What are your top 3 favorite turntable companies (manufacturer) and why?

SOTA - really well engineered tables (Sapphire, Nova, Cosmos) that properly address the real problems of vinyl playback (isolation, whole-record clamping) without solving the wrong problems just for gimmick-factor. Great classic looks with any wood - other than yellow oak (ugh)!

That said, while I appreciate their last several years’ worth of technical & materials innovation (Christian Griego), they’re getting quite pricey now. I kind of wish they’d kept a parallel of the core 4-point suspension models stocked with basic older tech (motor / PSU / bearings) for a lower price. The way they’re trending now looks almost like a convergence with other overpriced, over-engineered brands. However I can’t really blame them because this market rewards bling factor and Rube-Goldberg solutions.

3 table companies I like? Impossible lol. I also like my Clearaudio a lot, but they've made a lot of design missteps IMO, and their pricing (especially for parts, upgrades) sucks. 

What parts have you needed for a Clearaudio? Just curious. In nearly 15 years of Clearaudio ownership (Ovation/Innovation/Universal) I’ve only needed belts, and some bearing oil my dealer provided free.

As for upgrades, I got some pretty generous trade-in allowances on Clearaudio arms from Musical Surroundings in the past (Clarify -> Magnify -> Universal), the Clearaudio U.S. distributor.

A plain Innovation armboard with a 40 mm hole drilled in it for $900, with an 8 month wait. Replacement Master Innovation shipping boxes (& packing) also for $900. Everything ordered from Germany takes a long, long time to arrive. A 80mm acrylic top platter (to replace the delrin one), I think that was $1600 - 2K. The liquid pump in my Double Matrix Pro Sonic keeps failing, ugh very frustrating.

I also have a spare Innovation controller PCB which is good because I don’t trust the trimpots on my original one (always adjusting back & forth to try and stabilize speed). Can’t for the life of me remember what I paid for that but I’m sure it wasn’t cheap. I should probably also get a spare DC motor since I’ll be keeping this table for the long haul.

On the bright side it is my best sounding table :) 

Along with a small amount of rubbish, there is so much diversity and quality in current turntable design that even a shortlist would be a long list.

It's sort of shocking how many different brands and models we have now for such a tiny market. I suppose it's a small number of us buying / selling / trading amongst each other! 

The materials quality is super-high in modern high end turntables. But the engineering is a bit all over the place!

It seems no worse than what people pay for stuff on a Linn LP12 (like $10k+ for their new plinth).

@dwette No doubt, the high parts prices seem endemic to this hobby. Sorry for the belly-aching! I do still love my Master Innovation, 8 years into ownership. The "stock" armboards are indeed around $500; $900 was for a blank with a custom hole. Later, I figured out I could just use the hole in a Graham Phantom board lol. 

I thought owning VPI tables would be better on this front, being domestic - but nope, not really much better (though shipping is super fast!). And they didn’t have what it takes to knock off my Innovation. At least Clearaudio has the import excuse for prices!

Plus, I've gotten great support over the years from Musical Surroundings. I am getting both my Universal 12" arms rewired.

Agree - Musical Surroundings' service & support has been fantastic. Great distributor. NO complaints there :) 

I suspect they dropped Graham because they were tired of covering for him!