Help with Turntable selection

hard to go wrong with a VPI Scout.

One more in favor of the Scout...put a nice cartridge on it and it sings.

Scout, no contest. Avoid the Marantz (nee ClearAudio) as it plays like a $100 refurb.

I'll come down on a different side of the fence. Since I don't like tables with plastic platters, finding an unpleasant softness to them, and I am equally not enamoured of the geometry of the VPI arm, I would suggest the Nottingham. I don't own any of the tables mentioned but have experience with the Nottinghams, VPI and, though not the Marantz, the better Clearaudio models. Actually, I would prefer one of the better Rega tables to most of those mentioned, as well. YMMV.

I have to agree with Viridian on this one. Everyone here on Audiogon seems to like their VPI's. I wonder how many of them actually have experience with the other High End brands. Have they been down in the analog trenches, dodging bullets from all the compromised, but highly regarded and well reviewed designs? I always enjoyed my Space Deck and it took me over a year of hemming and hawing, going back and forth,and comparing it to the twice as expensive Well Tempered Super before I finally surrendered and sold the Space Deck. It was not an easy decision. They are different animals, but both competed on a similar level, which says allot about the Space Deck's value. Now, have you considered the Well Tempered Amadeus?? If I had nothing right now, that is where I would put my hard earned analog money.