For the original poster, I’ve gone through a good number of turntables. There were a handful of criteria that influenced whether and for how long I was happy with a turntable. I’ll lay those out here:
1 - was it sensitive to foot falls? My floors are pretty bouncy and if the table skipped, it bugged me.
2 - did it keep speed well and at the correct speed? My ears are sensitive to speed variation
3 - how much of a PITA was it to install a cartridge (I’m not incredibly patient and I’m also not inclined to fuss with things too much or overly sweat VTA or azimuth and so on)
4 - was it reliable and low maintenance?
5 - finally, did it please me visually and did I like how I felt using it?
Went thru a good number. I ended the journey with 2 tables - a new SL-1210GAE that was not inexpensive and a Sota Sapphire with SME3009 tonearm. One DD, one belt. The SL1210 will outlive me and I can realistically say it will never be replaced and will likely never give me any problems. The Sota, which I don’t really need, will stay around because I have so much respect for it. It does not, however, hold speed on par with the Technics.
The ones that are no longer here?
- couple of Thorens (TD-316, then 318, then 320) - they skipped if I looked at them funny and the tonearm was (for me) a PITA to install cartridges on. Sounded nice
- Rega P3/P25 - nice, simple, reliable, reasonably good against foot falls, but ran a little fast. I could imagine having one again with a speed box
- Older Technics SL-1500 - once I got it working (cleaning pots, etc.), it was problem-free and was probably good enough. But I felt like I must be leaving something on the table if I’m using a $300 table that was 40+ years old. If you can find a good one from the 1200-1800 lines, you’d probably be happy
- Older Pioneer PL-600 and 630 (the heavy, good ones). Wanted so much to love these, but they were starting to get flaky - would slow down, then speed up, would not turn on, etc. The 630 broke my heart - time and money spent trying to get it to work, unsuccessfully
- Duals (1019, 1229, 1249, another 1 or 2) - liked them, but because they were old, found them fussy and difficult to keep running well. Ruined my 1019 trying to refurbish it on my own.
- assorted others not worth going into.
My experience says either (1) get a good Sota Sapphire, but make sure you get a good one with a decent tonearm already on it or (2) get a Technics DD - maybe even buy new if your budget permits. If a nice Rega lands in your lap, that could work as well.
