Teres Turntable / Portland

I am a Teres owner. I have a model 135 with battery power supply, a Origin Live Silver 250 arm, and DL103 cartridge. This is an excellent performing turntable. As none of the Teres models come with an arm mounted, the comparisons would only be against the Basis and VPI turntables. You could put any arm on including the ones you mention. I cannot give you an A/B review against either of the tables you have listed. However, others have put the Teres in the same league as these. From my memory, I would agree. I feel my table is a high class performer, and feel sure that the model 255 would be even better.
It is easy to put together, and should be no reason to scare you off the purchase.
I would highly recommend the same arm and cart that I use. The package is under $1000 and sounds like at least twice that. The OL arms use the same mounting hole as a Rega.
Sorry, I live in Tennessee, so it would be a little far for you to go to hear mine. I am sure you would be happy with the sound. It kicked my Linn LP12/Ittok/Karma into the dirt.

I am the happy owner of a Teres 245, albeit with acrylic armboard, and would essentially echo the sentiments of Twl having upgraded from an LP12 myself. These tables go head to head with the competition sound-wise, and IMHO surpass them in terms of ergonomics and flexibility. The motor drive is a marvel unto itself! The table is amenable to a wide range of arms and cartridges. Check audioasylum archives for all the succesful variations of the Teres. I am one happy camper with mine! Also Chris Brady goes above and beyond with his level of support.

I don't have a Teres, but I almost bought one. In my opinion, after you reach a certain quality of bearing/platter/suspension, the differences in in the tables themselves are small. You will hear large differences in the sound, however, between arms and cartridges. If you had TWL's with the OL and Denon, you would no doubt love it. But there are many combos out there that in the end will be similar in quality and enjoyment. For instance, when I was just about to invest in the Teres, someone came along with a Basis 2001 for a steal of a price. Is the Basis Platter as heavy as the Teres? NO. But is the Build quality and bearing quality of the table as good? Probably so. Anyway, the point of all this is that you have many choices for the amount of money you will spend, and often you will get just as good of a piece of equipment, and ultimately sound that is as good. I would put my Basis 2001/RS A1 up against the Teres/OL250 anyday in a trial, and we would have a lot of fun trying to decide which was better. And maybe nobody would 'win', since each table has it's own strengths and weaknesses. One has a springy suspension, the other no suspension. One has a unipivot, the other a standard pivoting arm. Etc. The differences are not so important as the sound, and I believe once you spend a couple of grand on a fine TT, the differences come down more to preference than any really obvious build quality differences.

Aaird, I agree, and I spent the money I saved by buying the basic Teres, on the arm and cart. Of course, we would all like to be "cost no object" buyers, but ultimately we make some decisions based on the amount we have to spend. I decided that the basic Teres model provided enough of a quality drive unit for my needs and spent the balance on arm/cart instead of the lead shot weighting, which is really the only difference between the tables. As far as arm/cart choices go, I think that they should be purchased as a "pair" to match each other. Many combinations can give good results if they are well matched. I knew that I wanted to use a DL103, and needed an arm with quality bearings to handle it. After researching, I found an arm that had the capabilties of the top arms, at a very reasonable price, with the bearings and structure and mass I needed. The combination turned out extremely well, and I'm very happy with it. Since I like low compliance MC carts, if I decide to upgrade, I will have an arm that can handle any of them.