Nottingham and Teres comparison

Ted, a good improvement of the platter would be higher on the upgrade scale than a power conditioning upgrade. However, you do have to remember that the main bearing at the center of the TT is the most important part of the TT, and that is what will ultimately limit how far you can go with any given TT. What you may want to consider, is to get the Teres bearing and platter as a combination package. They make it available separately like that. The strobe pattern will already be printed on the bottom, so when you later decide to upgrade to the DC motor/controller, you can easily do it. This would really then make your TT a Teres with a different plinth. Or you could just buy the bearing separately and make a platter out of wood, yourself. The Teres main bearing is only a little over $200. That's cheap.

Alternatively, you could stick with an AC motor and use a Walker Motor Controller, which will condition/regenerate your power, control your speeds, and improve the sound to what you currently own.

Don't get me wrong 4yanx, I am and I was, satisfied by the sound. But I have been bitten by the audiophilia nervosa bug and can't stop looking for better!
The problem here is that after a high degree of refinement the sound of my system gets "better" only incrementally and only in certain areas, it could be said that my sound changes and that there are trade off's, for example: I've got better definition and faster and more precise presentation at the expense of opulent, romantic and fault forgiving sound. So some records I used to like don't sound as rich, but others that I did not, have revealed hidden information in their grooves, I did not know it existed.

Tom, thanks for the advice.
I don't know if I repeat myself here, but my latest version of update includes the new inverted bearing that is used in the $10.000 VPI HR-X, TT. It is made from the best quality materials from what I read in vpi's literature. Do you think that the TERES would still be better? The wood platter idea is compelling! I will pursue it further with Mapleshade, if Pierre can make me a maple laminated platter about 2-3" thick I would be interested to try it.

Well Ted, I'm not certain about it. I do know that the general reason for using an inverted bearing is to improve the platter center-of-gravity, with respect to the way the side-thrust forces are resolved. However, the inverted bearing typically doesn't allow the use of an oil sump, which is preferred when possible. The Teres bearing uses a unique geometry which gives good center of gravity and the use of an oil sump, and was developed to improve upon the idea of the inverted bearing. Whether it is actually any better than the VPI HRX bearing, I don't know for sure.

I suggested it because Teres already has a wood platter system that would just drop-on with their bearing, making it an easy switch. Perhaps you can get your wood platter made by Pierre, and have what you want.

Thanks for all the input!