Who's hip to the Nottingham line of Turntables???

Personally, I think the Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm outdoes any of the other tables you mention, especially the Clearaudio Champion. The "hideous" paint job to which your refer is actually a laminate, not "panit". Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I like mine - but, granted, it ain't "woodsy". I auditioned all you mention plus a SOTA which was a bit out of my budget. IMHO, the Basis beats the Rega hands down, given each has the same arm, the Champion sounds way yonder too "mushy" for my taste. My Spacedeck/Space Arm/Dynavector set up IS honest and WILL show up weaknesses elsewhere in your system, if any.

For the price, and all else considered, I think you'd be happy with the Spacedeck (I'm sure others will have differing opinions) - maybe with some racing stripes or a flame design! :-)

I am sure this will meet with some disagreement, but while I do respect the virtues of the VPI tables, IMHO, you have to move up to the TNT line to outdo the Nottingham Space or Hyper tables. That, of course, puts you well above the price range mentioned in the original post.

Wnovinger - For the life of me I cannot figure out HOW you get your finger in the way in order to make the belt hop to the 45 groove. All it takes to get the Spacedeck platter going on my setup is a firm two inch push with my thumb across the thick rubber ring around the platter. Unless you have two pickup arms and your motor unit is in the front of your table, you shouldn't be even CLOSE to having this problem.

I agree, though, the 'Nots are great.