Vinylshadow, Buying a new turntable is always fun. I have several rules I always abide by when I look at tonearms and turntables.
Rule #1 No unipivot arms. They are inherently unstable. Many manufacturers such as Lyra recommend against them for good reason.
Rule #2 The turntable must be adequately isolate with a suspension tune to filter under 3 Hz.\
Rule #3 The Turntable must have adequate record clamping be it by reflex clamp or vacuum.
Turntables that meet that requirement are Basis, SOTA, SME and Dohmann. Of the 4 SOTA is easily the best buy. It's suspension is brilliant, it has vacuum hold down, it has a bearing with a magnetic thrust system and it has a great drive system. Put an Origin live Tonearm on one and you would be hard pressed to do better at any price. The main downside to the SOTA is it will only take certain 9-10" tonearms.
The SME is a brilliant turntable but it is three times the price. The Dohmann is the best turntable here. It has a built in Minus K system for the best isolation available in any turntable. It uses a reflex clamp and I believe will soon be offered with Vacuum. It is more expensive than the SME's. Basis tables are fine but they want to sell them with their tonearms which by many opinions are not so hot because they are unipivot arms.
The Vertere is a handsome turntable. It does not have an adequate suspension or record clamping system. The tonearm looks OK but I have not handled one. On appearances alone I would prefer an Origin Live Enterprise arm not to mention any of the Schroder or Reed arms. SME arms are not available as separates any more.
You buy a turntable to listen too not to look at. The Dohmann is the ugliest turntable here and I would buy one in a heart beat if I had the money:)
Rule #1 No unipivot arms. They are inherently unstable. Many manufacturers such as Lyra recommend against them for good reason.
Rule #2 The turntable must be adequately isolate with a suspension tune to filter under 3 Hz.\
Rule #3 The Turntable must have adequate record clamping be it by reflex clamp or vacuum.
Turntables that meet that requirement are Basis, SOTA, SME and Dohmann. Of the 4 SOTA is easily the best buy. It's suspension is brilliant, it has vacuum hold down, it has a bearing with a magnetic thrust system and it has a great drive system. Put an Origin live Tonearm on one and you would be hard pressed to do better at any price. The main downside to the SOTA is it will only take certain 9-10" tonearms.
The SME is a brilliant turntable but it is three times the price. The Dohmann is the best turntable here. It has a built in Minus K system for the best isolation available in any turntable. It uses a reflex clamp and I believe will soon be offered with Vacuum. It is more expensive than the SME's. Basis tables are fine but they want to sell them with their tonearms which by many opinions are not so hot because they are unipivot arms.
The Vertere is a handsome turntable. It does not have an adequate suspension or record clamping system. The tonearm looks OK but I have not handled one. On appearances alone I would prefer an Origin Live Enterprise arm not to mention any of the Schroder or Reed arms. SME arms are not available as separates any more.
You buy a turntable to listen too not to look at. The Dohmann is the ugliest turntable here and I would buy one in a heart beat if I had the money:)