Ordered it with the silicone damping trough.

Played it last night w/o the silicone, thought it was lightweight but very articulate.

Better this AM after the arm bearings broke in some, you could feel the arm move more easily when cueing.

One of the reasons I ordered it was due to the Marantz 8001 SACD besting the Ariston. CD over vinyl. Horrors!

Added the silicone this afternoon and it's transformed. The Marantz is powered down. This table has the resolution and dynamic range of CD but sounds so analog-y musical and rich.

Technics has also provided an overhang gauge that is sheer genius. You mount the cart in the supplied headshell, plug it into this gauge and slide the cart until the stylus lines up with the end of the gauge. Adjustment over! No more protractors. Go to the KAB site and see it.

glad you are impressed... I've been thinking about some of the KAB mods for awhile now.....

just as an conversation point, in the DJ/nightclub sound tech community, some (most) of the folks that actually care about the audio quality have generally dismissed the overhang tool as almost worthless...

the issues seem to revolve around alingment of the mounting...

many people think it best to use something like the GEOdisk or a protractor to "get it right"

YMMV

Since those early days, I found that the Sumiko HS-12 headshell I previously had for my Dynavector made the Benz Micro-Ace Low sound better. Of course I couldn't use the Technics overhang gauge. I have the Turntable Basics mirrored alignment gauge and that makes it easy.

You can see it in action in my McBee cartridge review:

• McBee review and turntable set-up