Turntable upgrade recommendations: SME vs AMG vs Technics vs other

Dear @drbond  :I suggested the SME 30 Anniversary TT or from SME the 15A with not a 12" tonearm but a shorter one ( here in the link you can read why not the 12". ).

In reality air bearing is a very old TT kind of designs that in theory and for the audiophiles could means something really as a " dream design " but it's not exactly that way. SME has nothing to envy against those air bearing TT designs.

Micro Seiki in the early 80's was one of the proposers and even that theirs TT were not immune to vibrations as the SME. Btw, TechDas is Micro Seiki and nothing really new but its high price.

At the end a TT needs to have accurated speed stability in the short time periods and obviously over the time and must be extremely good damped to avoid internal an external vibrations/resonances of every kind, those are the main targets in any TT and that's what the SME does.

In the other side the FM Acoustics 223 phono stage has a way higher quality design and excecution of that design that your beloved Ypsilon that are in an inferior league no matter what.

The Ortofon cartridge I named is really competitive with any other you can have in mind, as I said it you can't go wrong with it.

Here the link to know why shorter arm instead 12" ones and this information comes by a SAT designer manufacturer tonearms. 12" is marketing for very low knowledge audiophiles level:

R.

@mijostyn 

Thanks for your input on air bearings. I agree that air in all directions is important - how not when I can hear the sleeve bearings of my 2W precision motor? Even through a belt! 

Didn't know that air in all directions was so rare. That's quite a surprise to me. But then I don't shop at the 100k mark - I'd rather build it.

@rauliruegas 

"SME has nothing to envy against those air bearing TT designs."

Not even a completely silent bearing?

MODS - attention please.

When trying to post, I am sometimes asked to prove that I'm not a robot. But the last inch of screen is obscured, and the page will not scroll. Could you pass this bug along to the systems people, please?

I had a Nottingham Analogue Spacedeck turntable for many years. Then I switched to vintage Lenco L78 on a heavy birch plywood plinth. I was amazed how much more accurately the Lenco idler drive conveys all the nuances of the rhythm compared to Nottingham! Especially the difference obvious on classical piano and Jazz built on small rhythm nuances like Modern Jazz Quartet. In addition bass texture was far better on Lenco as well instrument separation. Then I bought a vintage direct drive EMT 948.
In my opinion, belt drive technology is initially flawed. A decent turntable can be made, but it will cost more than a good quality idler or direct drive. And as result of less accurate PRAT reproduction, belt drive will always inferiors in musicality.