Help Picking a turntable

Thanks @mofimadness !  It has been great though it helps that she loves music, turntables, and is my office manager :p

Hello everyone,

Thank you all so much for your great advice. I have now spent two months researching and listening to any turntable set up I could find. After two months of researching, listening, and going back to Soundings 4 different times to listen to the system there on various phono stages, and agonizing over what I should do (should I buy the best sound I heard, should I start at the lower end and work my way up), I found that Rod at Soundings seemed to be the most knowledgeable of the people I spoke to at stores here in Denver, and since I really liked his set up and the sound I heard, I pulled the trigger on the turntable/arm/head/cartridge -- still looking for and trying to figure out a phono stage. Anyway, Rod had a good deal on the woodpecker turntable where it came with a Jelco Arm, an Arche headshell and an ortofon Cardenza bronze cartridge, and he threw in some analysis plus cables. He said that woodpecker was changing distributors and the old distributor was getting rid of the rest of its inventory and was running a special, so I got all that for about $8k (more than I wanted to spend, but that system at Soundings was the best I heard by a long shot). I agonized for a long time over whether to start lower than that, but I fell in love with the sound of the set-up at Soundings that I decided to splurge a bit.   I'm still agonizing over the phono stage. I heard the PH9 by ARC, and it was pretty nice. The boulder was fantastic too, but at $13,000 a bit pricey. Been checking the audiogon phono stages everyday looking for something used that might work well and hoping to find a good deal on some used equipment to save the money (as I overspent on the turntable). I understand that if I go too low on the phono stage it might not work so great with my system, so I have to take that into account. By the way, for any of you going to RMAF, Rod will have his woodpecker along with the boulder amp/preamp/phono stage at RMAF with the rockport speakers. I told him he could borrow my turntable to have at the store for his party on Friday night after RMAF so he didn't have to lug the turntable back and forth, which he seemed to appreciate.   If you all have any more thoughts on phono stages, I'd love to hear them.   But again, thank you all so much for the advice: I thought about what everyone said, I went and listened to a whole range of different turntables, and I think (and hope) I will love the turntable I bought.  I greatly appreciate everyone's thoughts and advice here - thank you for taking the time to respond. 

Hello Everyone,

so I finally got my system all set up and at the house.  I found a good boulder phono stage used here on Audiogon, so I got the same system I heard at Rod's store.  It sounds fantastic.  It sounds so much better than the cd/digital on my system.  Thanks again everyone for all the help and advice. 

I want to thank @gasherbaum for posting the final outcome. So many OPs do not. If anyone stumbles across this while researching their own journey, I have a few suggestions.

First, a real good set of headphones helps when your schlepping around for demos. They at least take different speakers out of the equation.

Second, I wouldn't let a high cost phonostage compromise my budget on the TT/TA/cartridge/cables. I got a used Musical Surroundings Phonomena II for $295 until I find something that will best it at a reasonable cost. It is quite capable of revealing subtle differences between cartridges and the way they are set up. I am still looking for something I am willing to spend more on, and I have the best turntable and arm I will ever need. Cartridges are another story. I can't seem to stop collecting them.