i got much improved sonics from my cj55 by replacing the armboard w/one made from delrin, & fabricating a new subchassis from corian. the motorboard was replaced w/a piece of sintra - a rigid closed-cell artist's mounting board. the suspension then needed upgrading w/merrill springs, due to the extreme added weight of the armboard & subchassis. arm was a sumiko premier ft-3. quite a respectable rig. but the used oracle i picked up for $1250, upgraded to mkv specs, except for the motor, blew it away. i'd think the modded cj55 was comparable to any 'table out there for a new retail price of ~$1k...
re: fono stages, check out the aragon 47k - good deals on these used - about half the $$$ of your budget. should be nice w/a tubed preamp. ted at ted's audible difference has a used pentagon ps-3 ; he's asking $1k for this retail $2k fono-stage. it's great - i'm using one i got from him last year, w/a tubed melos linestage... :>) much better than the built-in fono in my old linn kairn pre, which was much better than the musical-surroundings phonomena fono-stage... also mite wanna look into the camelot fono-stage, retailing for $1k - lotsa nice things said about this one.
doug s.