The OP asked, "Starting to get into vinyl and I was just thinking, who does everyone on AK consider to be the best manufacture of turntables be it design or sound!!" What can there be other than different AK members stating their very different opinions?
There are different sonic attributes that people listen for, which led to the whole flat earth/round earth debates some years ago. Flat earthers were more concerned with how adept a system or piece of equipment was at communicating things like melody, rhythm, tempo, and dynamics (i.e., the elements you'd find discussed in most textbooks on the subject of music), as opposed to some list of audiophile characteristics. Martin Colloms of Stereophile contrasted what had become common hifi goals with attributes more concerned with musical communication, "It's ironic that you can have an extended bandwidth, or high sound levels, or great stereo imaging, or very low coloration, or powerful, low-distortion bass, or several worthy combinations of these, yet rarely can you obtain these with a coherent, focused combination of natural dynamics, pace, and rhythm. In high-end audio, we are often too busy examining the texture of the bark to see what kind of forest we are walking in."
Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/pace-rhythm-dynamics-page-3#YsMQ2qiLyCHSy8Xk.99
When I first got interested in higher end audio in the early 1980's, Linn was telling potential customers to "forget hi-fi jargon like bass and treble, stereo image, wow, flutter, and harmonic distortion" when comparing equipment, and to instead ask themselves questions of a musical nature, such as do the musicians seem to be playing together; can you pick out and follow without difficulty the bassline or any other musical part; how easy is it to sing along with the melody; are you responding to the music, such as by tapping in time. Linn wasn't and isn't the only company making musically satisfying equipment, but I have long appreciated their approach to judging a hifi system, and their LP12 continues to be one of the most musically involving source components I've heard.
Another term associated with flat earthers was Pace, Rhythm, and Timing--PRaT--and it remains the easiest way for me to describe the differences I hear among different turntables. A few years ago, I borrowed a Rega from a local dealer to compare with the LP12 and Well Tempered Record Player that I already owned. The Rega was exceptionally good with rhythm, a bit worse in pace, and was relatively weak in timing; the WTRP was exceptional in presentation of pace, decent with rhythm, and also had a relative weakness in timing; my LP12 was not as good as either the Rega or the WTRP in their particular areas of strength, but did all three attributes fairly well. I also preferred the LP12's design in terms of how easy it was to play and enjoy records. For example, compared with the WTRP, I preferred the Linn for having a cueing lever and hinged dust cover, and its less fussy setup of cartridges (no azimuth adjustment to bother with, dial-in tracking force and anti-skate, adjusting the VTA doesn't risk gross changes in overhang, etc.).
.
