Lost sheep, Back to LP Turntable: buy guidance

Marty and Tom have made some good recommendations. I would first suggest talking to Tom privately. He is one of the most knowledgable AudiogoNers I have encountered.
After that, you might consider looking into a used Sota TT. If you can find a Sapphire in your price range, that would be a good table for you. If you can find a Star Sapphire, that would be amazing! Rega arms can be had fairly inexpensively. Get the best cartridge you can afford though. Your arm and TT will never improve on the signal taken off the LP. Priority should run in that order.
Have fun!!!

The creature on steroids should be in your short list. If you look objectively at what it offers, you'll see it is really hard to beat for the money. It is by far superior to the glass and particle board TTs and with the tonearm fluid damper its performance is stunning. You can go and read Zaikesman's review in the accessories section. The setup is pretty much plug and play. Like Viridian says, the kids should get out of the room!

KAB is coming this month with an outboard power supply for it--the working prototype has been tested and should be something really wonderful.

Jokes aside, once one listen to a TT with proper speed and rotational stability it's impossible to go back to a flimsy belt!

Psychicanimal: What does one do about the motor vibrations that are directly transmitted to the platter, record, stylus, tonearm and signal with a direct drive unit ? You better have one helluva accurate speed control system that doesn't require ANY correction or the "cogging" of the motor will surely contribute to a higher noise floor with lower resolution. After all, the stylus picks up the vibrations from the grooves while the grooves rest on the platter that is directly connected to the motor. It's not hard to see how isolating the motor from the platter via a "flimsy" belt ( or even string, which reduces the coupling even further ) could be beneficial. It's also not hard to see how mounting the platter and arm on a separate plane or sub-chassis from the motor might be beneficial. As such, making a "good" direct drive is a LOT harder than making a "good" belt drive. It is also more costly since it requires greater design and production effort.

As far as the accuracy of speed goes, do you think that any manufacturer(s) has a strong-hold on motor design or speed controls ? It does not take a rocket scientist to build something like this nowadays. It takes a lot more skill to isolate the platter / tonearm / cartridge from outside influence without creating a completely different set of problems doing so.

I'm NOT knocking the 1200 or other similar tables. I do agree that a lot of the "cheaper" new tables that are raved about are under-designed "hype" and the 1200 "might" actually be a better buy. In terms of isolation, the 1200 is probably better than the "coveted" Linn LP-12.

Having said that, either of the types of tables being discussed are a compromise due to being built to a price point and should be considered as such. No matter what you do though, you can't compare a Chevy to a Porsche / Ferrari. This is true no matter how hard you try to turn that Chevy into a Porsche / Ferrari. Then again, the Chevy is WAY better than the Yugo, which doesn't even deserve comparison to the Chevy to begin with. Sean
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Sean makes some great points. An off the shelf motor is much less expensive to design than a properly designed direct drive mechanism. That's one of the reasons that DD has such a bad reputation, the cheap ones really suck. In a belt drive system, if the belt is absorbing motor vibrations it is constantly moving in relation to the platter/bearing in response to those vibrations. This can't be any good. As most DDs have the magnets attached to the platter and the coils attached to the plinth both halves of the motor assembly are mounted to areas with decent mass which, if the bearing is properly designed, should not move in relation to one another except in the intended rotational manner. This hard mounting certainly sinks some of the vibration of the motor assembly. No doubt some will also reach the spindle and platter. Contrast that with the Linn, for instance, where the platter actually is designed to move in relation to the motor. That means that the path of the belt is constantly being disturbed by that relative motion. Additionally, drag from the stylus can slow the platter momentarily, the belt being compliant it does not force the platter to continue true rotation. This will result in momentary changes in pitch and timing. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease and neither design does much to address bearing noise. My only point is that, in spite of what most audiophiles think, it is far from a slam dunk. If you have never heard a really high end direct drive, such as the top of the line Technics, Denon, Micro Seiki or Yamaha you will be in for a grand surprise. The strengths and weaknesses of DD tables are quite different than in belt driven tables and while you may, or may not, prefer the DD sound you will find it fully competive in how it honors the delicate fabric of the music.

Sean, when I have my audio room setup and my 1200 fully modded I will invite ewe to come listen to the creature. Robert of Ridge Street Audio will do the rewiring and the interconnect replacement. Too bad ewe don't like fish--there's plenty of fresh walleye and perch where I live now!

In the meantime, give Kevin Barrett a call http://www.kabusa.com and he'll explain you why the 1200 does not cog. He'll also explain (technically) why he believes the 1200 to be the best deck out there, dollar for dollar and why he's worked on designing the fluid damper, the power supply and the modded Groovemaster II.

The 1200 is extremely resistant to vertical vibrations, but not to lateral. I have a plan of attack for that. I will make a frame made of Moca wood to act as a barrier.

I know--I wish the SP10 was still made...