Who's hip to the Nottingham line of Turntables???

Personally, I think the Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm outdoes any of the other tables you mention, especially the Clearaudio Champion. The "hideous" paint job to which your refer is actually a laminate, not "panit". Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I like mine - but, granted, it ain't "woodsy". I auditioned all you mention plus a SOTA which was a bit out of my budget. IMHO, the Basis beats the Rega hands down, given each has the same arm, the Champion sounds way yonder too "mushy" for my taste. My Spacedeck/Space Arm/Dynavector set up IS honest and WILL show up weaknesses elsewhere in your system, if any.

For the price, and all else considered, I think you'd be happy with the Spacedeck (I'm sure others will have differing opinions) - maybe with some racing stripes or a flame design! :-)

I owned/loved my Space Combo until divorce forced sale(one of many pieces). I truly miss it. It's the only table I've heard so far that plays on the "emotional level". Wasn't anything I could throw at it that wouldn't pull me off the couch boogie-ing! It's like a Harley to me - once you had the best, _ _ _ k the rest!

Hip? The 'gon is more meat and potatos.

The the asl web-pictures make the TTs colors brighter than they are in real life. I'm not a big fan of the aesthetics either, but the effect is a bit more subtle than the pics make you believe.

Why are you not considering VPI?

I am sure this will meet with some disagreement, but while I do respect the virtues of the VPI tables, IMHO, you have to move up to the TNT line to outdo the Nottingham Space or Hyper tables. That, of course, puts you well above the price range mentioned in the original post.