Yet another turntable recommendation question


Hello all,
Longtime reader of the forums, but I rarely post. As a relative noob, I have learned much from reading your conversations, so thank you.
I am currently looking to upgrade my turntable situation from my old plastic Technics and Onkyo hand-me-downs.
Budget would be stretched at $600-ish.
Features I like...
- removable headshell, or at least a way to easily change carts and related tonearm adjustments
- speed stability!! (as a musician, pitch instability drives me absolutely insane)- some prospect of upgrading over time (tonearm, platter, sub-platter, wiring, etc.)
- belt drive- good (dare I say great?) sound quality- Auto shut off would be very nice

I don't want bells and whistles like built-in phono stage and USB nonsense. Simple is good.

I have considered buying used (Thorens, Dual) and haven't necessarily ruled it out, but I don't want a project, and I darn sure don't want to inherit someone else's problems. Warranties are kind of awesome.
The rest of my system is...
Schitt Mani, Jolida JD1501BRC, Wharfedale Diamond 10.7, Audioquest, BlueJeans, and Morrow cabling.
Mid-fi, I suppose, but I think it sounds great for the price, and I have no immediate plans to change any of that.
I listen to everything from classical to hard rock to jazz to ambient drone.
So far I have looked at Music Hall, Fluance, Denon, Rega, Pro-Ject, but all are compromised in some way.
Are there any others I should be factoring in to the equation?Or any I should steer clear of?
Thanks for any advice and cheers!

earworm22
The budget is too low for a serious turntable with all the features you have mentioned. Why biyin’ another toy if for double price you can get something really great (direct drive for sure) ?

Technics SP-20 with your custom made plinth and the arm of your choice (vintage).
Well honestly, you should steer clear of the features you want. Detachable head shell, first and foremost. You're already in a budget area where there are compromises galore. One of the bigger ones, besides the bearing and motor, is the arm. So on top of that you want to add a knurled knob and threads and contacts? Fine. But understand you are sacrificing sound quality. Big time.

Connections anywhere along the delicate phono cartridge signal wire are bound to degrade the signal like you can't believe. I know. Had a Graham. Which look it up, $2500 just for the arm. Aerospace connectors. The freaking connector on the Graham probably costs about your entire turntable budget. It still ruined the sound. When I went to Origin Live, wire all continuous from cartridge pins to RCA plugs, huge improvement. Amazing improvement.

That's the "feature" you should be looking for. One continuous wire from cartridge pins to RCA plugs. Not extra connections. Fewer.
@millercarbon: The OP cannot afford a $2-3K tonearm! And there is NOTHING wrong with a detachable headshell! Both my Fidelity Research arms use them! And they are NOT junk!
The OP can get a Pioneer PLX1000 for $700 and add a $500 Grado Sonata to it. Excellent sound quality - I have this combination!