Turntable upgrade?

Yea, I am biased as I just bought one, but I would highly recommend a SOTA Sapphire. Just bought a used older Sapphire III, new Jelco 850 MK II arm, and a Soundsmith Zephyr cartridge, and could not be happier. There is little doubt that my SOTA and arm could handle any cart I could throw at it with ease as long as the compliance matches the arm. It can easily handle the quality of the Art9 (not sure the Art9 would work with my arm, as I think the compliance is too high) and get everything out of it, I was simply sticking with a higher output cart right now, and have no regrets with the Zephyr. At all.

My SOTA and new Jelco arm combined cost over your 2K limit, but you could probably find one with an arm already installed below or at your max. My table was simply purchased without an arm, so that was my choice. I could have gotten a less expensive arm, and considered it, but glad I didn’t.

A lot of people are mentioning SOTA to me.

I saw a VPI Classic 1 for 2K. Awesome table.  It would take a lot more money to better it. 

Bajaed, Sota owners love their tables because they are beautifully isolated and a joy to use. Nothing bothers them, not foot falls or malet blows. Nothing in the environment gets to your cartridge the result being quite backgrounds that are in no way attainable with even the heaviest fixed table like the VPI classic mentioned above. I know a person who even placed his Kuzma Stabi XL DC on a MinusK platform because he could not get the performance his friend with an SME 30/12 was getting. 
People have this false impression that the heavier a turntable is the better it will perform. Nothing could be further from the truth. Michael Fremer even placed his $100K Continuum on a MinusK platform. The Sota does this for a very small fraction of the cost. If you can see your way through to buying a SOTA you will never feel the need to buy another turntable.

@mijostyn

Well, obviously I agree. There is no need to add anything for isolation, either from physical or sonic disturbance. The result is dead quiet reproduction. Then add a Soundsmith to it? Heaven.

My old home suffers from so many things I had to combat with my old table. The SOTA is simply designed to ignore that there are any issues at all. Still weighs 45 LB, but all part of the design.

I was very serious about a VPI table, until I looked into SOTA closer, and talked to some who have them. I was sold.

and Donna at SOTA is a real gem. IF your table needs repair or upgrades they are there !!!

@tomic601

The SOTA Mafia 😁

Yes, it would seem that way but, I am just trying to relate the advantages of an isolated turntable. It could be a Basis or SME or a Dohmann. The beauty of the Sota is that it does it at a fraction of the cost of the others and at no loss in other performance factors. It is a nicer turntable to use because the main chassis is contained within the plinth. You can bang the plinth with a hammer without effect, any effect. You can not do that with the other. Thus you can rest your hand on the plinth to cue the record. You have an excellent dust cover that is in no way connected to the main chassis. It's use does not affect sound quality in any detrimental way. Some think it even makes things sound better. 

+1 on the SOTA Sapphire (and the Soundsmith with it), which as noted is pretty unflappable and a beautiful table.You can also get a nicely plinthed Thorens TD 125 in that price range; and unlikely to be disappointed by it, particularly if you add an SME 3009 arm.