Sota or Technics

@mijostyn - I disagree with you. Walls do not jump with foot falls. I have a P8 on a wall shelf on top of a Townshend seismic isolation platform. So it is pretty damn isolated. The solid steel shelf is directly screwed into 4 studs and believe me - it is not going anywhere, especially since my table weighs only 10 pounds. That's why Rega sells shelves. Mine is a Project since it accommodates my tru-lift.

That may not be quite as good as an SME (or others costing >$5K with arm) but having an RB 880 arm is excellent. I think we agree on most points though. SOTA has had some ups and downs. Rega is not going anywhere (or is Technics, VPI, and a few others). I tend to not want to get involved with a boutique turntable vendor.

If I wanted to spend some mad $$ on a $5K+ table, I would look at all your choices that are stable companies.

I'm not a DD fan, but I think it is a good concept if executed properly. Hard to separate the motor though. The devil is in the details. I heard about a new VPI DD table that is supposedly excellent, but it is up there in price and I do not like unipivot arms and I think their Fatboys that are 3D printed are crap. I guess you could put a 3rd party arm on it, but I like buying an arm and table that are designed for each other if possible. I think turntable nirvana is a top SME.

@sokogear, Get a stethoscope and listen to the wall with your system running. The Townsend platform is certainly a step in the right direction but it is not as effective as a good suspension or a MinusK platform.
If you had a Sota you could put it anywhere in the room, on a collapsible card table and it would have superior isolation to what you are doing.
I think however under the circumstances you are doing the best you can with the resources you have. So, I know you have an appreciation of what isolation means to a turntable. In the future when you feel like upgrading you have a direction to head in. I think you should consider one of the tables I mentioned above. In the mean while the P8 is a great value and it has a good arm.  

thanks @mijostyn - I beleive you - no stethoscope required. I actually spoke with Max Townshend himself (nice guy, not a real businessman though, more like a mad scientist, which is a shame, because he has some fantastic products including a turntable no longer made called the Rock, which is supposedly one of the best tables ever - he could have been a higher end Rega) when I was buying the Townshend platform and he told me ALL about the microtremors in the earth that his systems counteract. He has studied earthquakes, etc. in a real way. They are present on the floor or wall of course all the time.

Like I said though, the wall has no footfalls, which are the worst, which I was having with Max's platform because I have a suspended floor over a crawl space and those low frequencies hit at the wrong point and were additive with his platform. It sounded so much better that I was willing to deal with the foot falls, but once I decided to put in the wall shelf (and my wife didn't throw a fit) I have the vibration/isolation as optimized as possible. It sounds incredible, so I don't see myself changing it as it is the strongest part of my system. I know internal isolation within a table is the most desirable, but I would probably have to at least double my TT investment.  Law of diminishing returns....

Maybe speakers down the road. My KEF R500s are only a year old, and they replaced a 25 year old pair of Alons, so based on my previous behavior/experience my system may be set for a long time, other than cartridge maintenance (VDH MC One Special) unless the distributor makes me an offer I can't refuse when that stylus wears out and I get something else. Just got the cartridge completely replaced in August, so I'm just kicking back for a few years most likely. 

What's your system and where are you from?

What do you think of the new entry level SME table for like $9K?

Forget it - I just saw your system you posted. Pretty nice, I must say. Way beyond mine, but I am not a fan of electrostatics as they are very directional from what I hear, and the dustcover on your table is attached through those hinges which bother me because it is better to remove it completely when playing and when I used to have to worry about that on my old Rega P5, I forgot sometimes if I put the dustcover back in the hinges when stopped paying for the time being. I guess I should just have never put it back in the hinges but it is hard for me to change a mindless routine after 10 years with a table, and with the P8 it is impossible to screw that up.

You really are into the digital stuff big time. Do you prefer it to vinyl or does it depend if you can find the vinyl of what you want to play?

My potential interest in digital would be if there were a lot of music I couldn't find on vinyl, which is not the case. I hate to say it, but I like what I like and the newest group that I have any vinyl of is REM (I know that dates me). Of course I have new records from people still alive, but they've all been around a while.