Turntable--Cartridge for the Rogue Audio Cronus

For that budget, I'd recommend a KAB Technics SL-1200MK5SE ($535.00), maybe the Tonearm Fluid Damper ($149.00), and a Audio-Technica 440MLa Cartridge ($199.00) or Audio-Technica 150 MLX Cartridge ($399.00), a MintLP alignment protractor ($110.00), some Disc Doctor supplies (around $100) and a KAB EV-1 Cleaner ($159.00).

dual 405, 505. sounds great, still a classic, and autolift too.

I would suggest you look at the Marantz TT 15 turntable. It is basically a beefed up Clearaudio Emotion turntable and for $1595 list, includes a great MM cartridge. Check it out at Music Direct.

I would highly recommend the Rega P5/Exact 2 combo, that's what I went with, and many retailers will give you a discount on the cartridge because you are buying the table. Get the TT-PSU, too, it makes a big difference.

If the difference of prices are negligible among those turntables, I would go for one which has the highest resale value. For that, I would choose Sota Comet.

One caveat: One of my friends has Sota Comet and I have Clearaudio emotion and Thorens TD145MKii. We have tried many combination to tell the difference among them, but we could not determine which was noticeably better than others even though there were subtle differences. Though I believe that somebody who has better ears and more experiences may be able to tell more about the differences.

My friend has McIntosh MC275, PrimaLuna Prologue preamp, Audio Electronics PH-1 phono preamp, Klipsch LaScala and Velodyne subwoofer.
My system is Linn AV5105, Rogue Magnum 99 with phono, Yaqin MS-12B phono preamp, Tyler Taylo 7U.
Cartridges used for comparison are Grado Gold and Clearaudio classic cartridge.