Turntable upgrade recommendations: SME vs AMG vs Technics vs other

@craig The Sound Smith Strain Gauge sounds intriguing.  Looks like @millercarbon  has one also.  With my Sound Labs and Ypsilons, clarity and transparency seem to be what I appreciate most, but not a sterile, flat transparency, just a musical clarity, I suppose.  

The Ortofon Anna Diamond cartridge has also been recommended. . . 

Thanks for everyone else's recommendations to look at a few other TT.  Brinkmann is an option.  I didn't bother with TechDAS because I didn't want a $200k TT that looks like a space ship, although that's probably an oversight on my part, and perhaps I should look down the line in TechDAS.  

But overall, perhaps the cartridge is more important than the TT, in which case any of the above would be great choices. . .

The question came up a while back and as I recall virtually every single one of us with a lot of experience agreed the turntable and arm are more important than the cartridge.

The main reason being that no matter how good the cartridge is all it can do is output a signal that comes from wiggling back and forth. The better cartridges simply do a much better job of turning even the slightest wiggles into signal. But the cartridge has no freaking clue which wiggles are coming from the groove, and which ones are coming from the arm chattering around, the bearing rumbling, the motor speeding up and slowing down, etc etc. It dutifully turns all these into signal.

So your wonderful expensive cartridge will indeed sound better. Anyone and everyone who goes from budget to Koetsu will be floored. But what they will never know because they spent the money on the cartridge is how great their same old current one would sound on a really fine table and arm. 

That is where the experience comes in and that is where knowing the table matters more comes from.

The thing is with you budget, you can get the big 5 taken care of with extraordinary engineering and execution across all the important elements. table, arm, isolation, cartridge, phono pre. So for example in any of the TT mentioned this thread so far w exception of the low end Technics, you are going to get a world class bearing and speed control. Ditto w most of the arms mentioned, nobody at this level is using shoddy bearings, etc… my advice on the strain gauge is listen in your system before you buy, ditto the DS optical. Fortunately for me, this is easy as cultivating long term dealer relationships have been an enjoyable part of my journey. Hopefully you are enjoying yours. Finally, i would call Yip directly….hear what they think….

best

Jim

i am a record flipping robot fueled by Rye

How about ANY Kuzma table/arm combo?