Like others I have always kept my turntable at 42" and I am 5'7" Aside from not having to bend over it puts the table at a great height for visualizing set up, etc. In terms of convenience I'm afraid peripheral rings are a PITA and an accident waiting to happen. IMHO the two best clamping methods are of either the SME reflex scheme or vacuum type.
I never use a hand held brush. I use a conductive sweep arm which collects incidental dust and discharges the record keeping static and dust collection to a minimum. I always use a dust cover during play and have found that a dust cover that is isolated from the platter and tonearm improves playback. Mark Dohmann has also found this to be true and is working on an isolated dust cover for the Helix tables.
I also use an Audio Technica tonearm lift which IMHO is a must. It removes the stress of having to get to the table to stop the Ka-thunking.
A word of warning. There is one auto lift on the market that uses a metal lift platform. DO NOT get that one!!! The metal has no grip. The antiskating force slowly pulls the arm backwards off the lift dumping it on the record then blocking the tonearms progress causing a permanent skip in the record. The Audio Technica lift has a hard rubber lift platform which has more grip but even so I had to grind a little depression in the platform where it contacts the tonearm to hold the arm in place.
I never use a hand held brush. I use a conductive sweep arm which collects incidental dust and discharges the record keeping static and dust collection to a minimum. I always use a dust cover during play and have found that a dust cover that is isolated from the platter and tonearm improves playback. Mark Dohmann has also found this to be true and is working on an isolated dust cover for the Helix tables.
I also use an Audio Technica tonearm lift which IMHO is a must. It removes the stress of having to get to the table to stop the Ka-thunking.
A word of warning. There is one auto lift on the market that uses a metal lift platform. DO NOT get that one!!! The metal has no grip. The antiskating force slowly pulls the arm backwards off the lift dumping it on the record then blocking the tonearms progress causing a permanent skip in the record. The Audio Technica lift has a hard rubber lift platform which has more grip but even so I had to grind a little depression in the platform where it contacts the tonearm to hold the arm in place.