The best TT system for under 30K

Consider the Nottingham Analogue offerings, particularly the Dais and the Deco. They favour the Trans-Fi Terminator air bearing tonearm, which is itself a tremendous value.

I use a near-Dais standard NA TT with a Terminator TA for mono, with a Miyajima Zero cartridge. It's the best you can do south of an air bearing TT. Which I also have.

IMO.

Path to my upgrade:
- Turntables first and foremost. If result by adding quality TT alone can compare or beat the (my) reference system I auditioned at the dealer then I will stop here, otherwise continue to below steps in order;

I like this plan, and you are in the same budget area as I have been researching for some time now. I am very thorough and careful with my upgrades!

Top of my list is the Onkk Cue. Do your research. Paul Beckett has a masterpiece here. No lube/no wear ceramic bearing, astronomical accuracy speed control, designed to last forever, infinitely user adjustable playback speeds. Comes in right at $30k. If you don’t get that then I am indifferent as there are no bad turntables at this level.

But I don’t know about you but I am not made of money. Have to be very cost-effective, especially at this level. Can easily spend $5k just on the interconnect. Which is one reason I recommend Origin Live Conqueror. Or any Origin Live arm. The phono lead is hard wired. The improves sound by eliminating a lot of harmful connections, and saves big money- not to mention trial and error trying to find the right wire.

On the arm I mount the Soundsmith SG1. The strain gauge saves even more money, as it eliminates the phono stage. Again, do your research. There are shootouts with highly experienced listeners saying you could easily spend $10k to $20k or more just for the phono stage alone, never mind the cartridge, trying to reach the same level of performance.

This front end will probably be closer to $40k or $45k than $30k. However I am confident when you hear the Cue you will understand that as high as it is, it is really only pointing the way to levels even way beyond.

Congratulations on waking up to the reality of analog. You ain’t seen nothing yet! Onkk Cue, OL, SG1, you will be in seventh heaven!

Thanks a million for the suggestions folks! WOW, lots of suggestions and all seems great. There are a lot of brands you guys mentioned that I never heard before and all are looking interesting.  I do however have a problem with auditioning in my particular country Indonesia, it’s a third world country so we don’t have much choice to audition, we do have official dealers for a lot of brands but most are catalogue sales.
Given my country’s lack of audition possibilities, perhaps I should rephrase my original question. What lower priced alternative than Kuzma XL DC that would give me the almost exact same sonic characteristics? I do not want to risk my investment by going to totally different sonic characteristics TT which actually might be also very good perhaps even better than Kuzma XL DC. Everyone’s taste are different and I happen to find my match with the Kuzma XL DC. I would’ve bought the Kuzma XL DC if it’s not outrageously expensive. Perhaps I should stay within Kuzma range to not risk disappointment? Do all the line from Kuzma posses the same sonic characteristics? Does Kuzma have a house sound? I cannot find any deeper discussion about Kuzma in any forum and it’s a bit frustrating given what I heard on the dealer’s system. Unfortunately the official dealer only have one Kuzma TT on stock and that is XL DC. The thing is I can actually afford Kuzma XL DC if I really want to but despite my long history with audio this will be my first rodeo with turntable ever so I am a bit leery of spending that much on my first attempt at TT. I used to always swore on my future grave that I will never touch TT ever, especially after owning good streamer with Roon and boy there is always first for something LOL. 
Perhaps ordering Kuzma R with 4 point 9 tonearm and Miyajima cartridge sounds viable? OR just please somebody tell me XL DC is the best ever and there is no other that can compare so I can just jump the cliff and took the plunge? LOL!! Damn this audio bug, my wife gonna hate me for the next one month. 

"sorry I am confused ....is correct Frank Kuzma."

Franc Kuzma, (ne Frank Kuzma).

Millercarbon,
thanks a lot, your description sounds very assuring, detailed and authoritative. I will give it a strong look and see if I can find the dealer locally. Do you mind explaining the sound signature of the front end mentioned?