Turntable upgrade - worth the effort?

SOTA is indeed back in business. They are here in the Chicago area (formerly in Lemont, IL but now in Worth, IL). You could call them to see about having the table "tuned up," but it is going to cost you a pretty penny dealing directly with them, esp. as they will strongly recommend upgrades. I would go to www.sotaturntables.com and go to the "Dealers and Distributors" link to find someone closer to home.

If your cartridge is a MM, then you probably can find a replacement stylus and install it yourself. If it is a MC (which is most likely), then I would either get it re-tipped if economical (for many it's not!) or get a used one with limited hours from a seller on this site. I bought a low-hour Goldring Excel VX for a great price here!

Defintely grab the Sota. They make great gear. Dump the linear arm and mount the Rega. The Blue Point is toast. I personally like the BPS and have heard of having them retipped but for the price of new one why bother. The Shure 97 in a Rega arm on a Sota would be a waste of a good TT. Clean the TT yourself, invest the savings in some basic alignment tools and buy a decent cartridge. Should be able to turn it into a gem for around $300- $400 and basic setup and aligment is not as difficult as it sounds. A local dealer might tune it for you but your efforts would give you the chance to hear 99%.

Talk about a "freak thing". I logged into "my threads" today and this thread was there. As you can see, i had not posted to the thread prior to this, so i guess that it was calling me : )

As far as dealing with Sota directly, Donna and Kirk are very nice to work with. Donna basically handles all of the business end of things while Kirk does the labor, etc... Given the retail price of these tables and what is involved in doing a complete inspection via dis-assembly ( $65, which is fully credited should you choose to have them do work on the table ), their prices are pretty reasonable. Any of you that have ever tried taking one of these apart will understand where i'm coming from.

The biggest pain with this or any other TT is proper packing, etc... Out of all of the audio gear that gets shipped, TT's receive the most damage. This is especially true of high end models that use fancy suspensions and people forget to secure the bearings. Sota's have very specific packing instructions and custom made cartons with wooden support structures, so contact Donna if you need help in this area. Their shipping containers run about $60 - $65 apiece if i remember correctly.

Should you choose to go things on your own, Kirk is a VERY nice guy and will do whatever he can to help you along in terms of "hints" with setting things up.

As far as the Souther goes, put that old piece of junk in a box and then drop me an email. Rather than clutter the landfills with more garbage, i'll cover the costs of shipping and store it here in my "audio museum" at no charge to you : ) Sean
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