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

@inna said: 

"Libraries and other places use Simon Yorke with SME arms for transfers.

Who is familiar with them ? And why would they use it with SME arms and not full SME set up, I wonder ?

Speaking of British."

Here’s a photo in a restoration suite from my visit to the Packard Campus, Culpeper, LOC:

I don’t have a personal favorite- I think there is such a wide range of choices in drive systems, ergonomics, modern v. vintage and the need (or not) to use multiple arms of different types that the choices can be endless. I haven’t had a huge number of tables over the years, currently run a vintage SP-10 that I bought new in 1973 that the late Bill Thalmann restored in 2017-- that’s in the vintage system.

The main system relies on the Kuzma XL/Airline on an HRS base with a big Minus K desktop:

Before I bought the XL/Airline, I had a Kuzma Reference with a Triplanar arm. I’ve had good experience with a lot of tables, including the old Rockport. I always thought that French table, the Verdier la Platine seemed like a bargain, but I gather there is a fair amount of tweakiness to it. Some of the older big Japanese tables, not just the big Micro-Seiki, are well made and ingenious. Of course, the newer Tech Das brings that technology up to date.

I’m a big fan of industrial design and turntables, as a mechanical device, explore these opportunities in multiple ways. You could imagine the Wright Bros. or Jules Verne designing one.