Since a few weeks I wanted to come back here and thank again everyone for the advice in August. After auditioning the Sota, after thinking a lot, I went for the Rock Reference. The Sota didn't have the same solidity and effortlessness in complex musical passages (of course, this may be depending on cartridges and tonearms too) and it was tonally less coherent. The Rock Reference makes a cheap Technics MM cartridge (with Jico SAS stylus) sound totally different and incredibly much better than other turntables. But of course the next step will be a new cart... Maybe even a not so expensive AT-OC9 could be a good idea, since I feel that the Reference is probably never going to sound harsh and to suffer from resonances in the higher end of the frequency range.
I'll see. In the meantime, thanks for the advice and a nice Christmas time to everyone!
I'll see. In the meantime, thanks for the advice and a nice Christmas time to everyone!