Calling all Sota fans.

Jay, where do you live? There’s a train coming through any minute now. Pop your fave LP on the old Cosmos and tell us how it all works.

Hi Lewn:
May I ask what turntable replaced the Dohmann in your friend's system?

Lewm the Chattanooga choo choo just rolled through…no problem but of course having a cement floor and cement pedestal doesn’t hurt 😎

My friend with the Doehmann sold it in favor of a major downsizing to his system, associated with moving to a smaller domicile.  He now uses hi-rez digital streaming exclusively.  Sold all his LPs, too, and gave me a few for free.  So in essence, nothing replaced the Doehmann.  This was a year or two ago.  Since then he bought a bigger house (now 40 miles away from me, in Baltimore) and seems to be sniffing around for a return to vinyl.  It's a long story, but I will respect his privacy.

Can't beat a cement floor; I agree, laid on bare earth.

@lewm , lewn, I like that :-)  It is Dohmann by the way not Doehmann.
Mark thinks that efficiencies in manufacture down in Australia will bring the price down enough that adding vacuum clamping and the dust cover will not add much. He is talking about $60,000, not chump change But, compared to other "ultimate" turntables, I could see myself doing this. There is no way I am going to buy an Air Force Zero. Mark has also become enamored with Schroder's LT arm and I believe he will be offering it with his tables. That arm is brilliant. It uses the friction of the stylus in the groove to drive the arm. 
A little hard to get back into it once you have sold all your records. 

jaym759, nice to hear from you again. I am glad you are enjoying your Cosmos. Donna has another customer who is thinking about putting a 4 Point 9 on a Cosmos. For some strange reason she wanted me to talk to him about it. He has an Origin Live arm which he was very unhappy with. Another story of poor customer support from Origin Live. Disappointing. They are not bad arms but this is the third or fourth sad example.

@chakster, A bargain? I would quantify it as financially irresponsible. IMHO, you have to be out of your mind to spend that much money on this antiquated format. But, what do I know. Unfortunately, I am just the type of silly person to do it.

Putting a straight line tracker on a suspended turntable is a bad idea. It will change it's level as the arm moves across the record. I have no idea how much but it will certainly change.