I left the USN in '72 ...bought my stereo system (sight unseen) from a PX catalog . Pioneer receiver & speakers and a Garrard TT. ()

It wasn't till '76 that I was able to upgrade anything. Walked into a thrift store and saw a pristine TT across the room. Went over and it was a Dual 701 with owners manual and nary a scratch anywhere , and had a V-15T3 mounted. No price on it.
I had grown up with nice German Leica's & Rollei's. .... and could see the quality aura around it.
Took it up to the register and in my best redneck voice asked "Whadda want for the RECORD PLAYER" ?? In an equal voice the clerk replied "TWO DOLLARS AND 99 CENTS" . I hurriedly ripped out my $3 and got started on the upgrade path.

The 701 was Duals TOTL TT at the time. I think their first DD. It was big and heavy and beautiful. Built in leveling bubble, adjustable angle strobe , fully auto and quiet as can be.
I used it up till about 10 years ago until the PS died. parts NA. sold it for a couple hundred to a Dual rebuilding house , they even paid boxing and shipping. I gave them the sled, but kept the V-15
That cart is still playing in the PL-530. For all my time , it has been running through the MM inputs on receivers/preamps.
Just recently I acquired a ROTEL phono EQ. Am not going to do the "veil is lifted" routine , but the result in surely better. The setup sounded nicer than it ever has.
If you don't already have one, when you do get that dream TT , an outboard preamp/eq may be a worthy addition.
I looked up the model ...RQ-9708X . You can get a nice one for not too much, but there are many other choices available.
A good location for finding V-15/T3's is defunct Philips TT's. It was the OEM cart. Just add stylus and away you go.