tunes rack, all in an adjacent room. I used the same
Rega Exact cartridge with the same VTA in my reference system which you can
view here. I even used the same Rega felt mat which worked better than what
was on the Technics. I also used my Maplenoll lead clamp as a record weight on
both which improved both equally. The Rega was much cleaner except for the
highs which were a bit rough, the Technics being noticibly opaque in
comparison. Perhaps I'll do such a comparison some time and spend more time
exploring than I had a chance to do before.

dealer disclosure.

There's no question in my mind that, although I haven't heard them, the KAB mods must be a great improvement on the stock model. Re: the mat I simply listened to the two and chose the Rega felt one for both which was handy for keeping the comparison to the tables themselves even though the Rega felt mat would be unlikely to be used with the Technics. There are better/different mats for both tables but I didn't want to muddy the water any more than necessary.

Attempting direct comparisons are ultimately confused at best because optimizing the very important cartridge/arm relationship gets thrown out by using the same cart for both. I used the Exact because it was the best appropriately priced cartridge I had on hand that was broken in. I later put an older Sumiko Bluepoint Special on the Rega to great effect which surprised me that I liked it better in some ways than the Exact. I haven't tried it on the Technics yet.