Best turntable for the buck

@bkeske

”And I don’t care what anyone says, for me, vinyl is simply magical, and will always be better than my digital source.”

I have used vinyl for over 50 years and built ever better vinyl rigs to get the very best out of it. Until my digital rig bested it. My rig is shown under my UserID. Paradigms shift.

Good for you, have fun. I’ll do the same….and I do listen to all the various formats….but vinyl will always be preferred. It just sounds right and more ‘real’ to me.
 

As the kids used to say, ‘it’s all good’.

Perhaps a Rega Fono MC phono preamp (roughly $550) or a Rega Aria MM/MC phono preamp (roughly $1,700) and the rest of your budget spent on the best MC cartridge you can find might improve things. Personally, I'd get a Linn Majik LP12, as previously suggested, and start the inevitable climb up the Linn ladder.

Another to consider is a Dr Feickert Volare with Origin Live arm, $4K without cartridge.  It is smaller than a SOTA and requires an isolated platform.  It is dead quiet in operation (more quiet than the SOTA).

I've owned 2 SOTA's over the last 35 years, including my current Star III/SME V combination - bought new.  They are wonderful tables with a fantastic suspension, just not as quiet in my experience as some other very good units.

Pros and cons, as usual, in this price segment.

Ego not inflated a bit Tim and Brian, and thanks for the kind words :-)

I have decent gear on the digital, LP and RtR fronts, so for me anyway….assessment of relative strengths and weaknesses AND trying to address has a been a catalyst for competitive improvement across all 3. I do understand that the various formats do compete for $$$. Ultimately that was why i sold the SOTA as trying to maintain all the analog bits in two places, was too much.

@rvpiano what did you decide to do ?
best to all

Jim