I am trying to put together a good turntable arm set up for around the $300 to $500 range.

Both of you have mentioned experiences with Thorens tables.

Could you please give me some recomendations for a good combination, table, arm and cartridge that plays music.

I really am not into the hyper analytical sound character that can get fatigu'ing after a short time, I like vacuum tube based audio.

I have a Curcio Daniel preamplifier that has its phono stage set to the higher gain setting, around 53 db gain total with the line gain. I do not think that this phono stage will like any cartridge that has more gain than 2.5 mV with out overloading it.

My equipment stand is a very robust floor design, it is setting on my concrete slab, so foot falls are not an issue. The top section of my equipment stand has 2.25" of MDF and a .75" piece of marbel setting on top of that with a sheet of isodamp between the marbel and MDF.

Most of my research in looking for a bang for the buck turntable tonearm has zeroed in, leaning toward the Thorens TD-150 with a Rega RB-250 arm rewired to include an upgraded counter weight and VTA adjuster. Also, to top of this set up would possibly be to use a Grado 1.5 mV Reference grade cartridge , what do you guys think?

If you can think of something better, that is not more than $500, please let me know.

I have seen comments by many who think that a well set up tricked out Linn LP-12 is the most musical turntable in the world, but that is way more than $500.

Thanks

Norris Wilson