SOTA Sapphire

About the SOTA Sapphire

The SOTA Sound Inventions SOTA Sapphire is a high-end, belt-drive, two-speed turntable originally introduced in 1981. Its defining features are a heavy, individually balanced cast-aluminum platter, a four-point spring-suspended sub-chassis, and a sapphire-disc thrust bearing designed to isolate the record and tonearm from environmental vibration. Depending on production series and configuration, the Sapphire used either a brushless DC servo motor or an AC synchronous motor with synthesized, regulated drive electronics. Later versions incorporated magnetically assisted or magnetically levitated platter bearing arrangements and upgraded motor-control options such as the Eclipse package. The turntable was supplied without a tonearm in many configurations and used interchangeable, tonearm-specific armboards. The original Sapphire is no longer manufactured in its original form, although SOTA continues to produce modern Sapphire Series models.