@nhmanmtb , I am going to disagree with dover. The AS is not a good turntable for the money. It is a handsome turntable for sure and the 3 Point 9 is one of the best tonearms available and a great value but, the AS is not a good performing turntable for the money for several reasons and I will try to explain why.
Putting a vinyl record on a metal plater is a bad idea. The metal is much harder than the vinyl and any resonance will be reflected right back into the vinyl instead of dissipated. The best solution is a plater or mat that is the same "hardness" (mechanical impedance) as the record and then to fix the record to that mat as firmly as possible. The two best methods are reflex clamping like Kuzma and SME or vacuum clamping like Basis, Sota and Techdas. The record then becomes as thick as the plater and any resonance is controlled.
The AS may have a diamond coated spindle but it uses a very standard thrust mechanism. The thrust mechanism is where most of the noise comes from as you have the entire mass of the plater focused on one point. There is extremely little pressure on the spindle. Think of a spinning top. There are turntables in this price range with magnetic thrust mechanisms like Clearaudio and Sota. Then there are air cushion turntables from Kuzma and Techdas. These mechanisms do not add any additional noise (vibration)
The cartridge is a dumb vibration measuring device. It can not distinguish vibration from the record versus vibration from anything else like the truck driving down your street. The plater, tonearm and cartridge need to be totally isolated from the rest of the world. Gel feet do not cut it. A turntable requires a full suspension with a resonance frequency below 3 Hz. Now you can take a turntable like the AS and place it on a suspended platform like the MinusK but, that is an additional $5K. There are turntables in this price range with a full built in suspension from Avid, SME, Basis, Kuzma and Sota. Good suspensions are also immune to things like foot falls.
I personally would never use a turntable without a dust cover. Dust is the enemy of records and fine mechanical devices. Records and tonearms should always be covered. However, in order to be able to use a dust cover during play, it has to be isolated from the plater and tonearm so that it can not pass it's own resonance on to that dumb vibration measuring device. This can be done for any turntable by mounting the dust cover to a platform and placing the turntable on that platform under the dust cover which should always be hinged so that it can not accidently bang into the table. There are turntables which are supplied such dustcovers from Kuzma and Sota.
Having said all this there is one turntable exactly in your price range which you can mount a 4 Point 9 on that includes all these features along with one of the best drives available and that is the Sota Cosmos. It is certainly not the coolest looking turntable but it has it everywhere it counts and it is reasonable handsome. It certainly is an amazing value which is why I bought one. The Basis Inspiration is the next turntable in line but It is $45,000, 4 times as much as the Sota, has a regular thrust mechanism and one would have to add a dust cover. The Kuzma M is another possibility but I am not sure I trust it's suspension. The Avid Acutus is the choice for someone who has to have a cool looking turntable.
