GeoSynch wrote:

You may want to do your own research on this at www.stereophile.com
Sift through its archives for what Michael Fremer has written on the subject.

Thanks for pointing to this site. Fremer's stuff is fascinating to read
but he's reviewing stuff that's way out of my range -- from a few
thousand dollars to 73 thousand dollars! I love my LPs, want to protect
them and have them sound as good as possible, but I have other interests
in life as well, including food, clothing and housing.
There doesn't seem to be much help out there for someone who wants
a superlative COMPROMISE -- somewhere far short of the outer limits of
what's technologically possible.
A good machine under a thousand dollars (or even 2 thousand
dollars!) capable of playing LPs, 45s and 78s, putting as little wear on
the discs as possible, but delivering the kind of a full rich sound that
CDs just can't provide.
Given those middle-of-the-road parameters, is there anything out
there better than the Thorens TD-190?
How much better would this machine perform than my old Sony PS-LX2?