Sorry in advance for the length, but I suspect my turntable odyssey will strike a chord with many who are not into the ultra high-end.
Mid-70's in the UK - Thorens TD150 with SME 3009 arm. I cannot remember which cartridge I used - probably a lesser Shure.
When I moved to the states in 1979 I sold the turntable but brought the arm with me and put it on a Technics SL1200. I had hated the creaky belt drive and floppy floating chassis on the Thorens. Went with a V15 Mk III, later changed to a V15 Mk IV and then a Yamaha MC-7. That combo served me well until I bought my first CD player in 1984, when the comparative lack of user convenience of the turntable induced me to buy the fully automatic Denon DP-51 turntable, which I still have. It works brilliantly, and I still use it in my basement system with the V15 III re-mounted.
I sold the Technics/SME/V15 IV to a friend. As the 'CD age' progressed I hardly ever used the Denon (now with an Ortofon X3 HOMC) in the 90's and 00's
Finally curiosity got the better of me in 2010 and I bought a mint Denon DP-62 off eBay and a Soundsmith SMMC1 via Audiogon. I wanted to hear how my LPs sounded again with a turntable upgrade (?) and a modern cartridge (as quite a few of my LPs had no CD reissues or the available reissues were inadequate), The Soundsmith did not mount well on the DP-51, as the height of the arm cannot be adjusted, unlike the DP-62. Then recently I found the cartridge needed a rebuild. So off it went to Mr. Ledermann for quite a spell, and it came back with just about new everything. I'm still breaking it in, but I think this will be my last turntable and cartridge purchase. Of course none of this is super-exotic or super-expensive, but I can have fun with my original LPs, now and again comparing them with reissue CDs and SACDs. I have bought very little new vinyl as to be honest I cannot see the point of spending $25 or more per LP when I can get many CDs at less than half the price. I did buy a nearly-new Nitty-Gritty 1.5Fi disc cleaner locally on Craigslist - definitely worthwhile.