xagwell, I think you were on the right path with Basis and Oracle. I personally would never live with a turntable that was not adequately isolated. The other three turntables that are adequately isolated are Sota, SME and the Dohmann Helix.
The SOTA Cosmos is easily the best value. The Dohmann is easily the best turntable of the group and the price reflects that.
The Cosmos has several very attractive features. It has vacuum hold down, the best isolated dust cover which can be used while playing a disc, an excellent motor with excellent speed control, and a magnetic thrust bearing similar to what Clearaudio uses. On the problematic side the Cosmos limits the tonearms you can use. I think an Origin Live Enterprise would be perfect. This would certainly run circles around your Linn.
Having said all this you can isolate any turntable by putting it on a MinusK platform but this would add another 5K to the price. The Dohmann has MinusK trickery built in. Michael Fremer uses a MinusK under his Continuum.
Good luck and do tell us what you wind up with!
The SOTA Cosmos is easily the best value. The Dohmann is easily the best turntable of the group and the price reflects that.
The Cosmos has several very attractive features. It has vacuum hold down, the best isolated dust cover which can be used while playing a disc, an excellent motor with excellent speed control, and a magnetic thrust bearing similar to what Clearaudio uses. On the problematic side the Cosmos limits the tonearms you can use. I think an Origin Live Enterprise would be perfect. This would certainly run circles around your Linn.
Having said all this you can isolate any turntable by putting it on a MinusK platform but this would add another 5K to the price. The Dohmann has MinusK trickery built in. Michael Fremer uses a MinusK under his Continuum.
Good luck and do tell us what you wind up with!