High-end TT setup with phono stage built in

Adding my voice to an old discussion, but I thought it would be helpful to note the T+A G 2000 R with the Clearaudio-style tonearm and internal MC phono stage option is a pure delight to operate and sounds better than the AMG Giro G9 I had in my system (matched even with expensive external phono preamps). Among others, there is a helpful review on HiFi News with associated measurements here: https://www.ta-hifi.de/en/audiosystems/r-series/g-2000-r-turntable/

Thank you. This might be close to my price point.
I will take a look at the G2000R.

The best choice here would be an EMT 938 or 948. Complete with cartridge and built in phono stage.

A friend of mine suggested the same.
These are vintage. How do I go about procuring one of these, it needs careful restoring by someone who knows what he's doing, right?

essrand, that is a rabbit hole I don't think you want to go down given your state preference for simplicity. The T+A G2000 or the SME Synergy are significantly better and will be way less problematic. Turntables are delicate devices. Worse, they tend to weight a lot. It does not take much of a blow to damage a main bearing and these vintage tables have been bounced around god knows how many times. Even if you rebuild them idler wheel drives wear quickly producing unacceptable rumble levels. There is a reason we do not build them any more.