Calling all Sota fans.

The sota tables have survived the test of time which says a lot about their sound and quality because usually the life span for a company in the high end is ten years, but when a company makes it over forty years, that is saying something about the product.

I now know Sota tables are really good, so has anyone had a Kuzma, Techdas, Technics or TW Acustic table and sold or traded it for a Sota table because the Sota sounded better? that is the question I should have asked when I started this discussion. Tough question but if the Sota is better then the tables above the question needs to be asked.

Before I bought the Sota Cosmos I looked at several other tables carefully, Basis, SME and the Kuzma Ref2 and M. I would have like to have gotten a Schroder LT arm but it requires a table that can take a 12" arm. Sota's do not. I looked at the Kuzmas in detail and I have nothing bad to say about them. They appear well made. I could have gone for the M but I did not trust it's isolation and there was no way for me to test it in detail. I went for the Cosmos Vacuum and Schroder CB instead. The Basis and SME tables are IMHO overpriced. The Sota has a magnetic thrust bearing, vacuum clamping, a great drive system and a suspension I know works. It is also a joy to use. You don't have to be super careful around it. You can put your hand on while playing, even bang on it and you will hear nothing on your speakers. It has a friction hinged, isolated dust cover which you can close during play. For all the tables except the M I would have to make one.
It might just be that old people do not like change..........

...long ago, an ad pointed out that masters are cut tangentially....so it made perfect sense to play the lp the same way.

Not long after, I got to prove it to my own satisfaction.
Why complicate playback with issues of basic geometry?

Haven't owned a pivoted arm since an AR tt.....

Yes.  That long....;)

@garkat62 

I don't know if the analysis can be as simple as A>B>C or anything along those lines. When you get to upper tier tables and analog equipment in general my experience is they sound more similar than different as they succeed in removing so many causes of coloration that effects analog playback. The next thing that comes into play is that very few systems are set up with the exact same high end arms, cartridges, and phono stages so that only the drive unit can be isolated and evaluated. Couple that with the fact that certain arms, and therefore certain cartridges can shine on one type of table architecture but possibly not another. So how do you really create a level playing field to evaluate these tables?

The best most of us common people can hope for is a chance to hear an analog package that contains the table we are interested in, and have it in a quality system and make our mind up based on what we hear and what we need or appreciate in analog playback. 

For me the SOTA Cosmos Eclipse w a SME V and Transfiguration Audio Proteus is a fine analog playback system, one of the better ones I have heard. With that being said I also enjoy a Scheu Analog Das Laufwerke No 2, and that is a completely different design concept, yet performs at a similar level. 

At some point you have to make a choice based on what your preferences are and immerse yourself in the experience.