Best turntable for the buck

+1 for George Merrill's Super Poly 

Table with a MC Cartridge & Ron Sutherland's

Phono Loco and you won't look back.

As mentioned,  the Well Tempered & Sota

Star Sapphire are great tables. Setup is always key. 

Best of luck.

VPI is a consideration. Try & demo it in your system.

Thorens TD 140, well made, solid, a classic, and when you come to your senses and go digital you’ll get your money back.

The skeletal Rega 8 is very good.

I heard one last year at a show and was surprised at how much better than any Rega 3 it was.

Inky black silences and rock solid pitch and timing.

No Rega 3 did that, and that’s hardly surprising is it?

That said, the near textbook perfect, virtually indestructible DD Technics 1200G easily beats it for sheer convenience.

Plus you’ll never ever regret its removable headshell either.

It would be nice to own both, but if it had to be one, I’d have the Technics.

I would struggle with the idea that if a individual struggles to feel impressed by a TT, the set up of the TT is solely the cause of the deficiency of the SQ.

I have been a user of a Belt Drive TT, Idler Drive TT’s and Direct Drive TT’s.

My methods used for the mounting of a TT have progressed over the years, to utilise methods that are to my assessment, substantially improved over previous methods used.

I still own all three of the different motor drive TT’s but am no longer owning a very heavy massy plinth Idler Drive that was used to supersede the use of the the Belt Drive many years ago.

All TT’s get a spin, of which the Belt Drive is the least used, it does not present in a way that is an attractor to me, even though it replays music that is quite fine and at times even enjoyable.

I find the Idler Drive as a comparative to a Belt Drive to be much more attractive, the presentation from the Idler Drive is ’up my street’ and I look forward to hearing the various versions that are available to me.

I don’t see the point in a Belt Drive to Direct Drive comparison in my system, the DD is for myself the most attractive when compared to an Idler Drive, the presentation from a DD TT ’floats my boat’. I go out of my way to hear these in use in their various guises and in differing set ups. The ones I am encountering all delivery the goods in a manner I settle with very quickly.

IMO, the thread has leaned towards the merits of a DD TT and I understand why this can be a very good thing.

As always, I encourage nobody to purchase blind using recommendation only, the least should be a decision made following a demonstration in a unfamiliar system.

The best option being a demonstration in the owned system.