High mass vs Low Mass Turntables - Sound difference?


As I am recently back playing with analog gear after some 15 years away, I thought I would ask the long time experts here about the two major camps of record players -- high vs low mass-loaded-type tables...

For example, an equivalently priced VPI table (say a Classic, Aries or Prime) versus a Rega RP8/10 or equivalent Funk Firm table...  the design philosophies are so different ... one built like a tank, the other like a lightweight sports car...

Just wondering if the folks here have had direct experience with such or similar tables, and what have been your experiences and sense of strengths and weaknesses of these two different types of tables.



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Showing 1 response by mijostyn

@lewm , Thank you. I was getting cross eyed.

@bdlitzer , you are right about issue. Isolating the turntable from vibration and turning into heat as fast as possible is the right approach to turntable design.

All of the best turntable sound exactly like nothing. They do not add or subtract anything and they block any extraneous vibration from getting to the cartridge either through the platter or through the tonearm. The turntable and tonearm also have to totally dissipate the vibration coming from the stylus. If you put you ear to the cartridge while playing a record you should here nothing.