Yeah, I feel like if I was someone who only listened carefully to vinyl as a special thing, I'd probably be OK with manual tables. But I listen to vinyl all the time, when cleaning the house, when lying down for a nap, when drinking with friends, when cooking dinner, just whenever. So, I'm not always ready to pay close attention and leap up to shut the thing off at the end of a side and I don't like the idea of letting the table play the run out groove endlessly. I did pick up a manual table (A ProJect RPM-4) a year or two back but I never thought it sounded better than the tables I have and it lacked the convenience features so I basically put in in the basement after a couple months of occasionally using it and just keep waiting until I have a chance to sell it or trade it in for something sometime. To me there was no point in something with no better sound that was more difficult to use. I'm sure there are higher end tables that sound better than what I have, but I'm not shopping at that price point anytime soon and I'm quite happy with the sound I get with the old automatics.