Basis Audio Fans

@tomic601 Jim,I am sure you are absolutely correct, I never had the pleasure of meeting AJ, but I am sure that he would have been a person I would have been enamored of. Your story is one that I am not surprised about, as I had heard great things about AJ before. Pity that there is a person on this thread who represents everything that AJ was not!

I met him twice at shows and he was a soft spoken gentleman that would never bad mouth competitors and would even speak freely about limitations of his own product.  He was so open and generous with advice about turntables and tonearms.  

@daveyf, I thought the Tekton comment was a bit on the harsh side.

@larryi , and that, AJ would tell you was his major problem. He let himself get buried by the details or rather he'd go after those details until he buried them, hang the expense. He marvelled at how Dave Fletcher (Sota, Sumiko and long time friend) could make such a good turntable for so little money, something he could not manage to do. David had a hang for knowing what details he could pass over to save money. The suspension and vacuum designs were David's. I never owned a Basis but came very close once. If I were to get one now it would be the Inspiration in clear acrylic. Warning, do not get one in black or you will drive yourself nuts trying to keep the dust off of it!

My table was built in black, but, it looks grey because I don't bother to dust (I rely on dust damping of the plinth).  The platter is covered by a Charlie Rich album someone gave me which acts as a dust cover--it is by a wide margin the record most often on my player, but I have not even played it once.

The SOTA was ground breaking, still is some 40 years on….