General comments on SOTA

Agree with you, Tony. Keeping the motor and the platter from moving relative to one another is a huge advantage of the Cosmos vs the other SOTA models. My old Star Sapphire III was definitely "guilty" of speed irregularity probably related to belt stretching and relaxing. However, I was recently given to understand that the same upgrade can now be had with lesser and older models.

Al, Do you agree that the classic Papst tt motor is DC? If so, I have been laboring under the delusion that they were AC. But since I have never owned a tt with a Papst motor, the consequences to me of my ignorance are nil.

My oldest and dearest audio buddy built one of the original SOTA "kits" with that servo-controlled motor. He invited me over to his house for the first audition, for him as well as me. He fired it up, and together we watched as the platter got up to speed, and then just kept on going faster and faster until it seemed for sure that it would lift off the spindle and go flying across the room. We looked at each other and laughed out loud, as he reached for the wall plug. He had incorrectly hooked up one of the feedback circuits.

I found the piano reproduction unsatisfactory, with my 1990 vintage SS3, but I did not know any better; I thought that was just something normal for vinyl reproduction or that the distortion was "on the recording". Then in the early 2000s I bought a Notts Hyperspace - much better on piano. Then I added a Walker Audio Motor Controller - much much better yet. Then I discovered what a good idler- or direct-drive can do in terms of speed stability. But the Cosmos sounds very much better, also, compared to my now vintage SS3.