Not your run-of-the-mill, used spinner.

I ordered one to give away in this year’s secret Santa drawing. Can’t wait to see the look on the winner’s face!

@tablejockey - you don’t see many of those used, but in the Tech Das line, I think the AF 3 Premium may be the sweet spot. I use a big Minus K under my Kuzma XL and it does a very good job isolating footfalls in an old Victorian house.

At the price of this, there are lots of alternatives, including old EMT idlers, the big Basis tables, a few of the Kuzmas (which will come in lower in price, but there’s always the arm cost- Franc’s sapphire is supposed to be good, but I haven’t heard it).

I think you can buy a state of the art turntable that allows a couple arms, use the Minus K and still come in under that budget. Even the old Micro-Seiki top tier tables don’t go for anywhere near this, but may need some attention. (didn’t someone remanufacture motors for those?)

To me, the choice of table is partly a question of system balance. Good arm, the "right" cartridge for the voicing of the system, the phono stage, all play a part.

Still a nice table, I don’t begrudge anybody who seeks high performance from a vinyl front end as long as they know how to go about (or have help in) putting it together. You can hear the differences if the system is up to the task.

PS: On Aja, I don’t get why audiophiles regard this record so highly. It is a very dry sounding recording. The Cisco cut, which I bought years ago, is even more arid than the original AB pressing. As for Hotel California, there was a case where a woman stabbed her roommate for continuing to play Eagles after she asked him to stop. I have all those records, but rarely listen to them.

What I look for is the natural ambience in a recording that was done with minimal post-production, where you can hear the acoustic instruments, the room and the natural decay. Most rock records cannot give you that- I have shelves of old classic rock that I rarely listen to; I usually opt for small combo post bop jazz. Those records will tell you more- recorded without a lot of studio tricks.

Who ever buys it, I’d love to hear it In hopefully a system that’s appropriate.

Whart-

There are 2 things with the table spec I question.

Why didn't the original buyer spec a 2nd arm for mono, and with all the choices of arms at this level, why did the previous owner choose the unipivot Graham?

The unipivot as you know is one of those endless debates.

Regardless, I'm certain that setup sounds amazing.

"On Aja, I don’t get why audiophiles regard this record so highly. It is a very dry sounding recording."

Agreed. That was my poke/goof  on us audio goofballs. I don't even like those two albums. I'm more of a SD CBAT or Pretzel Logic fan.I have read about the Eagles HC story. One can only hear that guitar solo so many times...

"What I look for is the natural ambience in a recording that was done with minimal post-production, where you can hear the acoustic instruments, the room and the natural decay. Most rock records cannot give you that- I have shelves of old classic rock that I rarely listen to; I usually opt for small combo post bop jazz. Those records will tell you more- recorded without a lot of studio tricks."

Yeah, if one really wants to play audio evaluator, I will go for small combo, straight ahead Jazz or quartet Classical. There are some "Pop Jazz" recordings with Ella or other diva that have scary real vocal performances I like to use at showrooms

Back to my choice of SD Pretel Logic-

I have the "black label" ABCD 808-A Terre Haute and the

ABCD 808-A Pittman white label promo.

Both are fanatastic. Neither one ISN'T  without the overall "dry"sound.  Not having  2 identical setups to play simultaneously can I tell which is the superior recording.

I don't own a copy of Hotel-GASP! I think I burned out in 1978.

@tablejockey - I think Graham was the original US distributor for Tech Das which would explain why his arm was on many. My recollection is that the distribution arrangement changed, a year or more ago?