I've owned one Sapphire w/o vac, one w/ vac, and now have a new NOVA w/vac. To my ears vac produces greater detail throughout, especially with base tones. I've not noticed the dullness Dusty wrote of but agree about the enhanced detail and absence of resonance. For me the vac sounds nice and "black". Although I upgraded arm, cart,+ phono stage at each change I believe I can still say that I prefer the vac. I would not do otherwise at this point.
