Upgrade from TW Acustic Raven AC-3 to what?

Thuchan, you are so right. In the end all of us, except for Dertonearm who was in the business of turntable R&D, have opinions based on very narrow experience. That's possibly why it is of interest to consider the physical principles involved in the playing of an LP. Maybe science would take us closer to the highest form of the art. Anyway, it's fun.

DT, Yes, the energy must be conserved according to Newtonian Mechanics, but I believe it is dissipated as or converted to heat, as the cue ball rolls across the felt surface. The two masses (ball and table) are passive actors in this process; the bigger mass of the heavier slate would if anything more readily dissipate the energy in the ball than would a smaller mass of slate, or so it seems to me. I don't mean to preach; this is just me thinking out loud. I am waiting for my physics professor to correct me.

Lewm, well - pretty fruitless to discuss a long proven physical fact (which the longer running distance on the thicker slate plate billiard table is) or at least it direct (objective !) technical result - isn't it?
Well Thuchan - in fact we are not finished with billiard playing ( and to me it sounds more and more that we never will...) - but I am leaving the table now for good.
Cheers,
D.

Lewm, Dertonarm: You may continue billiard playing. I did`nt want stopping you. Maybe next year when we are facing new tables...

Getting back to the original question posed, why don't you try the new Basis Inspiration TT? It's their finest TT and it looks like a spectacular TT. Basis products have a great reputation for wonderful music reproduction.

On the other hand, have you tried more arm and cartridge combinations? You could even do this with adding a Graham Phantom MKII to the TW-Acustic with a couple of arm wands. Any high end analog dealer in your area should let you try out some of their demo cartridges over week ends. I know that Bryan at Analog Room San Jose, CA lets his high end customers do home demos. Maybe that's a way to get the sound you want without spending another $50K. After-all, you do have one of the very best TT's in the world.

If not that, then go the Walker route.

Good Luck!

Having ben a high end dealer and set up many turntables - Linn, Pink triangle, Roksan, Sota, Oracle, SP10's, Mapleknoll ( Walker ) etc yrs ago my conclusions are as follows ; go back to first principles - the stylus, arm, platter AND motor drive MUST be absolutely rigid and referenced to each other to obtain ultimate pitch stability. I have found that most suspended tables suffer considerable wow. Similarly if you consider the first princiles I espoused - air bearings are out, not rigid, that rules out the Walker, Da Vinci & Air bearing micro seiki's. You need to consider the bearings - the Raven has a teflon thrustpad as do many high end decks, thats like playing your record on a spongy pudding - the platter and cartridge coupling are not rigid. I currently run a Final Audio Parthenon - high mass, copper platter, all chassis components made of composite gunmetal, totally rigid and massive ac motor with a power supply that includes power regenerator for accurate voltage and hz etc. This designed in the 70's ( Absolute Sound ultimately wrote it off as they mounted it on an air bed - completely against the designers philosophy ). It is mounted on a custom stand with true mechanical grounding ala Goldmund. The only turntable I lust after is the Verdier - with ball installed in the bearing so it is grounded - but dial the air pressure so that the grounded bearing only sees 4-5 lb ala the Continuum. Tonearm recommendations - no air bearings again not rigid - I use Naim Aro as the unipivot has true single point grounding and is rigid given correct arm/cartridge matching. Cartridge recommendation - currently use an Ikeda - no cantilever slewing around creating time distortion, diamond mounted n a hoop - so speed of a Decca without the hassles. Direct drives - have 2 friends with SP10 MkIII's in custom plinths - I'm not convinced - the sound is chopped up ala digital - have reservations about direct drives with constant speed correction impacting stability. Non air bearing Micro Seiki's and Melco's are also on my list of resonable decks.