Best turntable for the buck

Perhaps a Rega Fono MC phono preamp (roughly $550) or a Rega Aria MM/MC phono preamp (roughly $1,700) and the rest of your budget spent on the best MC cartridge you can find might improve things. Personally, I'd get a Linn Majik LP12, as previously suggested, and start the inevitable climb up the Linn ladder.

Another to consider is a Dr Feickert Volare with Origin Live arm, $4K without cartridge.  It is smaller than a SOTA and requires an isolated platform.  It is dead quiet in operation (more quiet than the SOTA).

I've owned 2 SOTA's over the last 35 years, including my current Star III/SME V combination - bought new.  They are wonderful tables with a fantastic suspension, just not as quiet in my experience as some other very good units.

Pros and cons, as usual, in this price segment.

Ego not inflated a bit Tim and Brian, and thanks for the kind words :-)

I have decent gear on the digital, LP and RtR fronts, so for me anyway….assessment of relative strengths and weaknesses AND trying to address has a been a catalyst for competitive improvement across all 3. I do understand that the various formats do compete for $$$. Ultimately that was why i sold the SOTA as trying to maintain all the analog bits in two places, was too much.

@rvpiano what did you decide to do ?
best to all

Jim

Tomic601,

As much as I would love to improve my analog side, I don’t think I have the level of commitment and resources that it takes. I don’t even trust myself to install a cartridge, no less a tone arm. So I think I’ll pass on a new setup.

The interaction with Vinyl does not need to be lost entirely.

I am not with a System in use at present, my home is to be worked on and most possessions are readying themselves for a period of storage.

Through being member of a HiFI Group, I am regularly invited to experience in both Analogue and Digital Equipment demonstrations. Additionally there is on occasions new unfamiliar equipment made available for broadening the experiences being encountered.

I am happy to Purchase New Music Recordings to be used at the meetings, and if well received, leave them as loaned music for the group to use on their own systems, or used when I am absent from a meeting.

The interaction with the groups arranged events, has enables myself to encounter items of equipment, I would recommend to others, but also allow for my discovering equipment, I have now put onto a shortlist to be trialed on the home system when reinstated for regular use. These are curve ball moments, and were not anticipated to leave such strong positive impressions, to the point where an item might find itself a place on the rack.