Basis Turntables: Worth it or Ripoff?

madavid, This & your tonearm thread are absolutely ridiculous. Be happy with what you have & when you can move on. Or just move on & leave our happy little community alone.  

Table builders that make damping vibration generated from the playing of the record itself (energy dissipating platter, clamping systems design to dissipate vibrations generated by the playing of the record, extremely rigid tonearms designed to transmit away energy fed into the tonearm from the cartridge being shaken by the tracking of the groove) do sound dramatically quieter.  Surface imperfections of the record that cause a sharp impulse do not resonate and prolong the even so they pass quickly and sound much less obtrusive.  That is particularly obvious with the Basis table/arm, particularly with vacuum hold-down. 

I've also heard this type of performance from the bigger ClearAudio table/arm combinations.  

if I was ever to buy another turntable, it would be a Basis.

Funny as I found this thread for some reason.  I know it's old, but it's still relevant.  I sold my 1400 to Tomic.  I miss it e very day.  It was the best TT under 5000 that I auditioned.  Yes, ti was that good as he states and that's the discontinued 1400.  I have MS and have an issue getting up every 20 minutes to clean and change a record.  

I have The Memory Player with every update for digital.  It's the best digital server, streamer that I have ever listened to and I went this route because I can't do analog for the most part.  I now am thinking about getting a simple all in one TT to get to hear my albums that I can't find in digital.  I will MISS that Basis 1400 greatly.  I've heard most of the TT offerings in the Basis price ranges (new not used TT's).  Basis and the Linn LP12 and one of the VPI tables just sound incredible in the under 6k or so range.  Basis may be the best value table that I've heard.