My first Well Tempered was the Record Player that I bought in about 2000. Very interesting table, and i learned the basics of setting up a WT on it. I moved on from it to a Teres when a remarkable opportunity occurred. The a few years back I came across a Well Tempered Reference locally and I snapped it up.
It is an interesting table, that is awesome in some aspects, and less than exciting to use in others. The arm is relatively easy to adjust, but setting up overhang is a royal pain in the butt. Otherwise all the other techniques for setting up a WT held true for it. One thing about arm set up. I was always conservative on how deep I set the paddle. I would start with the maybe 1/4" of the paddle submerged and then i would gradually lower it till I found the level of stability and dampening I wanted. I ran several cartridges on it and never skewed a cantilever. I ran a Koetsu Urushi Tsuguru, ZYX 4D, Ortofon A90, Audio Technica OC9 III, and Ikeda 9 Kawami on it.
Aside from setting up overhang, I found it irritating that the feet could not be leveled. I also thought the motor and the fact that it had no speed control options to be an irritant. Supposedly LP Gear sold a new belt for them that was the best option, but my WTR always ran a tad fast. I always came across other opinions that the corian base was actually rang more than the MDF stacks in the Classic design. Sure it was pretty as could be for a 1990’s era table, but all that engineered material still rang.
All in all I liked the table. But when it came time to gather my monies and buy a SOTA Cosmos Eclipse I sold the Well Tempered Reference and did not miss it at all.