Recomendation on turntable for less than $1500

Same here Raymonda, never listened to the Thorens TD 150 so I cannot comment on its sound qualities. Seems to have been well engineered and very similar to the Sondek LP12 in appearance.

I'm curious as to which four? I'm guessing RP6, Traveler, Concept, and Xperience?

A friend of mine has the new Satellite and it sounds MUCH better than the entry level Comet and it can hold its ground against much more expensive TTs.

Marantz has a quiet, steady, reliable motor, a more than decent tonearm, and KILLER cart for the money.

The WOW is in another league, comparable to TTs costing much more and almost as good as Well Tempered Amadeus and Townshend Rock 7. Dead quiet, rock solid.

Upgrading the tonearm and armboard and adding the MH CC2 sounds like the right way to go if you decide to keep the Thorens.

"purchasing many of them may well be a down grade". Not sure if I completely agree with your comment. As good as the Thorens may have been 44 years ago, new advance in technology may (or may not) place some of the models mentioned over the Thorens.

Maybe you're right, who knows :-)

Ricardo, I think that is a wise choice. If it is convenient, take some of your favorite albums out to a dealer and listen to some of the new tables just to prove that you are not missing out. Even with unfamiliar gear and speakers, vinyl is such a tactile medium that I found it reasonably easy to hear strengths and weaknesses of different tables, and decide if they were going to do it for me or not. So far I didn't hear that south of $5K.

One note, I recently moved my listening space into a new room with a concrete floor and 300 tons of crushed rock underneath it (long story for another time). While waiting for shelving to go in, I set my Thorens up on the floor. OMG, the bass was unreal with just the stock rubber feat directly on that foundation. I tried spiking it, putting my large wood platform in, but all that did was shift the weight of the sound to higher frequencies. Considering taking it back off the shelf and returning to floor. I highly recommend 300 ton platform for this sprung table - LOL

For $1500, you can get the new Scout Jr. It is also upgradeable.