SOTA STAR Sapphire Turntable Care and Feeding

Hey there. I know this is older but I just picked up one of these sota star series iii vacuum turntable in Walnut. It really is a beautiful table. I spent a couple of hours really getting the suspension right and everything leveled. I haven't put a cartridge on it yet but that's the next thing to do to try it out. Seems like it holds its speed really well when I tested it too. I'm curious from you other owners how to know if the vacuum is working well like it's supposed to be? It has a large clamp for it that looks like it presses down really well. I think it looks like it should be good with the vacuum working or not working. It's got a sumiko mmt premiere tonearm on it. I've tried to find a value for it and I don't really see any of these for sale. I'm trying to figure out if I want to keep this for my second table or a vpi aries scout with some upgrades. The second system is for my 12 yr old daughter technically but just a reason to play with more gear. Any suggestions are welcome. 

I appreciate that insight. The vacuum should work without the belt on correct? I didn't even think of that the other night. I have the aries scout in my daughters room. It's just my play system for something to do. It's got an upgraded bearing and hrx feet on it and is simple to use but the star seems pretty simple too now that it's all setup. The suspension seems to be very good still too. Do these bring a grand used or something like that? For my main table I do have an original aries too. It's got the black night version platter, hrx feet, new bearing and the nordost tonearm wire. Even if the sota sounded a little bit better, I still love the looks of the big vpi in my system with egglestonworks Andra ii's, Rowland 8ti amp and soon a Rowland coherence ii preamp.