Best TT under $1k

My opinion...

Technics and VPI at the top
Pro-Ject

I would place the regas at the bottom of the list / table of last resort.  But that's just me (and ALL my family, friends and acquaintances).   

A used HW-19/III would be a very good and IMO better performer than any on the list.  Might find one with a nice arm in your price range.  

There is a Denon DP6000 for sale $790 on another site related to an audio asylum.

@elibow - You asked....

I have had a particularly bad experience with a couple of rega tables.  Cheap parts, poor qc, substandard performance.  Silk purse / sow's ear.  The ONLY redeeming quality I found was that it was fairly easy to set up because it couldn't be adjusted to improve performance.  Was even GIVEN one that I took back to the dealer. 

All were easily bettered by both my AR-ES and VPI HW-19/III.  And the VPI was using a Linn Basik LVX with a defective counterweight buffer / damper.    

I was told that to make a rega perform, it was necessary to add a lot of tweaks, options and modifications. So what's the point of even getting a rega table if it doesn't sound good anyway out of the box and requires a lot of mods.

So in my experienced opinion, rega tables are not worth the box used to pack them.

But YMMV..  YRMV.

@elubow - My opinion.

Once burned, shame on you. Twice burned, shame on me. Three times burned without any success is a significant enough sampling for me.  rega?  Never again..

I've had three VPI tables and two AR tables that all worked and sounded great right out of the box.  Nothing to send back.  All five outperformed the rega tables significantly.  I'm not about to start going through a large sampling of rega tables just to find one that sounds as good as an AR.  I'll take my chances on real turntables and enjoy the music without figuring out shipping options to return yet another poor-performing rega table.

And my comments and opinions have been significantly softened for this thread.  But that's just me.

If your experience has been wonderful, then good for you.  

My opinions and observations...

The AR-ES was stock, including a stock arm.  The regas were beaten using both a Shure V15/IV and an Audioquest 404.  As I recall the AR-ES arm needed some blue damping material in the headshell for both carts and more mass for the 404.  The regas never came in.  

That's apples to apples.    

But let's compare a couple of stock rega tables to other stock tables at their price points....  

A stock Rega RP8 to a stock Clearaudio Performance, stock VPI Prime/3D arm or stock VPI Classic 3.  Does the RP8 belong anywhere but a DISTANT 4th place against these truly excellent tables?  

Stock RP6 to a stock Clearaudio Concept, stock VPI Classic or stock VPI Prime Scout.  RP6 in 4th place against these fine tables?    

I have moved on several times since the AR.  The AR-ES with that Shure V15/IV is on "long-term load" to a friend who loves it in his system for over 20 years.  I donated the 404 to another forum member in need of a cartridge.  

I do try to remember to open and close most of my comments with the statement "My opinion" or something similar.  

Sorry you have that kind of problem with the AR-ES arm. But as someone else criticized me for only using three regas to form my opinion, a single arm is not a very good sampling to form a final opinion. Maybe you had a particularly bad arm.   Maybe I was just lucky. Who knows.  

Like you said, your mileage won't vary.  Good for you.  Mine won't either.  That gives us the opportunity to agree to disagree since we are expressing OPINIONS.  

That's my opinion.