Having A Tough Time Justifying More Than One Table

I just realized, my office TT can also be a spare for the main system if needed for a short time.

You can get a dust cover with locking hinges on any top SOTA.

neonknight, you could just switch to decaf. OR ...  why not sell the two others and combine the funds for a second TT? 

@isochronism 

I have considered this too, and have gone back and forth. 

Now the Well Tempered Reference is an odd duck of a table, and sounds very nice but is of limited appeal to the current vinyl market. I watched one languish on Audiogon for months with an asking price of $3K for arm and table from an original owner. Zero interest, and perhaps that is due to its 90's era cosmetics. 

However, that arm is excellent if you are able to pair it with medium or higher compliance cartridges. It originally came with an Ikeda 9 on it, and that combo was problematic at best. I recently installed my ZYX 4D onto it and it sounds very nice and tracks extremely well. It could be that second table if I want, as I suspect the arm is as good or better than the one on my Brinkmann Bardo, which would be a far easier table to sell. 

However, the Well Tempered would never accept another arm, and the Brinkmann would. So at that point I would be locked into two tables that I would not want to pull cartridges off and on with any regularity. As I think about it, I wonder how many times I would want to exchange arm boards on the SOTA, and how good is it for its overall health. Perhaps every few years as I would remove cartridges for maintenance. 

Right now this is a thinking through the process and what my alternatives are. I sure clean my system up if I can get down to two tables, as my Esoteric phono stage accepts two inputs, so I could remove the Graham Slee Accession and Elevator combo that supports the third table. 

As I sit right now I think moving the Brinkmann on makes the most sense, but its such a darn nice direct drive table. Although when push comes to shove, the SOTA is better in every respect, so it becomes expendable. 

@ mijostyn

The SOTA is understated in its looks, and it does look like the more basic tables such as the Nova or Sapphire, but its an interesting table none the less. The aluminum sub chassis is well done, and when you compare it to other high end subchassis on other suspended tables, it compares quite well. The magnetic bearing assembly is as good as anything out there, and the new platter composition also sounds well balanced tonally compared to previous versions. The motor assembly is not as complex as the multi pulley arrangements, but with the Phoenix Engineering speed control I think it does the job correctly, and is not an over priced over engineered solution. The composite arm boards are pretty darn fine also.

All in all it seems like a well executed design. Perhaps the SME V limits the overall overall performance of the table, and there is something to be gained there. It's just a thought.