$7K to spend on new turntable + arm

Stringreen, no need to be so defensive all the time about VPI. They do make good products and they are competitive, but they can be bested too. For reference sake, what other high end tables have you owned that makes you feel that VPI is so wonderful, and compels you to perpetually defend them?

I agree with Agiaccio, I have owned VPI, Rega, Basis and SOTA tables with various arms. Yes, both Rega and VPI are very solid tables/arms, and great bang for the buck. However, when you go up the price scale, you will find that both can be beaten fairly easily. Due to economic issues, I am back to using a VPI Scoutmaster, my 4th VPI 'table, and it is a pretty solid investment. However, it is not nearly as good as my Basis 2500 Signature with Vector 3 tonearm was.

VPI is a solid performer, but they can be bested. Don't take criticism so personally. Someone else's disparaging remarks do not diminish your purchasing decisions.

Well said, Jmcgrogan2!

BPowers, I have read most of the posts here, and I see no recommendation for the Feickert turntable that you say is your current "favorite" in the race. Why and how did you come up with that idea? You would be taking a flyer on an unknown quantity that might be difficult to re-sell.

I don't own any of the tables under consideration and have never heard most of them, but based on my ideas of what constitutes good turntable design, I would cast my vote with Basis. And the Vector 4 arm is an excellent design. This is if you want to stay with belt drive. Otherwise, the Brinkmann Bardo direct drive, which could also be coupled with the Vector tonearm or any of several others, might knock your socks off, if you wear socks.

Stringgreen: "The VPI arm is not at all unstable unless you set it up improperly."

I recently purchased a VPI Classic II.
I've heard the term "Unipivot Arm" many times but
had never understood its meaning until the purchase.
A unipivot arm is balanced on the point of a small nail.
It is free to wobble to-and-fro and moves back and forth
(think of a rowboat on a wavy pond) until you set it in
the record groove.

It seems to seat itself well and is not producing distorted
sound so I'm satisfied it is working but I'm sure its
geometry is (slightly) different on every play.

Is this unstable? Hmmmmm...

I will answer for Stringreen: A unipivot is less "stable" than a gimbal bearing or linear tracking tonearm with respect to azimuth. True, the action of the stylus tracing the groove can cause the azimuth to "creep" during play. However, none of the modern unipivots are without some mechanism or another to prevent or ameliorate that problem. I don't think your earlier statement that the "VPI tonearm" is "unstable" is quite fair, if this is what you were thinking about, because it infers that there is some unique problem with the VPI. The VPI tonearm is a unipivot and therefore it has to deal with that issue, just like any other unipivot. However, some of the finest tonearms ever made are in fact unipivots. All tonearm designs are compromised in one way or another.