Best turntable for the buck

Sota Sapphire hands down. There is no other $3500 turntable that comes close to the Sapphire's level of performance.

@rvpiano

bkeske,

‘Do you have the Saphire VI?
‘Does it require an arm separately?
‘The price is right.

I bought a used Model III from a gentleman here on Audiogon. It was a table only, so I purchased a new arm. I was lucky enough to get a Jelco S850 MK II when they were still available. The arm actually cost me more than the table. Then, at the time, bought a decent tone arm cable, a Soundsmith Zephyr cart followed a couple months later, which is very nice, but now have a Soundsmith MIMC star lo-output after purchasing a Hagerman Trumpet tube phono preamp a year later (was actually using a Schiit Mani up until then). Then replaced the stock tubes in the Hagerman with some nice old stock tubes, and just recently a purchased separate linear power supply for it. All this together has created a pretty nice rig I am enjoying immensely. Was all of it necessary, no, but after you get started, you simply want to make it better.

So, yes, add it all up, and a nice investment cost-wise, but very much worth it IMO, and many of the additions were added over time, not all at once. Probably about a 3.6K initial investment to get started. But, but over time, about 6K spent to date (including another back-up cart and mono cart).

And, as it is a model III, it will need sent to SOTA soon for an upgrade to min. V specs and restoration. So probably another 1-1.5k investment, and I will do it gladly.

When I started down this path, I would have told you no way would I spend 2K on a vinyl rig. Well, I’m way over that, and happy. But, to be honest, this is small change in the world of higher end vinyl rigs, (some cartridges cost as much as my investment to date), but I think I’ve done well putting together a relative bargain set-up which works incredibly well, and sounds fantastic.

I don't know if $4k will get you there. Digital does transparency and resolution pretty well at relatively lower price. Analog requires much higher expenditure than the $4k you're talking about. My digital surpassed my analog on transparency/resolution front many years ago, and this with aprox. $7k in tt and phono pre. To bring my analog up to my present digital will take at least $2k cartridge and $7-10K phono pre.

Sure you can improve what you have for $4k, but will that hold up in long run? You'll likely improve your digital in the future and analog will fall behind again, and that's assuming your $4k upgrade measures up to your present digital. I'm in same boat, and I'm going all in on vinyl in future, or simply give it up, no half measures will get me what I want. My take is unless one has funds to go first rate on both formats, concentrate on one or the other in short term, you can always do substantial upgrades for the other format at a later date.

I think my query has been answered here. 
it’s apparent that $4000 is not going to bring my analog side to the level that I’m hoping for.
Thanks everyone for your help.

Improving on the performance of a Vinyl LP Source does require the consideration that a considerable outlay may be needed to acquire equipment that will noticeably surpass a already existing equipment.

The performance that is achieved as a result of the restructure of the system will hopefully be quite impressive and wanted to be maintained as a keeper.

In the field of Digital there are opportunities to produce a Digital Source that can compare to a Parity or Surpass a Vinyl presentation for the impression being made on the quality of the presentation.

With Digital it is quite possible to achieve this with an outlay that is less than the cost attached to a MC Cart' from certain Brands Middle to Upper Middle Models in the Cart' Range. 

With a budget of 4K and your reports that the in use Digital Source is capable of showing itself as a Betterment over the Vinyl LP Source, a small proportion of the 4K Budget allocated to the furthering of the performance of the Digital Source, might just provide a Digital Source that any selected Vinyl LP Source might fall short of in making an impression that is Parity during a comparison.