turntable recommendations

Stantheman2, I just had this problem with a friend. Same limit. Here is what I would do and why. You have to play chess several moves in advance.

Turntable          Sota Escape                           $1250.00
Tonearm           Origin Live Illustrious              $2100.00
Cartridge          Ortofon Cadenza Blue            $1900.00
                         Grado Ref 3                            $1500.00
                         Soundsmith Zephyr Mk 3 ES  $1500.00
                         Lyra Delos                               $2000.00 ( a tiny stretch :)

You are already noticing that I cut short on the Turntable. The Escape is a brilliant little table. It comes from a company that is a joy to deal with and they will always take their turntables back in trade so when you get that itch again you can move right up into a Sapphire which could easily be a final destination table. The Illustrious IMHO is the best value in the Origin Live line and could easily be seen as a last destination arm. It will run all of the very best cartridges without flinching and without compromising their performance. I do believe Sota will get and mount the arm for you as well as the cartridge if you like. Call 608 538 3500 and speak to Donna. As for the Cartridges, The Lyra is the one to go for but it might push you a little over. If you are heavily into rock and other high energy music I would definitely go for the Clearaudio Charisma V2 but it is also $2000 and a stretch. The Ortofon pushes it right to the limit and is an excellent all rounder. If you do this with the Lyra in a few years just swap out for the Sapphire and you have reached nirvana.

Mike 

ryskie, would you ever buy a turntable that was not suspended as well as the Sota? It is not just freedom from footfall headaches. There are a host of other noises occurring in your house and even around your house. People think that just because their turntable is on a rack on concrete they are isolated from low frequency rumble. This is not true and the link I posted above demonstrates this beautifully. It covers various aspects of turntable and tonearm design as applied to the AR-XA turntable. People just think about it as a cheap little table from the 60's but when you realize what it was competing with at the time, big Rec-O-Cuts and Empires. TD 124's and Garrards. It was truly a landmark table. It handily out performed all of them. People were using them even in the most expensive systems. It was quieter, footfalls did not bother it, and it did not feed back. It's only serious weakness was lack of anti skating but many of the high end tonearms of the day did not have antiskating. The SME 3009 changed all that. People would remove the base of the SME and mount them on the AR-XA.