If you have such sensitive ears you might need to spend a lot of money for something like a VPI with flywheel (around $6K). The upper end Technics are really good but their power supplies are not very stable and Technics stopped making the replacement chipsets. KAB electroacoustics makes a beefy outboard power supply for the 1200 which I intend to get in the next few months:
SL-1200 power supply
There is the possibility that you have a lot of electrical noise and (perhaps) voltage fluctuations in your listening room. Even a quartz lock mechanism has to fight the noise background in order to regulate speed and is taxing on the system's performance. There was a really good discussion on the subject of TT power supplies and their effect on the music:
Turntable Power Source Benefits
I think that in your budget range the Technics 1200 w/ the outboard power supply is as good as it gets. Otherwise get ready to spend a lot more (perhaps a Teres will please you). I recently listened to a friend's system that has an Oracle fed by a Hewlett Packard laboratory grade power supply and although good, clean and musical sounding, it did not have the pace and the steadiness of my modded 1200.
SL-1200 power supply
There is the possibility that you have a lot of electrical noise and (perhaps) voltage fluctuations in your listening room. Even a quartz lock mechanism has to fight the noise background in order to regulate speed and is taxing on the system's performance. There was a really good discussion on the subject of TT power supplies and their effect on the music:
Turntable Power Source Benefits
I think that in your budget range the Technics 1200 w/ the outboard power supply is as good as it gets. Otherwise get ready to spend a lot more (perhaps a Teres will please you). I recently listened to a friend's system that has an Oracle fed by a Hewlett Packard laboratory grade power supply and although good, clean and musical sounding, it did not have the pace and the steadiness of my modded 1200.