which turntable to buy for $1500 best value ?

There was a post about the Concept on audiokarma about a month ago. Here's what I said there:

My opinion: I would advise you not to buy a Concept. After many months as a staunch defender of Clearaudio, I have now had sufficient quality control problems that I wouldn't recommend their products at all.

The short version is:

(1) June: Bought a Concept. Loved the sound, loved the looks.
(2) August: the stylus fell out of the cartridge while playing a record. Sent it to Clearaudio, they refused to cover it under the warranty. Spent another $200 on a new Concept MM cartridge.
(3) September: the locking screw for the tonearm's VTA adjustment fell out. Had to have Clearaudio send me a new screw.
(4) December: having fallen in love with vinyl and having found a good deal on an Innovation, upgraded to the Innovation. Within 2 days, it became apparent that the motor and/or bearing were defective.
(5) December: the power supply broke on the Concept. The male plug in the back of the turntable that the power supply plugs into broke off inside the plug.
(6) January: returned the Concept to the dealer for a refund in light of all the problems. Just bought a VPI Classic. Maybe it'll have reliability issues down the line, maybe not. But they couldnt be worse than the problems I've had with Clearaudio.

In sum, Clearaudio products have amazing sound and looks -- WHEN they work. For myself, i'd never buy another of their products in my life.

wanted to thank everyone for their advice and knowledge, after extensive reading and the direction from this thread, i decided to save a few more dollars and get a new well tempered simplex. i do wish it had more of a look to it but the music is really all that matters. the down side is having to wait a couple more months before i can buy a wothy cartridge.

Glad we could help with your decision. As you have found out, there are lots of opinions and experiences with turntables. One of my favorites is the Oracle Alexandria II, which for conventional looking tables just gets the look right and sounds as good as the same vintage Delphi II. While my Sota Cosmos has a classic wood look, my delphi V and Transrotor Fat Bob have that mecho/art look to them. The well tempered tend more to the classic side of looks.
And as for runout, along with Well Tempered, the Oracle Delphi V and VI used nylon pins on opposing sides to center the platter shaft, 3 on top and 3 on bottom at 120 degrees from each other. Under load, the shaft has no play, and therefore reduced micro vibrations. My Fat Bob uses a magnetic bearing to hold the platter away from the bearing surface. Its more involved than that, but again, another way of doing it.
Enjoy

Please report back to us on your Simplex. Look forward to your impressions. And enjoy the new TT.

ok, so i guess i got alittle ahead of myself with my plan to save for the simplex. knowing that i was short a few hundred for the tt [also needing a cart], i was still researching, learning, wanting an upgrade from my well loved p2. a couple of days ago a concept came up for sale with the arum classic cart mint less then 100 hours on it for $900. i got him down to $830 and am driving to pick it up on sunday [counting the minutes]. i know this will blow my old tt away and it has such good feedback [minus the guy who's fell apart]. for the price i am paying, i just don't see how i can go wrong. i still intend for my next tt upgrade to be a well tempered and while i am enjoying every sacred moment of great music listening i will be slowly saving for a well tempered [after i get a new cart for the concept of course]! does anyone think i need the record clamp for this as well as the over priced IMO dust cover? also, any good cart recomendations for the concept? thanks