vintage turntables?

"I bought a new SOTA Cosmos mk3, had it upgraded to a mk4. It still couldn't hold a steady pitch compared to Technics SL1210MG5 (a current turntable in production) for 1/10 the price."
Youve mentioned this in several posts in the last few weeks.
It should be pointed out to people unfamiliar with Sota that your experience with your cosmos was truly rare. Having owned almost all the decks in there line up for many years and having discourse with many Sota owners I would comment that Ive never heard of or had any speed problems with their decks. Its unfortunate that you had a bad experience and I share your enthusiasm for technics decks but your experience was remote and in fact could happen with any deck as a matter of fact I can show you a 1200 mk 2 with speed drift, it happens. Im not inditing technics for what I know is an isolated occurrence. I can also say with assurance that after spending many hours comparing technics decks to the Sota that although the technics are remarkable machines they are not in the same league sonically as the Sota.
Just an alternate point of view

Right on, Rccc!

James1969 does have a valid point regardless of other comments. True, his experience with the Sota may have not been typical of the brand, but his comments do bear some merit.

Listening tests alone do not offer enough resolution.

If you really want to see how a DD quartz lock table compares to a belt drive, you will need a NAB broadcast test disc and an HP frequency counter.

First you'll find that many belt drive tables are off speed; just a bit; and usually on the fast side, seldom on the slow side. A 10Khz tone will playback at a frequency somewhat higher.

secondly, observe the pitch stability or tone frequency deviation from the targeted value. Variation is ubstantially less on a DD quartz table, be it Technics, Sony or Denon, etc.

Happy listening.

I have an old Denon, AC DD that works well in a second system after I puttied the platter underside to stop the ringing. Has a Black Widow tonearm, w damping. Late 70s vintage. Needs a high compliance cartridge.

Also bought an old SOTA Sapphire 3, non vacuum w original Well-Tempered tonearm. Sounds great. Very quiet. Live sounding.

Get your SOTA fixed. The unit is so simple that this can't be a big deal. Might just be grease on the belt or other drive. Could be oxidation on the speed pots, or a loose/bad connection somewhere in the speed control.

That Technics should not even be mentioned on this site. Strictly DJ fare. DC Direct drive. With all of those DC pulses and other coupled motor noise, it is unlistenable on a ref or near ref system. Made for a different purpose.

I agree, perhaps my SOTA experience is unique.

With that said, I started down the path of going for 'high end' turntables - SOTA being my first. After 3 years of a 'sad story' I cut my losses and sold the table. After spending around $7500 on the SOTA, I started to look around. The prices go up really fast, $14k, $20k, etc etc. I asked myself, does good sound from records really cost this much?

So why not do some exploratory work and start out at the bottom with a popular turntable that has ready made modifications available? The Technics was the candidate for me. Looks have no meaning to me when the lights are out and the system is playing and sounding good.

This hobby has a lot of 'extreme engineering' that goes into products, and their prices reflect it. My next turntable purchase I want to have a solid understanding of where the engineering goes and what kinds of audible benefits those efforts have on sound. So for me, this exploration with the Technics turntable is and education.

But to be honest, the thought of spending $$$ on a 'high end' turntable is starting to loose it's appeal. The Technics is giving me quite a bit of enjoyment, and to think I've only spent a fraction of what some spend on just a cartridge.

It's all relevant, if you have the $$$ to throw around in the 'high end turntable' arena, that's great. I started down that path and got a whopping wake up call with the little $$$ I have into this 'direct drive experiment'.