Turntable options

I’m a big fan of Kuzma and have had several of his tables. I had the original Reference, which is a very nice table especially for its combination of mass and built-in suspension. I gather that table has been updated. I’ve also owned and still use the XL, which is way more table than necessary and requires a lot of work to isolate given its weight, making the Reference seem even more sensible and not only for price. His 4 Point arms are very well regarded. I’ve had his Airline lateral tracker for years--and will soon have the newest 4Point here- the small, 9 inch version without the VTA/offset pillar. It will be interesting to compare its performance with the linear tracker. I would think a Reference plus that smaller 4 Point arm would be a sensible, well made, long term table. I can say that his products are exceptionally well made, robust and they are well supported-- Franc is very hands-on and with Scot Markwell as distributor here in the States (if you are here), you’ve got superb people behind the product. (Not that any of it ever had any issues- the only issue I ever had was with the air compressor for the Airline and that’s a whole other thing!).
Lot’s of good tables out there and arms too. This truly is the golden age of analog for buyers.
PS: with the Reference you won’t have to spend on fancy isolation. For the XL, I use both an HRS platform and a big Minus K (to support 250 lbs). The Reference is pretty much plug and play compared to the set up for the XL.
I just installed a Koetsu yesterday and am pretty blow away by it, after many years of Airtights and before that, Lyras.
You should have fun with this! You’ve got a more than adequate budget to get top tier sound out of LPs.....

If you are still checking out DD options I offer STST Motus and Motus II (been around a long while but only very recently available in North America...). Check em out. Easily fits your budget.

Whart-

Great insight! Thanks for the information. I have started contemplating Kuzma as well. I need to do a bit of research. Do you find yourself spending a bunch of time adjusting the Kuzma arm/table?

Nope. Not even with the XL. The fiddly part is in the initial set up if you aren’t used to it simply because there are so many different parts. Now that I’m familiar with it, I can break it down and reassemble it. It took me almost no time to install the Koetsu yesterday, move the arm tower and then rebalance the whole thing on the Minus K.
The Reference involves none of this - built in suspension, no need to get spendy on a separate isolation table. I am waiting for the 4Point 9 to arrive so I can’t comment on that yet, but my experience with the linear tracker, which is a far more complex piece of engineering and machinery is that once you’ve got it set up, it doesn’t really require any further adjustments. (You do have to keep the bearing rail clean, but this is part of the mystique and insanity of running a linear tracker). The 4 Point won’t require any of that.
With any of these tables, the difference between good and great is all in the initial set up.

Without knowing the rest of your system, your music and sound preferences, it is impossible to recommend anything. The only thing that can be recommended at this point is to audition them all. However, you would need to know which in the chain contributes to what. This requires great experience and hearing. Choosing turntable/arm is even more difficult than speakers.
As you can see, Bill, being a long time serious audiophile, has been listening to the wrong cartridges for years. His new Koetsu might also be the wrong one, just less so.