Sota Sapphire

Your Sota should be up to speed in less than one revolution. Replace the belt first and clean the pulley and platter. Beyond that it could be a motor or power supply problem. There's a 220 microFarad capacitor on the circuit board that starts the motor. It's easy to replace if you are handy with a soldering iron.

there isnt a Sota around that gets up to speed in one revoltion, nor do any other belt drives that have a 12lb+ platter. If you want to get up to speed in one revolution, get a little rega with a glass or plastic platter, but I doubt they do either.

Manitunc, mine does. Any tt with good speed control has plenty of torque to accelerate the platter from 0 to 33 1/3 in a revolution or less.

when was it last lubed?

I used the supplied strobe disc with my Sota to measure the time it took for the bars on the disc to stabilize. If the platter gets up to speed in exactly one rotation from zero then it would take 3.6 seconds for the bars on the disc to stabilize after turning on the motor. Use the strobe disc to measure yours.
We had these discussions on another thread. Search speed control and torque. If I recall correctly, someone's DD tt gets up to speed in a quarter rotation.