New analog rig(t.t.,tonearm,phono drive)

The Basis 2001 was my first table. With Graham 2.2, Benz Micro, ARC PH3SE it served me well for many years. The silicone damping fluid slowly evaporates away- if you haven't checked yours is probably gone. That's the only problem with this fine if low-tech deck. Simple and direct are good things in a turntable, and the Basis has them in abundance. 

This table also served as the, ahem, basis for mods that eventually moved me up to building the Miller Carbon turntable. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 

What I did was to first upgrade the power cord to the Basis motor. Then experimented with different belts. Then upgraded it with the early Teres Audio motor. This gave me enough hands-on experience to appreciate what changes what on a turntable.  

The 2001 is really just a 1" thick piece of acrylic with some holes drilled in it. You don't need to pay no thousands of dollars. You could drill holes in some other materials and try em out. Many things will sound better than acrylic. But its a lot of work. The best is to use an extremely dense and highly damped material which is what I did, BDR Source Shelf. Its kind of expensive but way cheaper than prices you are quoting. 

I got lucky and was doing this at a time when Teres Audio was around and building extremely high quality tables and components for great prices. Now if you can find something like that go for it, lotta work but highly recommended. But if you want to just buy a table that's fine too. 

Fortunately the saving grace with turntables is there's hardly any bad ones. Virtually all are excellent, or at least can be with the right arm, cartridge, and phono stage. 

There's no right or wrong way to go about upgrading. For example, the kind of money you're talking could get you the superb Herron VTPH2A phono stage (about $3000) and Origin Live Conqueror arm (about $6k) and you would be shocked how much better that will be. You will also at this point be done with arms and phono stages! Those are pretty much lifetime keepers. Then later on some day mount the Conqueror on a better table, be amazed all over again. There's no one right way to do this. 

Thanks cardani. I wasn’t sure about Vertere’s suspension. I was told by someone who does own the Vertere that the standard Red Line wiring and cables were very,very,very good. So, I’ll take your advice on that.

I honestly haven’t researched and don’t know a lot about these things like the uni pivot or gimbal tonearm etc. I’ve only known the Rega RB900. I ’ve read about the Vector 4 and have heard about the Origin Conqueror. The thing with my Basis plinth is only a Basis Vector can drop into the pre cut hole. Otherwise I have to send it back to Basis for a new hole cut or new acrylic plinth...Another reason to move on and up from the 2001

millercarbon- Nice turntable! Interestingly, I recently pulled out my Radio Shack Bulk demagnetizer after reading about demagnetizing LP’s.I bought my Basis 2001 in 2000. Haven’t played LP’s in 8 years. Yeah. I know. But when i tap on the plinth, the table shimmy’s like it always has. So, maybe I’m lucky and the fluid is still there.

The Herron VTPH2A is now on my phono drive list. It must best Vertere’s PHONO-1 considerably as it costs more than 2x the phono-1. I think I paid $1600 for my McCormack Micro Phono Drive in 2000.....
I know there is no one right way to do this but I’d like to be in the neighborhood of doing it right. I just want to do this once. The simple thing about the Vertere MG-1/SG-1 is the factory will mount the tonearm properly. But is the SG-1 carbon fiber tonearm majorly outclassed by the Vector 4 or Origin Conqueror? At $2350, the price difference suggests it does but I don’t know. I suppose I could always just buy the MG-1 and put on another tonearm.

Your pods are dry. The table should not "shimmy". The pods are nothing more than a spring inside an aluminum cylinder. There's paddles attached to the spring. The whole thing is supposed to be full of silicone damping fluid. The idea is the spring isolates the table from movement and the fluid damps the spring. So you have the spring but not the damping. Its questionable whether the damping helps or not, you would have to add to find out. But for sure its gone. 

Incidentally, when it comes time to ship the pods are removed, compressed, and they screw together with an o-ring that prevents the fluid leaking out. That was how after 10 years I discovered my fluid was all gone! 

The Herron sits right at a price/performance point where there's only maybe one or two (if that) close in performance, and you are looking at into five figures to do significantly better. My Conqueror is a dozen years old. It replaced the Graham 2.2. Its not merely better, its in another league. Plus with OL the phono leads are integral so no money spent on interconnects. At this level that alone is worth a grand or more. Not to mention the headaches of finding the right one.  

Tone arm mounting is simple. Most of the people convinced its all so hard have never actually done it. Once you do its like, D'oh! No big. I made a couple trial plinths before settling on the one I have now. Would not believe how much money people wind up spending simply because they are afraid to try. 

With arms, as with turntables, its hard to go wrong and you pretty much get what you pay for in terms of sound quality. That's not all there is to it though. These things have to be set up and used, and some designs make that a whole lot harder or easier than others. I bought the Graham simply because it uses a removable armwand and comes with a jig that makes cartridge alignment super easy and precise. But all the extra connections are bad for sound quality, something I never realized until going to the Conqueror. 

In general I think that arms that are made by tone arm companies like Origin Live tend to be way better than arms made by turntable companies like VPI. Likewise turntables made by turntable specialists like Kuzma tend to be better than VPI. Not to knock VPI, same goes for Pro-ject, Rega, anyone else making all in ones. 

Not to knock any of those brands. They are what they are. They exist for a reason. Not everyone is capable of or wants to do the work of figuring out what to use and how to put it all together. Those who do can achieve truly outstanding results. If they do it right. Those who aren't into all that can still do quite well buying one of these other rigs. Its as important to understand yourself as the product you are buying.

Thank you for your thorough explanation. While this is sorta new to me, I am trying to do as much research as possible.

You are correct about the Basis pods. When I push the plinth down, I hear metal on metal contact inside the pods. It must be the springs I’m feeling.

Your advice is solid. So, if I go beyond the OL Conqueror and Herron VTPH2A, considering I want/need to upgrade anyhow, which t.t.’s jive best with those 2. Or, which ones would be a good choice?

If you believe that arms should be made by tonearm companies and t.t.’s by t.t. companies and considering how you feel about all in ones, taking into account that Touraj of Vertere started out making t.t.’s with the Roksan and should know analog pretty well, where does your thoughts fall on Vertere? That the turntable is good? But the tonearm maybe not as good?

If I need to stay below a certain budget, the $1000 Vertere phono-1 may be good enough a phono drive..

@vinylshadow  Roksan  still makes the Xerxes20plus, which I think is still as good as the Vertere Mg 1. They recently intruduced a new unipivot arm with it called SARA, not the old entry Nima.  But you could also get the table with no arm and get the OL Conqueror with it or the audio origami p7 which I heard is very good. Also the Xerxes tonearm board is decoupled from the plinth and you could order the table for any other tonearm hole, I use mine this days with a SMEV.