Turntable is not a precision instrument, even the very best turntables sound different. High mass is no guarantee of high performance and wood can have a place in tomearms and cartridges.
Mmporsche, if you still have your Parasound phono, I suggest you keep it for now and address the phono issue after you have chosen the table/arm/cartridge. You want, if I am right, a close to near reference level phono. Don't rush it, the Parasound would do just fine for the time needed to settle on something much better.
I was thinking about Otari deck too. Studer would be better but much more expensive. Long live the tape. Problem is that it doesn't live too long, for archival purpose it's vinyl. There are some places that claim to have master tape dubbs for sale, I think there was a thread here on the subject. But even if true, the prices are quite high, a few hundred dollars for each. My main idea is not to get those, I am interested in music that was recorded but never officially released. And it is on tape. Don't ask me how I am going to get it, I don't know yet. But I do know what I would be looking for.
