Kumza Stabi S or Rega P10 ??

I looked at Kuzma Stabi, Rega PS-10 and Feickert Woodpecker with a Thomas Schick 10.5 inch tonearm. Did not audition. Knew I would have to invest in a stable plinth for the Kuzma Stabi like HRS $$, did not care for the look of the PS-10 with white platter. Read that Herb Reickert has a Feickert Blackbird with Schick 10.5 inch tonearm, and my tastes tend to align with his, so I went with the Feickert Woodpecker. I like the setup a lot, the ability to swap out headshells and cartridges with ease. I did buy the graphite headshell. Sometimes I wonder if the low compliance cartridge needed with the Schick tonearm may accelerate the wear on the vinyl. If you can afford it, the dual motor Blackbird or triple motor Trio will reportedly lower the noise.

You do not need to spend 3K on a HRS plinth obviously. A Mapleshade maple plinth with brass footers would look great with the Stabi. 

Pertaining to my last post, I don’t think there is any evidence that a higher mass tonearm with low compliance cartridge will wear out the grooves faster, but theoretically one would think so. 

@dcevans 

Thanks for the information, very helpful. I keep vacillating back between the tables leaning more towards Feickert as my dealer will sell me his lightly used demo with a Schick. I still like the P10 for the slam dunk value it offers and he will give me alot of runway if I decide I want to trade it back for something else. I am putting either a Hana Red or Blue on ant of these tables. Likely the Red.

Funny you mention the Trio there is a used Trio out there right now I was considering but by the time I am done configuring it it's spendy. Trying to keep it all under $8k. 

I think rsf507’s comment above about the synergy of the Kuzma table/tonearm combo is valid FWIW. I don’t think you would go wrong with any of the 3. The Schick tonearm is still Stereophile class A, a real bargain. The Feickert Blackbird is class B. The PS-10 is class A (If you put any weight into Stereophile, which probably tends to be more biased than TAS).

Hi

I woned a pretty "modded" Rega P9 with the 2000 arm, now I own the Kuzma Stabi s12 with  Ref. 313 arm (12") ....it is way ahead of the Rega for me. It has been used with a Hana SL and ways excellent and now an Airtight PC-7...and is sublime.

The P10 is an excellent table but only if you want to set up and forget...and use Rega cartridges....as has been pointed out shims are an issue....but you can get it set up correctly. The Kuzma for me is just way more "table" on every aspect and I really enjoy Franck Kuzma's whole business model