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 2 responses by terry9

As 3blm  said, high mass platters have lower wow and flutter and a lower noise floor. If the manufacturer is careful, and uses a low power motor, wow and flutter pretty much disappear. If the bearing is air, the noise floor converges to zero.
Sorbothane is a material like any other. It has properties which can advance some assemblies and retard others. I use it to isolate the motor from the platter - but you need about 75 mm to attenuate the noise which my motor generates.