Having worked in a Hifi store as chief turntable setup man which sold SOTA as well as Oracle I had the opportunity to set up SOTAs both Star and Saphire along with the Oracles, both Alexandria and the Oracle at Delphi along with VPI, Denon, and Linn and the new AR table I became quite familiar with turntables from that era. I would rank them this way:
1. SOTA Star Saphire the vacuum really made a difference over the Star.
2. SOTA Star. Much easier to set up than either Oracle. Its suspension system was easier to tune than either Oracle. Much easier and friendlier to adjust arms and cartridges. One of the biggest advantages the SOTA had was the superiority of their suspensions. One could beat on the table while the record was playing and it would never skip. Just try that with the Oracles, VPIs, and Linn clones! If I remember right the little ARs could do this too, but never like the SOTAs.
3. The Oracle at Delphi. If looks equaled sound, this one was Killer. When set up with the correct springs for the suspension this turntable was easily the equal of the SOTA Saphire. The question I always had about the setup was the lack of precisness having at least 7 different springs to deal with when tuning the suspension. It was just too tedious to deal with. The Star Saphire was its superior though.
4. Next I would consider the new AR turntable. We had sold several Alexandrias when they first appeared but after the New AR table appeared for under $ 500 with a fine arm Alexandria sales just dried up as the AR at least equaled the performance of the Alexandria if not bettered it.
5. The Oracle Alexandria. A nice table. I always felt it sounded best with the included Oracle Arm. It was tuned from the factory just right. It was a pain to put on and tune a new arm. I believe it sold for around $1000.00. At that price for a few hundred more one could buy a SOTA Saphire and the MMT arm. A great combo. We sold the Alandrias with the Grace F9e. That was a nice combo. Again the New AR at half the price looked as good I thought and sounded as good or better. It was really a giant slayer.
6. The Denons no matter the price never sounded as good as the New AR.
At that time VPI was just starting to build tables and used Denon drives with a VPI base which was better than a stock Denon but not by much.
As for Linn and the several clones that were built at the time like Ariston and Pink Triangle, they all sounded very good, but I always ranked them somewhat below the SOTAs and Oracles. Linn had their mystique and cult following, but they had to play catch up and today they have a much improved product.
Hope this helps.
Steve
