Yea, I am biased as I just bought one, but I would highly recommend a SOTA Sapphire. Just bought a used older Sapphire III, new Jelco 850 MK II arm, and a Soundsmith Zephyr cartridge, and could not be happier. There is little doubt that my SOTA and arm could handle any cart I could throw at it with ease as long as the compliance matches the arm. It can easily handle the quality of the Art9 (not sure the Art9 would work with my arm, as I think the compliance is too high) and get everything out of it, I was simply sticking with a higher output cart right now, and have no regrets with the Zephyr. At all.
My SOTA and new Jelco arm combined cost over your 2K limit, but you could probably find one with an arm already installed below or at your max. My table was simply purchased without an arm, so that was my choice. I could have gotten a less expensive arm, and considered it, but glad I didn’t.
My SOTA and new Jelco arm combined cost over your 2K limit, but you could probably find one with an arm already installed below or at your max. My table was simply purchased without an arm, so that was my choice. I could have gotten a less expensive arm, and considered it, but glad I didn’t.