Early SOTA vs New Something: Conundrum

Thanks for the reply, yes a catch 22 indeed.

Yes it is an AQ B200. It may have been a rebadged something or other. It’s 20+ years old and then some.

Yes the springs have sagged. So the unit needs shipped back for that and then it just goes up from there. Should have a new motor I've been told. Maybe the new psu and what about the vacuum unit etc.... eek it gets big pretty fast.

Or maybe find a good used cartridge, toss it on and ignore the rest of it. 

Whether to spend big coin making the old table current, Maybe buy a new SOTA but then still need all the additional on top of that.

Or, is the Technics so inferior with a decent cartridge? It can’t be worse than what I have currently. The tonearm is 1cm back of where it should be. I have to run the cartridge at a 10 degree angle from straight in the headshell, which incredibly results in good balance L/R with a solid center.

BTW the TT goes to Luxman l595 MC phono then out to custom Altec 604 speakers with a several subs filling in the bottom. Pretty dynamic with decent enough soundstage and imaging. The 604 are not the last word in HF resolution...

SOTA sent me a price list of updates and repair service I’m afraid I got a bit of sticker shock. That’s what got me started thinking of the Technics (for one) as it would be similar price or less all in. I just don’t know side by side if the SOTA has better potential for same money. 

Thanks for all the replies

I have taken a first step by ordering an AT ART9XI cartridge

The tonearm is solid even if it's not in optimal position.

This will show me what I can expect going forward with the SOTA as-is.

Or, to see what is SOrTA deficient (haha see what I did there?! ;-) and what repairs for SQ are needed.

If I end up getting a different table I will at least have a good cartridge to go on it.

Cheers,

RW

I found this in a similar thread:

gyneguy225 OP

83 posts

09-12-2022 at 09:23pm 

I spoke to Donna today, and she still recommends the Origin live tonearm.

>I found out that there are a number of upgrades for my 30 year old SOTA for about $3000 total, but I'll still have a 30yo turntable. I'm stepping back a bit, and considering that it will cost me a fortune to get the analog system to sound anywhere near as good as my digital. So, I'll see how it sounds with the Kiseki cartridge, and decide whether to go forward from there or give up.<

 yes I agree, We are on the same page it appears

An update:

The new SOTA belt came in.

I know I had replaced it once before years ago, but this one is quite different. Much narrower in width and quite a bit shorter. Whatever; it works very well. The old belt took a number of seconds to reach speed- due to slippage I am sure. The new one pops right up to speed in about two seconds or so.

The new AT ART9xi cartridge has been installed. Incredible improvement there as well.  I had installed a new stylus into the AQ B200 a few years ago, but this new AT cartridge is lightyears ahead in all respects. Considering it will improve over a number of hours still, I am quite shocked with the superior sound quality right out of the box.

All I can say is this gives a much better sound for what Analog is known for- and I had allowed to slip away all these years... 

Cheers,

RW

Thanks for all your replies

I don’t know if the motor is ac or dc. I suspect dc but could be wrong. 

Thanks for the tip on the arm board. I might go that route and the bearing service, but found when the new cartridge (AT art9xi) went in it mostly solved the issue with proper alignment. I think the AQ200 was not able to get far enough forward but the AT is shaped differently, so I’m happy with that. 
 

As for the bearing, I’ll leave it be for the moment as the platter spins smooth and I am getting no noise from playback. Plus another issue just popped up
 

A day after the cartridge install the new problem arose. Of the two buttons that turn the motor on one has seemingly failed as I now had to install a power strip with shutoff switch to turn the platter off. Both buttons down is 33. Both buttons up used to turn it off but now it goes to 45 rpm. So no way to turn platter off without the power strip switch. Oh well, it’s always something…

The new AT art9 solved issues with the tonearm placement , so that was a good thing.

The MDC-800 arm I quite like. Simple, straightforward to adjust and stays there without fiddling. Seems to work well.

I have considered trying a Technics 1200g table, but am unsure if it would be more than a sideways move, as at the moment the SOTA is functioning well (within the limits described earlier) 

I have thought to bring the Technics in and see how it pans out. Then go from there. Truth is it may not be an upgrade at all. Thoughts?

Hi Spencer thanks for your reply

With the new cartridge installed I am currently (other than the switch failure) very happy with the SOTA. My plan is to run it as-is for the moment. It now bests my digital front end; I'll call that a win

I did speak with Donna she was quite helpful. There is very little trade in value for her as she stated the platter was the only thing she was interested in. The rest of the TT is a 'teardown' apparently. Which brings me to the point that 3K for a complete rebuild still leaves me with a nearly 'forty year old' SOTA by the serial numbers.  It seems I would be better off to kick in a bit more for a new Star and selling off the current one for 1200$ (with the old cartridge I guess) if I went that route.

So I am here:

The springs have sagged. It still has shock absorption and the table is in a spot it has no exposure to footfall or speaker/sub vibrations. The platter is level.

The motor may not be up to current standard, but it seems to be running smooth enough I don't hear obnoxious speed fluctuation. It's true I am sure it could be improved.

The start switches don't work.

The Sumiko MDC800 was and still is highly regarded. I think the secondary market price for it is fairly strong at 800$ give or take. It works well enough. The used vintage SOTA prices are all over from 500- or less up to around 1500-1800 depending.

The new AT cartridge did allow me to get the length issue with placement sorted, so that was huge...

And finally- the bearing. The platter spins smoothly and with a quiet vinyl runout it shows an excellent low noise floor. I am sure it could be bettered... but I guess if it were an issue some apparent rumble would be evident but I truly can not hear much at this time.

A man's got to know his limitations... (Clint Eastwood in what movie?) and for now I think the new cartridge has really hit the sweet spot. Bundling up and shipping a what seems to be (mostly) working  TT to face the hazard and liability of the FedEx  monkeys (forgive me if you work for FedEx- I ship $$$K with them a year so have a subjective opinion) is more risk than it seems to benefit for the moment.

Plus I'm inherently lazy, so there's that...

Cheers,

RW

I just wish I could get my cd/sacd front end to sound as good as the SOTA  ATart9xi does right now