SOTA cosmos turntables

With Sota's in general the big difference is the vacuum. The house sound is often described as a little dark, but the vacuum, especially when paired with the reflex clamp, makes for rock solid imaging. I've heard the Avids and my recollection was that their sound is a little more... bright maybe, but thats not controlling for cartridge or amps so it would be hard to say for sure.

I have a Star Saphire thats about 20-years old. The vacuum works beautifully. I've heard non-sota owners claim the vacuum is fussy, but I've never had so much as a hickup with mine. I can only imagine that a new Cosmos would be that much better.

Also, you may think that Sota owners seem a little cultish about their tables, and you would be correct!

Of course its with good reason.

That sounds like a pretty huge jump in price from a $6K Cosmos. Go with the Sota.

You definately want to use the reflex clamp, even with the vacuum. the difference is noticible. Images will push forward out of the sound field and the imaging will tighten up. There is an indentation in the middle of the Sota platters, approximately the diameter of the record label, that leaves a slight gap between the record and platter. You wouldn't think with the vaccuum that this would allow much resonance, but apparently it leaves enough that the clamp is a very worthwhile item to have.

One word of caution about the clamp though: If you have a cartridge with a wide body where the width of the cartridge actually overhangs the record label when riding in the final groove the cartridge will bounce off the clamp in the deadwax. My AT-OC9 does this. It does make you jump out of the chair in a hurry at the end of the record.