Early SOTA vs New Something: Conundrum

Thanks for all your replies

I don’t know if the motor is ac or dc. I suspect dc but could be wrong. 

Thanks for the tip on the arm board. I might go that route and the bearing service, but found when the new cartridge (AT art9xi) went in it mostly solved the issue with proper alignment. I think the AQ200 was not able to get far enough forward but the AT is shaped differently, so I’m happy with that. 
 

As for the bearing, I’ll leave it be for the moment as the platter spins smooth and I am getting no noise from playback. Plus another issue just popped up
 

A day after the cartridge install the new problem arose. Of the two buttons that turn the motor on one has seemingly failed as I now had to install a power strip with shutoff switch to turn the platter off. Both buttons down is 33. Both buttons up used to turn it off but now it goes to 45 rpm. So no way to turn platter off without the power strip switch. Oh well, it’s always something…

@rwbadley,  As a Sota Nova VI owner, who looked into some older tables and upgrades, and assuming you’re not up for doing the work yourself as someone suggested, I recommend sharing your total budget with Donna and prioritizing the options. Bearing/thrust plate and springs are top priority along with motor. If you can find a used arm that might help you leverage your investment made in the nice AT cartridge. Sota often has trade-in armboards of various geometries that might save you some $ too. They can cut to fit any arm of proper size(~9"-10.5", not 12")

The Eclipse package upgrade could always be added later if desired.

Vacuum hold down is fantastic, but if you don’t have many warped LPs probably a lower priority vs. the other items.

FWIW, I’ve also owned a Technics SP10mk and I think the Sota with some of the upgrades would get you closer to an SP10mkII than a 1200G. IOW, the Sota upgrades would give you arguably better performance and an upgrade path to take it even higher later if desired.

If you want to start fresh, have you asked Sota about trade-in value? They do that too. Cheers,

Spencer

Hi Spencer thanks for your reply

With the new cartridge installed I am currently (other than the switch failure) very happy with the SOTA. My plan is to run it as-is for the moment. It now bests my digital front end; I'll call that a win

I did speak with Donna she was quite helpful. There is very little trade in value for her as she stated the platter was the only thing she was interested in. The rest of the TT is a 'teardown' apparently. Which brings me to the point that 3K for a complete rebuild still leaves me with a nearly 'forty year old' SOTA by the serial numbers.  It seems I would be better off to kick in a bit more for a new Star and selling off the current one for 1200$ (with the old cartridge I guess) if I went that route.

So I am here:

The springs have sagged. It still has shock absorption and the table is in a spot it has no exposure to footfall or speaker/sub vibrations. The platter is level.

The motor may not be up to current standard, but it seems to be running smooth enough I don't hear obnoxious speed fluctuation. It's true I am sure it could be improved.

The start switches don't work.

The Sumiko MDC800 was and still is highly regarded. I think the secondary market price for it is fairly strong at 800$ give or take. It works well enough. The used vintage SOTA prices are all over from 500- or less up to around 1500-1800 depending.

The new AT cartridge did allow me to get the length issue with placement sorted, so that was huge...

And finally- the bearing. The platter spins smoothly and with a quiet vinyl runout it shows an excellent low noise floor. I am sure it could be bettered... but I guess if it were an issue some apparent rumble would be evident but I truly can not hear much at this time.

A man's got to know his limitations... (Clint Eastwood in what movie?) and for now I think the new cartridge has really hit the sweet spot. Bundling up and shipping a what seems to be (mostly) working  TT to face the hazard and liability of the FedEx  monkeys (forgive me if you work for FedEx- I ship $$$K with them a year so have a subjective opinion) is more risk than it seems to benefit for the moment.

Plus I'm inherently lazy, so there's that...

Cheers,

RW

Here ya go! Magnum Force!

(1) A man’s got to know his limitations (HD) - Bing video

rw,

1. I wouldn't install a new cartridge in an arm I knew was not positioned correctly.  That will make installation alignment difficult if not impossible.  So you will not experience the potential of the new cartridge.

2.  I've owned a couple of SOTAs and they can be very good tables.  But as others mentioned they do require maintenance (more than just bearing oil).  As I remember, the MDC-800 was a decent arm so probably doesn't need to be replaced, once installed correctly, so long as it is not damaged.

3.  I prefer the stability of speed in a decent DD table, such as the new Technics.  So my choice would be to buy that.  And there should be a buyer for the SOTA, particularly someone who can upgrade it themselves for a reasonable cost.