General comments on SOTA

I bought my SOTA Sapphire w/SME309 tonearm new in the early 90s. I love it. It has been rock solid reliable and requires little maintenance and tweaking. It's design is very straight forward and easy to service. I have experimented with different types of grease in the bearing and with isolation of the turntable. I didn't replace the belt for many years and was surprised at the improvement a new belt made. I found a synthetic grease for the bearing that makes the table sound better. Weird.
With my Benz cartridge my analog has never sounded better.
A few months ago I found an app for my phone that plots platter speed using the 3150Hz test tone on a test record. I have my speed dialed in exact and was pleased to find my WoW and Flutter measurements good out to two decimal places. That app also surprised me to see that the platter speed doesn't stabilize out to two decimal places until the turntable has warmed up for a few minutes. Once warmed up, I can stop/start it and speed control is immediately perfect.
Sure, I 'd love to try out a Cosmos, but other priorities in my life right now keep me from upgrading and actually that has been a good thing. I've learned to appreciate what I already have.

I have owned a number of SOTAs, from the original Sapphire, through Star and now Cosmos IV. They are extremely reliable, non tweaky and just do what they are supposed to do. The vacuum platter is a great option not availabe on most other tables. It is truly plug and play the way it comes from the factory and completely upgradeable, though at some cost. I consider my Cosmos IV to be my best table, ahead of an Oracle Delphi V SE and Transrotor Fat Bob.

I have owned 2 SOTA tables: both Comets, and heard many other models by SOTA. They are definately a great TT manufacturer. My experience is thy are easy to set up, and stay that way without need for adjustment for many years. They are also very reliable and very musical. The manufacturer is very responsive and does mods and updates. I would opt for a SOTA over comparable Rega or Linn, which are both fine TTs (the Linn is prone to set up issues).

Linns are VERY tweeky...Regas can also be, although much less than Linn. VPI's are an easy setup and once set up, you don't ever have to touch them again. Installing a cartridge is always a pain to do on any turntable, but probably you could have your dealer do it for you.

The Cosmos has a design feature different from the other SOTA models that give it a speed control advantage. The motor is mounted on the floating or suspended chassis with the platter. All other SOTA models with suspended chassis have the motor mounted to the base which allows relative motion between platter and motor. My speed control investigations showed me that having the motor seperate from the floating chassis was not a problem as long no external vibrations caused the floating chassis to move. Even when I made the floating chassis move on purpose, I could not hear it in the music except for when I was playing the pure test tone. Of course, having the motor seperate from the floating or suspended chassis can further increase isolation. In my situation, I do not have an issue with external vibration moving the suspended chassis while playing a record. There are other design differences among the various models too, just wanted to mention that one.