I had a side hustle transferring analog discs to digital formats. One turntable I used was fancy but had issues, one was not so fancy and worked better. The one that was nice but flaky was the Strathclyde 305m. It came out of the same corner of the world that gave us the Linn Sondek LP-12 and is based on the same principles: an overbuilt Acoustic Research AR-XA. This one had a SME III arm. I mostly used the Shure 97xe as it was cheap and easily replaceable. Although I regularly cleaned LPs I transferred, there still would be pretty high wear/damage to styli because of the tendency for these discs to have some form of damage. Cueing LPs on this turntable was not steady.
The not so fancy turntable that turned out to be far more useful was an early direct drive Technics player. I landed on the Shure M-44 cartridge for this turntable, which meant that the stylus tracked at around 2 & 1/2 grams, much more secure in the groove and more likely to play through a damaged track. Also, as this is not a suspended subchassis turntable, cueing tracks was much easier.
You might find, after investing a lot of money into a turntable and LPs, that the distortions baked into every LP distract from enjoying music. I ultimately did. However, I'm offering two solutions. First, look at the lower end of the new Technics direct drive turntables. The SL 1500c has a built-in phono preamp, an Ortofon Red cartridge and is pretty much plug and play. You can make the most meaningful upgrades with changing the stylus of the cartridge, though there's nothing stopping you from replacing the cartridge or phono preamp.
I've used outboard handheld recorders for the analog to digital recording. They start at around $100, go up from there. Then I would take that recording and load it into Audacity---essentially Pro Tools but as freeware. Once in Audacity, I use Click Repair. I don't know what they charge now, when I got it over ten years ago it was $40. This set of tools can take you just about as far as one can reasonably go with LP replay and recording. This would end up costing around $1500, American.
Because I became aware of just how flawed LP replay is from my experiences transferring LP to digital, I offer a much cheaper solution. The Audio Technica AT LP-120XUSB is a direct-drive turntable with cartridge [the purdy good and easily upgraded Audio Technica AT VM 95], has a usb digital out, so you can hook up the turntable's digital out to your computer, record to Audacity and so on. $350 American. Won't be quite as good as the Technics---their top end turntables now represent state of the art as regards wow and flutter, their prices much more reasonable than other "high-end" turntables---but the LPs themselves will be the limiting factor sonically anyway. The AT LP-120XUSB might be all the turntable you'll need.
I find your posts right on the money, even if intriguing and sometimes diametraly opposite to my experience and opinion.
Although the four turntables mentioned are all of decent quality, none of them even attempts to go the extra mile which is so necessary in order get the most out of the signal recorded in the record groove.
One aspect of turntable performance that make or break the turntable - either for normal listening, but particular for transferring to digital - is its immunity from the vinyl noise. Records themselves DO NOT NOISE - everything from stylus, cantilever, cantilever suspension, transducer principle/output impedance, record/mat/platter interface, tonearm ( tube, bearings, etc ), subchassis ( if present ), decoupling mechanism ( if present ), plinth, cabling, electrical loading, preamp characteristics ... ALL these things get excited by the stylus riding in the groove, each of these having its own set of resonance(s). When lumped together, they can - and usually do - contribute much more noise than the record by itself.
It is cruel just by how much can the end result - digitized file - differ , even if made with the very same record and very same digital recorder/interface/sound card/callitwhateveryoulike. The most acid test for any real turntable is how it performs on blank groove with no signal ... - here the men get really separated from the boys.
Trouble is, there is no standard for such measurement(s). It can only be made for a "record player" - meaning something one puts record on/in and gets an electrical signal out - that is to say the combination of turntable, tonearm, cartridge and associated cabling and preamplification. The mere electrical signal to noise ratio can vary A LOT simply because of the choice of the output voltage and impedance of the cartidge - AND associated cabling. The biggest offenders are usually signal cables that go from the tonearm to the "outside world " - the degree of shielding goes from flying wires ( that pick up hum like crazy from any source, the closest one being usually either the power transformer in DC powered motors or AC motor within the turntable itself ) to properly fully shielded cabling. And the degree of interfering hum and buzz is then directly related to the output impedance of the cartridge .
Phono preamps also can differ appreciably in real world noise figures relative to the source impedance ... - short circuit input figures are meaningless in real world ( except when really low impedance cartridge is used, 3 ohm and below ).
ALL of these factors have to be considered in order to get the highest reasonably achievable electrical S/N ratio.
Only then taming the mechanical resonances mentioned above can start in earnest. But, once achieved - or even approaching the ideal - the result is a MUCH cleaner signal with MUCH greater dynamic range.
And, of course, better finally resulting digital file.
I could not agree more regarding the variability of the records themselves ... - even the non existing perfect turntable can't miraculously turn a frisbee into a superdisc.
