I owned a Star Sapphire Series III w vacuum for many years in the 90s. If you keep it (and I too would never trade it for Rega), you might consult SOTA to not only repair or replace the lip on the platter but more importantly in my opinion to upgrade the motor mount such that the belt is not stretched when the suspension flexes. The biggest flaw of my SSS III was pitch instability caused by the fact that the motor was mounted to the chassis while the platter, of course, is suspended by the springs. When the suspension was activated by any mechanical vibration, the belt would be stretched minutely, causing pitch to be altered. In the Cosmos and later models, they fixed that issue. OR, deactivate the springs and treat it like an unsuspended tt.
Need Advice Sota Sapphire III + SME IV arm
I recently inherited my grandfather's SOTA Star Sapphire III TT equipped with a very nice SME IV tonearm. He probably bought this back in 1989 or '90 and it was never played. He bought some Infinity IRS Beta speakers and I think he just thought he needed the best of everything to put with it - but he really just played CDs at that point.
I've never had a vacuum TT before and am debating on what to do with it. Other than needing a new cartridge everything works great! My current system is Paradigm Monitor 9s with a Rega Brio-r.
I took the table in to my local Hi-Fi store that I bought my other equipment at and they were advising me to trade it in a get something like a Rega RP-6 instead. I'm not sure how to estimate what the SOTA and SME IV would sell for but I don't think that I am getting good trade in value...
Any advise on whether to just get a new cartridge (something like a Dynavector 10x5) and keep the SOTA or should I look in to selling it and get something like the Rega P6?
Thanks for any help!
Eric
I've never had a vacuum TT before and am debating on what to do with it. Other than needing a new cartridge everything works great! My current system is Paradigm Monitor 9s with a Rega Brio-r.
I took the table in to my local Hi-Fi store that I bought my other equipment at and they were advising me to trade it in a get something like a Rega RP-6 instead. I'm not sure how to estimate what the SOTA and SME IV would sell for but I don't think that I am getting good trade in value...
Any advise on whether to just get a new cartridge (something like a Dynavector 10x5) and keep the SOTA or should I look in to selling it and get something like the Rega P6?
Thanks for any help!
Eric