Question regarding reputation of SOTA tables

I know that Paul Seydor of the Absolute Sound wrote a very good review on the Cosmos some years ago. A reviewer at Stereophile owned a Cosmos as a reference table but I forget his name and do not know if he is still an active reviewer.

I had a sapphire and loved it. I went up to a Cosmos with the vac and I am satisfied in the extreme.

I am done on the upgrade path. If my fr arm evers gives up the ghost, I will probably throw an Ikeda 407 on it.

Great tables and company to do business with in my opinion

My Sapphire is in great shape, but it's an older series I. I have no stores in the area that have tables on hand (they will special order a table if I commit to purchasing it). I have no way of knowing how my Sapphire ranks in performance with other tables. Been talking with Donna & Kirk at SOTA about trading in my Sapphire for a refurbished series III Nova; but before I commit, I'd like to be sure there's not a better table out there for the same money. And, if one reads Stereophile's list of recommended components, there's some great sounding (according to their reviewers)that look sexier than SOTAs.

Hard to advise you without knowing your arm and cartridge and how much money you want to spend. I am a turntable dealer but I would you to buy used or demo, get a lot more for money. As Forrest would say, "handsome is as handsome does." Actually, an aunt of mine use to say this also.

Arm is a Premier FT3 and cartridge is a Benz Glider. I plan to keep/use the Glider on the replacement table/arm. Budget for used table/arm is no more than $3000.

Sota is one of the oldest "hi end" turntable manufacturers still around. Their support is excellent (if a little slow sometimes) They dont kiss asses and wine dine at trade shows so the reviewers ignore them. Look at the table feature by feature. inverted jeweled bearing, pendulum suspension, one of the most advanced platters evermade,super accurate motor with power supply , vacuum, constrained layer arm board, best clamp ever made etc etc. Dollar for dollar no other manufacturer offers anything close for the money. Ive owned more tables than I can remember several costing many times what a cosmos cost's. Ive had my cosmos for a year and have no plans to upgrade.
A used Sota can be a great bargain (I have owned 3 ) The things to look for are the lip on the platter and bearing damage from a table not properly secured for shipping. Donna and Kirk are very helpful with used products. I would recommend finding one with the old style platter/lip for cheap and then having it upgraded to the current lip with cosmos bearing.The older star and nova are easy to remove the platter assembly from and then it can be easily (and cheaply) shipped. Most Sota vacuum table owners are converts for life.