How do you choose a turntable ?

It is impossible to buy a new and better turntable than the Holbo mk2 airbearing turntable system. For 5500 USD delivered to your home.

Hey all, when I was looking for a new TT, the primary driver was my budget. Determine your top end and decide if a used item is worth it. I'm poor so my TT was about $130 USD and to me, it sounds good.

I currently have three turntables, but have owned a good bushelful of them. Explored belt, direct, and idler drives. The three tables I have are 

SOTA Cosmos Eclipse

Scheu Analog Das Laufwerk No 2

Denon DP80

The Sota is my benchmark. What I looked at are as follows

Motor quality and control, the AC motor and Phoenix Engineering controls are as good as you get for sane money

Quality of main bearing. The new magnetic system works fabulously. 

The quality of the sub chassis. This is in conjunction with a well executed suspension. 

The Scheu was bought because it has a high mass, and that type of table presents music a bit differently than a suspended one. The combination of materials is well thought out. The design allows for two arms. The motor control works, but is not as good as the Sota. I might think about fitting it with the Phoenix Engineering controller. 

The Denon DP80 is a fun project. This is one of the better direct drive tables. I believe in the split platter for isolation. The coreless motor seems to be the best implementation of the design. I like the ease of use. 

Each table has different arms. The Sota an Origin Live Agile. The Scheu has 10 and 12 inch Audiomods Series 6. The Denon will be paired with a Dynavector DV 505. 

@hb22 This is a 2nd attempt to respond to your post, don't understand what became of my first concerning the Holbo.  I use AnalogMagic to set up turntables and had trouble setting up a Holbo.  The one I was working on, the owner wanted to use a MC cartridge and the resonance was all wrong.  I wanted to try a higher compliance MM cartridge that we had on hand, but the owner had his heart set on using his MC.  Fortunately his McIntosh preamp had a subsonic filter so we made it work.  Don't get me wrong, the Holbo is a fine TT, but like every other, it is important to make sure to mate arm and cartridge carefully.   

Thank you for your compliment on the Holbo mk2 TT; it really is an excellent turntable. I am also glad that you sorted out the matter according to the customer's wishes and that he is very satisfied. I should also add, that a phono riaa preamp is useless without a subsonic filter! A subsonic filter is mandatory, regardless of which turntable/tonearm/cartridge you use.