Has anyone heard the SAT XD1

And I just ordered a copy of "Still Crazy..." from Acoustic Sounds, based largely on your review of same, plus my own appreciation of Paul Simon and his music.  $125 for an LP is not quite on the same plane with t$50,000 for an SAT tonearm, but there you go.

I forgot to mention that Davey was right to point out there is no analogy between the value or cost of vintage Ferrari race cars and the SAT turntable or tonearms.  I think the masochist in me just loves to tell that story.

Davey, I can't agree with you that stratospheric product pricing such as we see with regard to SAT is going to ruin the hobby.  On the contrary, I see it as one more sign of life.  For youngsters or first-timers who want to play vinyl, SAT is a total nonentity.  Most of them will never have heard of SAT, except perhaps as some sort of weird joke.  In the last few months, I have been contacted by two separate friends for vinyl system recommendations. One is my 30-something nephew in Michigan. The other is the son of my best friend who wanted to buy a vinyl system for his teenage daughter, to fulfill her birthday wish.  They ended up with turntables in the low end of the spectrum, cost-wise, that can be ordered any day of the week from any of several vendors on-line.  The fact that a 15 year old girl wants to get into vinyl is another sign of vigor, even though she may never want much more than what she is starting out with.  (I sent her a few jazz LPs to get her going further.) That end of the market is very healthy, so far as I can tell.  In each case, appropriate electronics were chosen to go with the turntable.  For others with bigger bucks, as you note too, there is a plethora of new and used turntables that perform at a very high level for reasonable cost, relative to the SAT. (You can use the SAT as a reason why spending $10,000 or more on a turntable is "reasonable".)  That was basically my message to you in my last post.  By the way, based on antinn's description of the SAT, it seems the Dohmann Helix, with its built-in Minus K platform, would also come into play as a great buy at a reasonable cost, especially used. I've heard that one, and it is one of a few belt-drives that have impressed me in the past few years.

The 250GTO was sitting in the rear service area at Luigi Chinetti's Ferrari dealership in Greenwich, CT, in 1971.  Next to it was a 250LM, the first mid-engine Ferrari race car.  Next to that was a Daytona Spider, a real one.  The asking price for the 250LM was also $12,500.  The Daytona was essentially a nearly new used car at that time and was priced at $23,000.  In the late 60s, the going price for a low mileage 275GTB was $6-7000. You could buy one every week at that price.  I actually thought about financing either the GTO or the LM, but I decided I would also need a garage, which was a no-go for me at that time. Of course, I would do differently if I had a second chance.

davey, I think your point or what is driving your responses is that you are angry/upset/unhappy with the prices.  Life is too short for that sort of fretting, so far as I am concerned, but you are entitled to your huff.  I am more pissed off that a 1962 Ferrari 250GTO could sell at auction for more than $30M, because I neglected to buy one in 1972 that was for sale at $12,500, from a reputable Ferrari dealer who was also the North American distributor at that time.  (Of course, my salary that year as a medical intern was $8500 plus an apartment for me and my wife.) Try not to want the SAT turntable and tonearm, and you will feel a lot better.  We can agree the prices are ridiculous and so what?

First, let me say that my opening remark was not meant as a condemnation of the SAT products per se just on the basis of their very high cost.  I try not to do that or think like that.  The turntables and tonearms might be very very good, maybe they are the very best in the world, for all I know.  I only meant to say that they may as well not exist for me in my frame of relative affluence.  As to whether Mr Gomez is wise to cater to the super rich, that is his business and was his marketing decision apparently.  His financial success or failure, eventually, will signal whether he made a good decision or not.  (It was obviously a conscious decision NOT to be another Rega or Music Hall.)  If you search the internet for ultimate cost stereo systems, you will see that there are dozens of speaker systems that cost more than $250,000 and even $1M is not unheard of.  Buyers of such systems are also candidates to buy SAT products.  Such persons do not care a fig about cost, depreciation, or resale value, and yes most of them seem convinced that cost is proportional to sound quality.  Mr Gomez seems to want to appeal to that audience, and with the stamp of approval afforded by Mike Fremer, he probably will.  There's nothing wrong with that. The rest of us can go on about our business, and I don't think we need to feel deprived.

What is your question or problem that others might comment on? When it comes to the SAT, nearly every one of us is in the same boat with you; we could never afford it, nor would we afford it (just on principle) if we could.