I’m a big fan of Kuzma and have had several of his tables. I had the original Reference, which is a very nice table especially for its combination of mass and built-in suspension. I gather that table has been updated. I’ve also owned and still use the XL, which is way more table than necessary and requires a lot of work to isolate given its weight, making the Reference seem even more sensible and not only for price. His 4 Point arms are very well regarded. I’ve had his Airline lateral tracker for years--and will soon have the newest 4Point here- the small, 9 inch version without the VTA/offset pillar. It will be interesting to compare its performance with the linear tracker. I would think a Reference plus that smaller 4 Point arm would be a sensible, well made, long term table. I can say that his products are exceptionally well made, robust and they are well supported-- Franc is very hands-on and with Scot Markwell as distributor here in the States (if you are here), you’ve got superb people behind the product. (Not that any of it ever had any issues- the only issue I ever had was with the air compressor for the Airline and that’s a whole other thing!).
Lot’s of good tables out there and arms too. This truly is the golden age of analog for buyers.
PS: with the Reference you won’t have to spend on fancy isolation. For the XL, I use both an HRS platform and a big Minus K (to support 250 lbs). The Reference is pretty much plug and play compared to the set up for the XL.
I just installed a Koetsu yesterday and am pretty blow away by it, after many years of Airtights and before that, Lyras.
You should have fun with this! You’ve got a more than adequate budget to get top tier sound out of LPs.....
