Best turntable under $4000

I switched from a >$4K Acoustic Signature setup (w/ $1600 tonearm) to a Technics 1210GR and have no regrets. The former was a more elegant looking turntable for certain but the GR looks better in person than I expected. Definitely less DJ-esque in the black guise. The Technics tonearm seems every bit as good as the Acoustic Signature’s. It’s possibly better actually, since I added a KAB arm damper. The bearings of the Technics arm feel more fluid also, not that the AS arm was any slouch, it’s just something you don’t notice until you handle each side by side. 
 

Even though the AS table produced near perfect speed stability according to a KAB  speed strobe (the AS has an outboard motor controller that allows fine pitch adjustments), I could still hear a significant improvement in sustained notes with the Technics. Sustained piano notes with the 1210 are absolutely perfect, no flutter whatsoever. I can’t say the same for any belt drive table I’ve heard outside of an SME 30. 

 

@audioguy85    I'm looking at the Music Hall 7.3    How do you like it....

I’ve had a few > $4K turntables in my day. Some mentioned here and all of them good. I moved on just to experience something new. I sold a 1200G to buy my current table, a Luxman PD 171. The 1200G is certainly a nice table. Very stable speed, easily adjustable VTA, removable headshell, after market upgrades, etc. However, for me, I found the belt drive Luxman to have more bottom end and more vinyl warmth. Of course, this brings up the great debate of DD vs. belt. I also like removable headshells cause I like to experiment with sound presentation from different carts, including mono. For me, this is a must have. Vinyl is a journey and the foundation is really the table. Buy the best you can afford but keep an open mind about trying something else just to educate yourself on what you like in sound presentation. Once you figure out the table then you can do the same with carts, phono preamps, tonearms, headshells, phono interconnects, on and on 🤣. 

Best way to spend $4K is to buy a used well cared for turntable that originally cost double that.  I have done that several times, once getting a VPI TNT/ SMEV for the price of the cartridge it came with!  Takes research and careful examination of condition, but worth it,

I sold a 1200G to buy my current table, a Luxman PD 171

Replacing the mat on any 1200 with the tungsten polymer record mat from that Luxman is a game changer IMO.