Turntable under $1500 ..... Rega, clearaudio, or ?

Rega Dealer Disclaimer******

If your $1500 price is just for the table and arm, then I would suggest perhaps waiting for a couple weeks for the new Rega RP6 to come out. It falls right at your price and looks like it will be a quite a nice table.

If you are looking at $1500 for everything, then be sure and take a look at an RP3 with a TTPSU. This option would leave you about $300 for cart purchase.

Good Luck!

Taylor
www.goldprintaudio.com

I would lean toward the Clearaudio Concept, and the Performance SE models. The Satisfy tonearm and Virtuoso and Maestro wood cartridges are among the best available for a complete set-up that will run with any competitors products.

Used Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm and a cartridge. That would probably be more than $1500 by $300-$400 if you want new cartridge. Never put German cartridge on British table - they won't match well. British, Swiss, Japanese, Australian OK.

I would seek a used SOTA Sapphire or, if you want new, a Rega RP3. In both cases you will have an upgrade path as budget allows: SOTA factory upgrades or Rega TT PSU, upgrade belt, Groovetracer subplatter, platter, counterweight.

How about going vintage? Some people are getting spectacular results from the Empire 208/308's of the 1960's. These were manufactured to extremely tight tolerances. Worthy of putting on a modern tonearm. See, for instance, Ralph Karsten's version at the Atma-Sphere site,

http://www.atma-sphere.com/Products/Atma-208

or Doc's version at the Bottlehead site

http://www.cognitivevent.com/av_empire.html

These are potentially world-class, and compete with many of the high-dollar tables sold today. Of course, any used turntable will need careful inspection, but there's not a whole lot to go wrong with the Empire. The Pabst motors are a clever 3-phase design and are extremely good. The bearing and main platter were outstanding. You might have to replace the thrust plate beneath the main bearing with a Delrin one, but the results are well worth a bit of time investment. And you might just get one that's been cared for its whole life and needs nothing!

Mine is a recent purchase, with an SME3009R tonearm, and it really makes nice music. About to put my Scoutmaster up for sale as a result!