which turntable to buy for $1500 best value ?

Good recommendation Vic. But does that table come with the apparently missing motor?

Shakey

Shakey,
No way in hell will either of those tables outperform an Amadeus.

I was referring to the OP's list of possible turntables, not other's references. I have no experience with the Amadeus, so I cant comment on its performance.

Smognote.
There is no oil in a Sota. I have purchased, sold and shipped many Sota Star, Sapphire and Cosmos and have never heard or seen anything regarding leaking oil.

As for a rega 250, It will work fine. I have an audiomods IV mounted on a Sota Cosmos which sounds awesome. You might want to look into getting the audiomods work done to your Rega 250. It is a bargain for what you get,.

manitunc, thanks again, for the info. it's good to know the rb250 would work for now. vic, i was wondering if you would explain run out. i do know what that is but am very interested. i [with out question] would buy a 5000 dollar table if it were in my budget. someday hopefully but for now i can not exceed 1500. now when i see something i like, i tend to look at the zip code to see if i can aviod having it shipped. is this the way most potential buyers go?

SOTA - the refurbished units ex factory are good value. SOTA uses grease in bearing not oil. Critical thing in transporting a SOTA is the transit bolts that lift the platter/spindle off the sapphire thrust pad to prevent damage in transit.
Replacing the bearing on a used SOTA is very easy as well, can be done in the field.