The man to talk to in the US is Kevin at KAB. He is a real authority on Technics turntables. I haven't spoken to him in awhile but my guess is that he will suggest a rewire of the arm and the fluid damper. I think you will find him straightforward about the reasons for these mods.I have looked at the Timestep site and read comments from the owner on chat sites online. Let me just say I don't feel 100% confident about what they do.The arm on the 1200G is really good. If you go with the Timestep arm you will lose the ability to quickly change cartridges. Since you collect older records (as do I) you won't be able to go between mono and stereo carts very easily. A fancy steak knife is a wonderful thing but sometimes a Swiss Army knife is of more utility.I agree with tzh21y that the sound of the table will improve after a few hundred hours of run in.