One of those decks where the speed stability is actually noticeable through the poignancy of tune and harmony. When I hear that quality I infer that it's a deck which will guarantee long term musical satisfaction. I was surprised that one of the other decks which impressed me with that quality was the Kronos, which looks like an OTT design, and definitely not something for me. It was a little let down by other factors, perhaps, but STST and Kronos were mesmerisingly tuneful, as you would hope for the price.
There are so many factors in assessing performance that it is hard to distinguish between the contributions of room, speakers, amps, phono-amps, cartridges and arms. If any of those things is a bit off, whether it be harsh or dull, it's impossible to attribute it, so as has been said many times elsewhere you can't necessarily judge individual components at shows.
I should also put in a word for MBL whose non-directional speakers produced a remarkably alluring sound in every position as you walked around the room. My son and I went round and stood behind one of them and everything still sounded great - the effect of collapsing and reversing the stereo image didn't seem to matter at all. Fascinating.