Nice vintage $2k Turntable, cartridge, and phono stage

btw, 'wood look'. be careful:

some are hardwood (not many)

some are real wood veneer ( quite a few)

some are 'wood' wrap, photographed wood on vinyl wrap (too many)

Sounds like my system.  With some luck and patience you can find a solid 80's Sota turntable. Pair with a Darlington Labs phono and maybe a Audio Technica VM540ML cart and you're set.

@lewm as stated a DP-75 ( new zeeland but with export transformer / internal switch for voltage / freq , plinth, black widow and an Ortofon OM-30 for $309 on ebay last December…. i did drive to Portland…. yes, it was a steal.

Peter charges $750 ish to go thru motor platter but this TT only needed the platter. i did send the other DP75 to him for both.

most SOTA from the 80’s will require a motor, sapphire thrust plate and likely all new springs ( ask me how i know )… but when refurbishment are an amazing TT if your not super pitch sensitive….

Donna at SOTA also sells refurbished units w or without upgrades

Tomic, your experience buying your Denon is why I don't sell mine.  It is simply too good for the amount of money it could fetch.  I'd stack it against most $5K TTs bought new, once I had replaced the OEM plinth with a slate plinth and mounted my Triplanar on it. I preferred it to my SP10 Mk2 (also in a slate plinth) in a side by side comparison driving the same downstream components in each case. Which is why I did sell the Mk2.

Your comment on an older SOTA, "if you're not pitch sensitive" is spot on. (I also owned a Star Sapphire Series III with vacuum, for about 10 years.) Presumably pitch stability is no longer an issue with the Eclipse upgrade on a SOTA.