tt advice. best arm/table combo around 4k used

As an owner of a VPI turntable for more than 10 years, I can certainly recommend you give serious consideration to the VPI Aries -- either the standard version, or the newer "hot rod" version.

However, if I were buying a new turntable today, the new line of Acoustic Signature turntables would be near the top of my list. They have gotten some excellent reviews, and they have been on an introductory sale at Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor (www.needledoctor.com). The top-of-the-line model, the Acoustic Signature Analog One MkII, has a MSRP of $5,500, but is currently on sale at the Needle Doctor for $2500. Combine this turntable with a good tonearm, and you'll have a hell of an analog front end for about $4k NEW.

Among the tonearms you might consider for this table -- either new for the less expensive models, or used for the pricier ones, are: the VPI JMW 12.5 or 10.5; the Graham 2.0 or 2.2; the Wheaton Triplanar (used)l and the new Rega RB1000 (MSRP $1500).

Just read the previous post concerning a recommendation for a SOTA with an ET2 tonearm. Since the SOTA is basically suspended down on springs (rather than on top of springs), using it with a linear tracking arm like the ET2 will cause it to move perpendicular to the direction of the suspension. More than one reviewer has made note of this and this may be something you'd like to consider.

I agree with Scott. The Acoustic Signature's at least look very nice for the money. Don't know a whole lot about them though, but i bet that they might be worth checking out.

I would venture to say that those tables along with the VPI's, Linn's, etc... would probably benefit pretty measurably from a lot of isolation "tricks". This is not to say that they are bad tables at all, only that they are pretty susceptible to external vibrations. The above mentioned article that i made reference to really went to town on the Linn and its sensitivity to external vibration. On the other hand, I know several guys running VPI's that absolutely love them.

The guy that i bought my Star Sapphire / ET II combo from went to a VPI / pivoted arm. He told me that it was much more convenient to use since the arm wasn't as finicky and he didn't have to have multiple hoses and an air pump to deal with. As such, he said that he was listening to more records now and able to enjoy them more due to less hassle and "cluster" to worry about. If you've ever seen one of these set-ups, you'll probably understand : )

Sknnyc, you're loosing me on this one. Can you or anyone else explain what your talking about a little better or point me to an article that can ? Thanks for mentioning it, as i was unaware of any so-called problems that existed with this combo. Then again, sometimes we don't notice something until someone points it out to us. Even if it was right in front of your face the whole time. Sean
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