Turntables currently considered top of the range. Do you know what they are ?

The question to me is how you evaluate this in the real world, given the limitations that most brick and mortar dealers have, aside from their choice of top tier brand(s), which may limit you.

I would never say no to another table, or suggest that what I run is the "best"-- so many different factors, including arm mounting facilities, space, even aesthetics come into play. And isolation can be a beyotch with a high mass turntable. I actually had a structural engineer come here when we bought the place to evaluate isolating a Kuzma XL on an HRS plinth. He said no way. I use the biggest Minus K desk top for it, and it eliminates the footfall risks in an old landmark wooden house.

Downstairs I run an early SP-10 that I bought new in 1973.

I’ve heard (or not heard) various other high end tables over the years, from the Rockport to Albert’s SP-10 set up using Panzerholz, to the Brinkman that used a tube motor controller, to the Kronos. Have not heard the TechDas to my recollection. Lots of choices, and when you add up cost of arm(s), phono cartridges, cable and phono stage, it’s a big commitment.

I had a lot of records, so moving on up made sense. I had the Kuzma Reference with a Triplanar and the XL with Airline outperformed it in several respects (using the same cartridge), but you need to deal with isolation and an air compressor, and utilize a low compliance cartridge for best results in my estimation.

Most "lists" of great tables are likely not to get disagreement from me. I really think it depends on the user and some of the factors I mentioned above.

I don’t think it is on a level playing field for a controlled comparison-- b/c upstairs where the main system is, I could not get the SP-10 to isolate, even with a heavy plinth, rubber feet and a big Ginko cloud. The SP-10 does duty in the vintage system on the ground floor, centered around Quad ’57s, using antiques, an Mc 110z preamp tuner, and a pair of old Quad IIs from the late ’50s early ’60s. Everything was gone over by the late Bill Thalmann, and top glass in everything, but still, it is a limited bandwidth, limited dynamics system, and would not make for a fair comparison, @Inna. PS: the model is the early one, before the mk ii and iii and does not benefit from the further refinements in motor and heavy platter, though it is somewhat scarce in the wild. I have owned it for more than 50 years and wanted to put it back in use, rather than buy a new table for the purposes it is used. 

On the Brinkman, I couldn’t believe the difference it made favoring the tube. I’m not sure why, since it isn’t directly in the audio path, but there it was.