Sota Escape

SOTA ESCAPE TURNTABLE

Introduced in late 2019, the Sota Escape is a new addition to the iconic SOTA product line re-invigorated by Sota Sound Innovations. SOTA Sound Innovations is the re-organization of the original SOTA company after the demise of Kirk Bodinet, now co-managed by matriarch Donna Bodinet and Christan Griego.

The Escape turntable, establishes performance to unparalleled level when compared to other turntables at its price and far beyond. A three-phase synchronous motor controlled by the Condor PSU offer clean, clear, precise speed—a basic requirement for any turntable to deliver musical accuracy but missed by so many belt-driven turntables claiming theirs to be in the apex of accuracy. The Condor ensures accurate control and allows for convenient speed selection. In other words, there is none of this no need to manually move the belt over to a different pulley on the motor. Additionally, owners can opt to purchase the Roadrunner, which allows for a sensor to be attached under the platter and establish a feedback loop to remove any lingering vestiges of speed variation

The Sota’s acrylic platter is clear whilst the chassis is constructed using phenolic resin – an eco-friendly material that promotes better bass extension and a spacious soundstage. Completely black, the Escape offers monochromatic simplicity and elegance consistent with its technical mission of achieving optimal performance above all else. Those with proclivity toward minimal design bereft of appurtnance that compromise will fall for the Escape.

We are of the latter hence we love the Escape. Frankly, I learned of the Escape during a courtesy call with Donna, with whom I hadn't talked to for sometime. After the usual health status exchange we went into business. I too was pondering at that time of coming up with an OEM turntable under our LP GEAR label to which she brought the topic of the Escape turntable. The result is the Escape with an Audio-Technica AT1503IIIa Tonearm. The Audio-Technica AT1503IIIa tonearm is a superb long tonearm of the highest caliber—more expendsive than the retail prce of the Escape in fact.

We received the unit about 4 months later and compared it to our demo turntables and our reference, the Sota Sapphire. The Escape just came out better! It was so quiet, so low in noise, so precise that I no longer had interest in listening to other turntables. Logically, I was thinking: "Why waste your time listening to inferior sound quality?"

Note that the Escape turntable comes fitted with the Rega RB 220 arm. This is a very fine arm for a modest price, and to improve upon it will undoubtedly require spending a bit of money. There is a reason why Rega arms have become the OEM choice for many turntables, as the company has years of experience refining this design, along with economies of scale in tone arm manufacturing that most other audio companies cannot equal. So, the choice of the RB220 on the base version of the Escape is a prudent one. However, the owner of this table is not locked into this arm, and SOTA is willing to configure your table to whatever arm you want to have installed. As an example, there have been tables set up with Audiomods, Origin Live arms or Audio-Technica AT1503IIIa tonearm.