long term audio guy seeking vinyl comeback

Hi to all.
I am new here, having only posted a few posts several years back and I am looking for some opinions on suitable turntable options but first a bit of background.

I have been an audio enthusiast since I was 13 and have had all manner of very high quality systems over several decades including many high end turntables.

Back in the late 80's my 1500+ record collection was stolen and destroyed in a fire, many were irreplaceable and I had no heart to continue in vinyl,such was my devastation, so I gradually adopted compact disc as a music format. The early players were of course, exponentially inferior to my vinyl set up, but as improvements became evident I have eventually come to a point where I was/am very satisfied with my system.

It is,by no means, high end as I just left the never ending carousel of change-for-change-sake well and truly behind. I now have a Luxman Class A integrated and Luxman D-05 and Rega Saturn cd players,feeding Kelly KT-3 and B&W PM1 speakers,with good cables and stands. Modest indeed, but it always moves me and I no longer have the need to impress anyone or be the kid -with- the -coolest system.

Now to the crux of my post.
I am for various reasons wanting to return to vinyl, not as a replacement for my large CD library, but just to run concurrently with and be an enhancement to, my music listening. I don't plan on ascending the heights of my vinyl salad days, but given my background, I just could not listen to anything that was not musical,or which failed to incite an emotional response to the music.

My cd based system absolutely does that, but everyone is urging me to try vinyl again because it just sounds better so I purchased a vintage JVC direct drive QL-5 and had it professionally serviced and set up. I also had a brand new Denon 301 LOMC cart fitted.

Fast forward a few weeks and I am here wondering where the magic of vinyl went. In comparison to my cd through the same amp, same speakers, cables room etc and on the exact same album on CD and vinyl in direct AB testing, I cannot ,with the best will in the world, work out why my CD makes me sit and become lost in the music and the same music on vinyl sounds thin,hollow and one dimensional.

Of course I get the fact that the QL-5 isn't high end but the Denon is a very decent cart ( brand new ) and the turntable has been tweaked by a very talented friend who lives and breathes vinyl and 'tables and absolutely knows how to get the best from any TT.

I do apologise for the long post, but it is necessary to establish context to my question and request for assistance and suggestions, so the question is, what level turntable do I need so that it is
A. Competitive with my CD players in re production quality.......... and
B. Gives me a similar amount of emotional engagement with the music ?

I really do want this to work and I really do seek the vinyl magic and I must also stress that this is not intended as a discussion on the merits of one format over the other.

So the simple question is how do I get the mojo and what do I need to do/buy in a TT/cart to at least equal my cd replay, or as many people tell me, surpass it?

Any and all reasonable suggestions and opinions are most welcome

Thanks for reading this diatribe

Hi to all. Firstly I want to thank you guys for the responses so far and also for the welcome....back

As an update. I have been doing some more listening and although things are not prefect, there is a definite improvement.

I think the cart is settling in now and with about 50 hours of use later, it seems a lot more open and detailed. It is still somewhat shrill and I do plan on experimenting with some other ( affordable ) carts to see if they may be better suited to my TT.
Some people have told me that the limitations of the tonearm on the JVC may be the limiting factor and that the Denon is probably at the upper end of the arm's capabilities. I do tend to agree with this and I think that I also may have expectations somewhat beyond what the TT can ultimately do.
I also tried out my TT on some other people's systems and the results were fairly consistent,although the cart loading of 100ohms eventually seemed to give the best results. I discovered this as my Luxman has the 100ohm setting for LOMC carts as default and it sounded better on my amplifier than several others.
In another system where there was a separate phono stage with variable cart loading, the 100ohms setting was by far the most pleasing, so I am fortunate that my Luxman has this setting as it is the best setting for the Denon cart and it really is a very fine phono stage in my amplifier so that isn't the limitation.

My plan, from here on, is to wait a few months and see how the sound evolves and then if I am not satisfied I may look at a better TT but I am only prepared to go to a certain level of expenditure ( perhaps $1500 AUD )

In the meantime, any other ideas and suggestions for what may be the next step, would be most welcome

Hope everyone here had a very nice Easter break