What makes for a "great" turntable?

Three things make it great: transient speed stability, isolation from external vibration, and ability to drain off internal vibration generated by motor & platter bearing. Few turntables get all three things right, and some of the top models that do, succeed by addressing the problem with an integrated plinth and rack system.

clio...friggin great stereo...fyi, I lived with beautiful goldman studio(which cost more than the car i drove at the time)along with my humble oracle paris, and my thorens jubilee. considering what i paid for it, it (in practical terms)cost me about 250 bucks everytime i played an lp. between that, and a neverending battle to make it sound superior to my blue collar tables, i gave up and sold it. eventually got a nice car though.

It depends what you are looking for. Good quality and convience, the older automatic dd tables could fit that category especially the longivity of those tables. For me, a great table is one that you do not realize its there when the music is playing. Imo, high mass is part of the equation. I have been experimenting with the maplenoll tables compared to my michell over the past couple of years and find the maplenoll comes closer to my definition of a great table. As I have found one of the maplenoll tables that have the heavier plinth and platter (about 150 lbs of mass) i will be able to compare two heavy mass tables to see how much extra the mass brings to the quality.

Thanks Jaybo, it took a while to get there. I've moved backwards in time in the turntable world. However, the Beogram 4500 is still "newer" (manufactured from '89 - '93 IIRC) than all the cars I've owned in my life, all of which came from the 60's and 70's, save my current daily driver, an'84 Porsche Carrera.

My 20 year old Linn Axis is neither lightweight nor the heaviest table, but it's the heaviest I've ever owned, plus it sits on a big, 60 pound, big honking solid oak coffee table that I picked up back then for $30 in a used furniture store down south.

I put a $10 Thorens arm lift on it when I bought it that still always lifts the arm when done without fail.

It sits about 4 feet forward and to the left of my left full range speaker. My system also sits in the basement of my home on a thin padded carpet on top of the solid concrete foundation of the house.

I can play at any SPL with no feedback or other nasty noises in play. It's been a real keeper with only those two tweaks (oak table and lift) at $40 total.

Personally, I think there are many very excellent sounding table rigs available out there without going off the deep end in regards to cost.

The turntable is one device in my system though where I would admit to looks as being a factor for me. If I have to chose a replacement someday from among many good tables, I might well go for the one that just looks coolest to me, as long as I know it is technically sound, much like buying a new car. Convenience and low maintenance is also a big factor for me.

The other thing would be to make sure it has a tonearm that can work well with the low compliance Denon DL103R cartridge, which I have zero interest in switching from.

I guess my philosophy summarized is once you find the right cartridge, build the rest of the phono rig in accordance around it....and make sure it is easy to use and will last and look nice along the way.