Turntable Decision

@sbank , Of course you don't here a warble with vacuum hold down. That is my point. Reflex clamping is a close second. The issue with reflex clamping is, recurrent use may cause cracking of the label and it does not work well with 200 gm records. I suggest the penny or dime experiment with a test record because it is easy to hear the warble. With music things get a lot more complicated. It is harder to hear the speed irregularity but it is there and even worse because warps are more acute than the warp you make with a dime. 

The 4 Point 9 is an excellent arm and I know for a fact Sota has installed one on a Cosmos.

gareents, watch this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rgK0YMsJXM   It will demonstrate how a tonearm should be designed and why. The only mistake it makes has to do with anti skating.
Applying this to the the Schick and Graham arms is not difficult. The Graham is out for me because it is a unipivot arm and they are inherently unstable. Graham uses a set of opposing magnets to stabilize the arm and it is most probably the best unipivot arm out there but it is extremely over priced. The Schick is too heavy, is not a neutral balance arm and it's vertical bearing is too high. Both arms have additional contacts. The Schick a removable head shell and the Graham a removable arm wand.
Arms that I really like are the Reed 2G, the Tri Planar and the Schroder CB and LT. I put the Schroder CB on my new Cosmos. Mark Dohmann designer of the Helix displays his turntables with the Schroder CB. Peter Ledermann of Soundsmith fame is big buddies with Frank Schroder who is designing an arm for Soundsmith. 

@sbank , another happy Sound Labs/ Sota guy! Great minds hear alike:-). 

meldiscman, I owned an Oracle for a year or so. It is a pretty turntable but like the Linn LP12 it has a stability problem and it is not nearly as nice to use as a Sota. They recently added damping wells to the design and this may have improved things a bit. For a similar price you can get a Sota with vacuum clamping which takes everything to the next level. It will not flatten severe warps but most records do not have severe warps. Do this experiment. Put a test record on and place a dime under the edge of the record. Play a 1000 Hz test tone. You will easily hear the tone warble especially if your vertical bearing is above record surface level. It does not take much warping to cause very audible effects. Vacuum clamping pulls the record down onto the flat surface of the platter with rather obvious results. Perhaps sbanks will comment on this as his Nova is a vacuum version. 

bkeske, I have heard to many stories of bad customer service from Origin Live. I tend to steer people towards Rega arms for that reason. The Jelco 850 is a great arm for the money but the company is out of business. If you have to have removable head shells I think the Kuzma  4 Point 9 offers the best compromise but at a significantly higher price point. I think it is worth the stretch. 

I just collected a movie from Sota showing my table set up at the test station and the read out of it's speed accuracy which was 33.333 +- .0002

Gareents, Donna Bodinet just sent me this very recent review on a Nova which is very similar to the Sapphire.  http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0321/SOTA_Nova_VI_Vinyl_LP_Turntable_Review.htm

The Jelco was a great tonearm for the money. It is quite serviceable and I can not think of a better arm in that price range. But, I is not an arm I would buy. Why? I do not like removable head shells. I want one wire from cartridge to phono stage with two contacts only, one at each end. I prefer a straight vs "S" shaped arm. They are stiffer and have less inertia as a rule. The Jelco is a stable balance arm. I prefer a neutral balance arm as the VTF does not change with elevation. I like to see the vertical bearing at record surface level. This minimizes warp wow and results in more stable pitch. The 4 Point 9 is such an arm as long as you hardwire it's interconnect instead of using the DIN plug. It is quite a bit more expensive than the Jelco but over $1000 less expensive than the Schroder CB or Reed 2G. If you can absolutely not afford more than the Jelco I would give the Rega RB880 a good look. The Kuzma would make a noticeable improvement over either the Jelco or Rega arms. You can always install new arms in the future. You get a new arm board from Sota and start fresh.

Having owned turntables from each of the companies you mentioned I am happy to announce that everyone above is absolutely correct. I myself have a Sota Cosmos Vacuum coming hopefully next week. I have waited 8 months.
The Sapphire is IMHO the absolute best value in turntables available today. No other turntable gives you as much performance for the dollar and it will outperform turntables costing 3 to 4 times as much. The only issue with the Sapphire is that tonearm choice is limited. The Schroder CB fits perfectly. Origin Live arms fit but their customer service is not good. The SME IV and V fit perfectly if you can find good used units. Check out smetonearms.com  The Kuzma 4 Point 9 will fit as will the Stogi Ref. 

If money is an issue stick with the standard motor. You can upgrade to the Eclipse drive down the line if you get the itch. You will need a reflex clamp and the dust cover is so good it is mandatory. 

Buy direct from Sota. They will mount your arm for you. Talk to Donna Bodinet. 

The Sota will be fine in either system, your choice.