Sota Millenia vs Kuzma Stabi reference vs VPI HRX

Amfibius

Not sure dry sounding is the right word. It is certainly a leaner sound than the richer sounding older TNT's. Some may just classify that as neutral.

If you are looking at vacuum hold down, certainly SOTA and Basis are the two obvious options.

Amfibius wrote:

I do not know if modern Sota's have a more damped suspension, but the Kuzma is certainly nicely damped. I only wish that Kuzma offered vacuum hold-down, that would seal the deal (pun not intended) for me.

I have owned a Cosmos and currently own (and sell) Kuzma. The Kuzma Stabi Ref suspension is spring-in-oil, with resonant frequency of about 2 Hz and doesn't dance. Leveling and setup couldn't be much simpler. As for vacuum hold down, I don't miss it with the Kuzma which has an excellent clamping system. It gets out of the way of the music.

I had a Sota Cosmos mk3. I ordered a custom finish which began to crack after a month of receiving the turntable which was delivered 4 months after the promise date.

A year later, the table went back in for warranty service (the defective cabinet which cracked in several places) which was suppose to take 2 weeks to turn around. Granted I opted for the mk4 upgrade which cost an additional $800 or $900 I forget which delayed the return of the table for 3 months.

The turntable came back and it looked amazing. But my ear was able to hear that the Cosmos Mk4 couldn't play a record at consistent speed. To this day, I still don't know where the money for the mk4 upgrade went. All I got was a bill/service receipt with a mk4 line item with the cost. No description as to where that money went into the table.

I have since had the opportunity to play with a vintage $300 turntable that keeps far better speed than the SOTA.

Sorry to hear that James.Quite the contrary to my experiences,over many years dealing with the SOTA products.
FWIW,the series IV update is to better isolate the motor/mount,and adds significant damping to the sub-assembly.I had the series III and felt the series IV was clearly better.ALL my motors ran flawlessly,over the years.
One thing folks have to understand is that Sota is not a huge company,like many other high end mfgrs,so it cannot be easy to meet time constraints if certain factors occur.Like parts back-orders.Sudden increase in orders from a good review,etc.

I know Kirk(the owner) is a very dedicated guy(to his customers)and he tries to satisfy everyone...to the max!!Any issues should go through him.He has been extremely approachable from my perspective,and makes a fabulous product,in the long run!
Good luck.

Yep, I know, they are in the cottage industry area, and I can certainly understand limited resources. Customer experience aside, the Cosmos mk4 did not play as steady as a Luxman PD-264. But having the vacuum pull down was very cool, and the final finish was drop dead gorgeous.