Best turntable for the buck

bkeske, 

‘Do you have the Saphire VI?
‘Does it require an arm separately? 
‘The price is right.

Sounds like you want in to the vinyl arena. I used to own a Rega… your criticism is the same as I would have made… I would have said too much noise resulting in decreased transparent soundstage. I have not been a fan of Rega since I owned one… the higher level ones are supposed to be better.

You might think about a used Linn LP12  or I think you could get a new Majik without cartridge for about the price you are looking at. I recommend getting one from a dealer… like I would most turntables.

I own a new LP12. Incredible transparency. One of the amazing things about Linn, any Linn TT, is you can upgrade them all the way up to the current top of the line by small steps. They have been Top performers… continuing to advance for many decades while many of their predecessors have fallen behind. 
 

Anyway, I thing the Majik really fits the bill for you.

I was keeping my trap shut as it would just be posted what I own, but have to believe it would be hard to beat the Sapphire for the $.

Me too.

I was looking at new tables, but in the end decided to just overhaul the Sapphire with the new motor/controller/etc.
The OP mentioned $4k budget, and the parts for the overhaul gobble up half of that.
But it sound pretty good at the moment, as those parts are in transit. So it is a bit of peeling the onion.

With a good arm, the choice of carts is almost endless. And of course a good phono pre.

A solid choice as a platform, if I do say so my biased self.

@rvpiano When playing classical, my vinyl rig is better than anything I have on the digital side in terms of 3 dimensionality, imaging, and soundstage. Tone and natural presentation is incredible as well, that is so important for acoustic instruments. It just ‘feels’ more real to me

Mine too, however my digital side is on the Best Buy side.

I have always liked the SOTA Sapphire, you can possibly get a refurbished table direct from SOTA. Put Origin Live arm on it and away you go. SOTA carry a variety of arms and can properly fit your arm board.

There are better arm choices than OL… IMO.
Certainly there are arms that are easier to align/adjust/set-up.

Sota Sapphire hands down. There is no other $3500 turntable that comes close to the Sapphire's level of performance.

@rvpiano

bkeske,

‘Do you have the Saphire VI?
‘Does it require an arm separately?
‘The price is right.

I bought a used Model III from a gentleman here on Audiogon. It was a table only, so I purchased a new arm. I was lucky enough to get a Jelco S850 MK II when they were still available. The arm actually cost me more than the table. Then, at the time, bought a decent tone arm cable, a Soundsmith Zephyr cart followed a couple months later, which is very nice, but now have a Soundsmith MIMC star lo-output after purchasing a Hagerman Trumpet tube phono preamp a year later (was actually using a Schiit Mani up until then). Then replaced the stock tubes in the Hagerman with some nice old stock tubes, and just recently a purchased separate linear power supply for it. All this together has created a pretty nice rig I am enjoying immensely. Was all of it necessary, no, but after you get started, you simply want to make it better.

So, yes, add it all up, and a nice investment cost-wise, but very much worth it IMO, and many of the additions were added over time, not all at once. Probably about a 3.6K initial investment to get started. But, but over time, about 6K spent to date (including another back-up cart and mono cart).

And, as it is a model III, it will need sent to SOTA soon for an upgrade to min. V specs and restoration. So probably another 1-1.5k investment, and I will do it gladly.

When I started down this path, I would have told you no way would I spend 2K on a vinyl rig. Well, I’m way over that, and happy. But, to be honest, this is small change in the world of higher end vinyl rigs, (some cartridges cost as much as my investment to date), but I think I’ve done well putting together a relative bargain set-up which works incredibly well, and sounds fantastic.