Table enhancements on a budget-

I like the Linn mat, also $25 from the Linn shop on ebay. Replacement feet usually sound better but I haven't used these. I also have a Denon 110; in my experence and also in British reviews it is slightly better than the 160 and considerably cheaper.

Try Herbies Tenderfooters...Pretty well accpted as agreat budget tweek......

The most rewarding tweaks come from vibration control. You'd be amazed what you can do with some sand in a ziploc bag and blue-tack!

Of course, it requires experimentation and repetition of albums over and over again but it's worth it!

Save your money and DIY!

One of the main problems with so many (almost all) of the late 70's early 80's Japanese TT's is lousy, super resonant plinths, platters, bases and ineffectual feet.

It will take some work, but if you put the time in, you should be able to improve that table quite a bit.

This is what I've found:

1. Plast-i-clay in every corner and joint of the inside of the chassis. A friend of mine has this (7 pounds)on every inside surface and does not use Dyna-mat. Same improvements, but it's ugly, if you care about the inside being ugly.
2. Dyna-mat on every possible flat inside surface as possible.
3. Dupli-color undercoat sound dampener can also be used in place of Dyna-mat, but not as effective. Can be used on platter to good effect, and can be removed easy too (with solvent).
4. Damping the tonearm is worthwhile. I believe Herbie has something that works.

Experiment with mats. I like the ISOkinetik Isomat 1 acrylic turntable mat. They're brilliant on glass platters, I'd expect them to work great on aloy, too.

I've read on some forums people claiming you can "over damp" a turntable. I personally believe this is BS. How can removing the maximum amount of unwanted vibrations and resonances be a negative?

If your table is a suspended design, I believe you can overdamp it.

I've been tweaking my Gyrodec a lot and found that it's possbile.

The sound just sort of dries up....goes lifeless. You lose the room acoustics in the recording.

YMMV