Does Anyone Know the History of the Early Sota Turntables?

Do you remember what they used on the Gen 1 table then? A rubber mat? This one came with a felt one but I fitted it with a rubber and cork one I had available. 

 

Depends what you call Gen 1.

 IIRC the original mat was acrylic.

Definitely not rubber, for sure.

That's not correct - some time pre 1984 the original Sota came with a lossy blue mat - with the sponginess and feel of wet rubber.

The acrylic mat came somewhere around 1984, I remember the first supermat system ( for non vacuum Sotas ) which consisted of a revised acrylic mat (slightly translucid) with a rubber underlay introduced in 1985.

I was a distributor for Sota at the time.

The acrylic mat has since been through many revisions from the mid 80's.

@dover I got some paperwork with the SOTA and one of the documents was a SOTA newsletter that laid out the upgrade path. It was postmarked Nov 27,1989. One section discussed the SOTA upgrade path to current generation tables. The Gen 1 model was from July 1, 1981 to 1986 and up to serial number 15167 for the Sapphire. My table is 15013. While this table looks like it has been lovingly cared for, I would guess it has never been back for upgrades since it still has the aluminum platter. 

I doubt many of the mats have survived for this table, and if they did I imagine they are compromised. I will search for an appropriate replacement, and for now the cork and rubber one will work fine. 

One interesting tidbit in this letter is the mention of the Panorama speakers SOTA released. There is an ad out there for a pair of the speakers on the other side of my state, and they have been listed for quite a while. If I were a collector the speaker would be worth seeking out...but I do not have room for them. Still they are tempting!

Had a Sapphire mk II bought new 1986 with a Sumiko MMT tone arm.  Had the 4 point suspension and standard wood arm board.  Sold it to my roommate in 1990 to partly fund purchase of a Star Sapphire mk III in 1990.  This latter table has an SME V arm with a multilayer Cosmos arm board.  Both tables were representative of the original company and were built in Oakland, California.

Both still in use today and function very well with minimal maintenance.

I have a Sapphire, Gen 1, that I purchased new, and (like the rest of my high-end system) haven't used since moving to New Jersey and getting married. I don't know what tone arm this is, and it has a Grado cartridge mounted on it. There is also a spindle clamp. And in a cabinet drawer, I have an equally old Koetsu Rosewood with the stylus missing. The SOTA shipping box (I remember, it was a robust piece of work) was destroyed in a nor'easter years ago.

After all these years, I don't dare turn any of this equipment on. Probably catch fire. I'm just saying, I appreciate this thread.

We just got back from Puerta Vallarta for an enjoyable trip for el Día de Muertos and this is my first weekend getting to sit back and listen to some music in the morning. The weekend is when I spin most of my vinyl, and for the past few weeks I have been using this early SOTA a fair amount. I am pretty impressed on how good it is even after all these years. Further up in this thread @petaluman posted a review of that early SOTA table and its speed tests were pretty darn good. 

Now I have never been a big vintage-head audio guy, even though I have used what is now considered vintage electronics in the past, like a Rowland Model 5 amplifier, a N.E.W. amplifier, a Superphon pre-amplifier, and a couple of other things. Heck I owned my last DAC for 15 years, from new to vintage. But I would have to say that there is real value in vintage tables. I have had a Thorens TD124, Garrard 401, Technics SP 10 II, and Denon DP75. I would say in the world of analog there is a lot of value in vintage. 

I always knew SOTA refurbished their tables, but their services were not cheap. However, someone in our local music group bought a refurbished Sapphire from SOTA and it is a very nice table. Given what turntables cost new today, the price does not seem terribly unreasonable. Now the used tables out on the second hand market seem to be a bit undervalued in my opinion, although the prices are rising. I do see on their website they have restored Sapphires for about $3K with Series 6 motor and electronics and the magnetic platter.  The magnetic platter is cool and eliminates most of the shipping problems, but I have to admit the practical performance of the sapphire bearing is pretty darn remarkable. It sure was a sensible solution for its time period, and still viable today. If I was buying a turntable I would think long and hard about either buying a used SOTA and having it restored or getting a refurbished one from them. Apparently Christan at SOTA is producing some videos to document the process of doing spring restorations in the field. 

Anyways, this has been a fun table and I am sure a lot of people would enjoy it. I wish it had the full wood top and the acrylic platter. But for a casual table its really all I need. It sounds pretty darn good, even though there are "upgrades" that came down the road.