Best turntable for the buck

I have always liked the SOTA Sapphire, you can possibly get a refurbished table direct from SOTA. Put Origin Live arm on it and away you go. SOTA carry a variety of arms and can properly fit your arm board.

Best

Jim

Isn’t CJ known for the warmer side of neutral?

IMO, no. You should be able to achieve higher level of SQ for similar $ spent these days

I’ve noticed many of your posts that in essence, seem to question the positive results you may get by going forward and risking an upgrade.

The main issue with my turntable is a lack of transparency, that I am getting with digital sources. The instruments don’t exist in a three dimensional space. The tone quality is fine
My hope is that new turntable in the 4K range will provide that. My cartridge is relatively high end and, I may be wrong, but I think the phono stage on my recapped Conrad-Johnson PV 11 preamp is adequate to the task.

My recommendation on offer to any forum member, when there is an inquiry made about their options that can be considered for an item of equipment, is to suggest the inquirer attempts to receive a demonstration of an item that has become one of interest and not only use recommendations as their final guidance.

I very rarely recommend equipment on this forum, as I am not familiar enough with other Countries set ups to enable a demonstration to be arranged.

From my end, and governed by what I suggest is a valuable practice, my inquiry was to get a objective for the OP, as to what the suggestion would be for a Tonearm and Cart',  to be used with the suggested TT.

The OP has made it quite clear a 4K Budget was being considered to be allocated and a TT that surpasses that Budget by approx' 100% is the recommendation, how much would the Tonearm and Cart' add to this recommendation that is already far exceeding the OP's budget.

I was not quite understanding why the possessor an item that was being promoted through recommendation as a device to replace an already owned device, that has an equivalent function, was keen to guide towards a few comments by others that will undoubtedly be complimentary and not encourage the opportunity to offer a demonstration.

I have no concerns about the mention of the STST Motus DQ, I can fully see the benefit for the OP from receiving a demonstration, I'm sure they would much enjoy the experience. What I did express concern about was the missing encouragement to arrange for such an experience.

Even though too many miles from my home, I can experience and have experienced items that are sold through Ana Mighty, of which some are now on a list to be home trialed in 2023. I have also recommended the Companies Services to forum members who reside in mainland Europe.         

The Rega RP3 is a terrible turntable, I know that since I bought one 7-8 years ago. Tried a lot of cartrtidges from the Goldring 1042, Sumiko Blue Point Special Evo 2 and Dynavector 10x5, etc. It was so bad it almost made me quit analog for good. Everything was sounding thin, without body and musical involvement. The RP3's tonearm and the cartridges were perfectly aligned, I had the Rega TT-PSU power supply upgrade as well, it did nothing for me.

Switched to a Michell Gyrodec, the groove and musical excitement came back. A lot of upgrade potential with the power supplies, choice of tonearms, platter/clamp/suspension upgrades, etc. I also hear the entry level Dr. Feickert is a terrific sounding TT as well. 

But my suggestion, the RP3 should go, it's just a waste of time, money and space.

@pindac thanks for your comments. If I am not mistaken you are located in Europe? If your inquiry was serious ( versus making some obvious point about bias ) I would start by contacting Ana Mighty Sound in Paris. There you may hear the Motus and many other turntables.

If however your point was to say that I should not have mentioned it at all, I will take your opinion under advisement.

@solypsa There is not any information offered on how to receive a demonstration of the recommended TT that comes with a retail of approx' +$7000. 

How does a interested individual arrange to receive a demonstration of the TT being promoted as a choice to consider exchanging to ? 

As a further advisory, as the TT's distributor of the recommended TT, which Tonearm and Cartridge would be the suggested combination to be used as ancillaries.    

I understand that not wanting to seem overly biased, the directing an individual to a online rave for a product, is going to divert the individual to information that is in keeping with the bias that is on offer.  Where what is really happening is that the information being encouraged to be sought out, is only going to introduce the individual doing the search, to a commentary from a very limited number of individuals.

This type of reporting can be found on almost every device available, it is not really a method to enable a interested individual to assess a device for it capabilities, especially in comparison to other options to be found at a similar price point.

The best way to show a TT's Capabilities to any individual, is always through demonstration, and even better if carried out in a purpose produced environment. From my end it seems quite askew, when a Dealer of a product is not encouraging a experience of a device through demonstration.  

STST Motus DQ, a very musical DD turntable. Capable of the best tonearm and cartridge you can put on it. 

Caveat: bias implied as I am the NA agent for STST. So don't take my word for it ;) there are plenty of raves to be found online.

Who knows what perimeters make any tt SQ an attractive buy for you. 

George Merrill's Poly Table is a worthy consideration.

If you want to stay with the Rega philosophy consider the P8 with the Apheta cart.

It will be a significant upgrade to your P3. No need to bother with additional tweaky add ons, just unbox, hookup and play.

A separate phono stage would be another upgrade to look into after the table-tube will offer another level of presentation.

Thank those of you who submitted a recommendation.

 I’m considering all of them.

Kuzma Stabi S used

sell rega-3 ... Technics SP-10R - buy for growth ...

for digital music - boombox in the kitchen

One does not know until they try out a few new experiences, especially making in roads to encounter devices that can make a positive impact and leave a lasting impression.

Limiting an access to create an experience on the pretense of pre conceived ideas, is much akin, to the individual who selects an item to purchase with no prior experience of how it presents, with another's account as the only guidance. 

Good Luck to that one, the Hospital ! oop's I mean' sales adds ' are full of the casualties from this as the buyers method.

I’m using a Conrad-Johnson preamp as my phono stage. 
I don’t think I can do better than that.

I am relatively new to digital, but have been involved in a few experiences where the Digital Source vs Vinyl LP Source have outshone each other on the impressions being made.

I am no longer endeavouring to have them in a competition, I have accepted each for their fortes over the other, but this place was not found without making changes to each of the Sources supporting ancillaries, I will say the most significant impression made was from the introduction of a Custom Built DAC and Custom Built Phonostage.

The Phonostage was produced to my own specific tuning,  

Prior to parting with any monies on adding equipment, I would attempt to have a listen to other Vinyl Set Ups and see if there is anything on offer from one of the demonstrations, that is looking like it can challenge/surpass your Digital Source.

If all goes well there might be an option to have the device that is believed to have been most instrumental, in making the positive impression, used within your system for a demonstration.

This type of encounter will enhance your experience base and will certainly allow for a much better evaluation and assessment of how you would like to proceed and how much of your hard earned monies will need to be allocated to the budget, if the .a device has proven to be quite attractive to you. 

How many albums do you own? A $4K investment in digital might be more cost effective. It is the future anyway. 
 

I have equally satisfying, same sounding digital and analog ends… both worth about $45K. If I only had a few hundred albums I would ditch the analog end and just upgrade digital. 

If I was looking for a table, I would definitely look at Well Tempered. They get raves.

If you ever buy a turntable for a buck, it will certainly be the best turntable for a buck.

I bought once 2 Sansui Fr2040 turntables for $1 each in late 90s. Both worked very nice.

I'd consider 3 specific areas:

Phono stage - this can make a huge impact alone

Table - I recognize you have a modified RP3, I upgraded a little while ago to the P8 and the improvement in the plinth and tone arm over the P6 was noticeable as was the upgrade from the P3 to P6 using the same catridge.  I don't know the details of your current rig so you may not expeirence the impact I had when I moved from the RP1 to P8.

Cartridge - Can be a huge impact; and if shifting from MM to MC you may want to split the $4 between phono stage and cartridge.

How about a move to a MC cartridge?