I am sure this machine sounds nice but it is over-engineered in at least with respect to vibrational damping. There seems to be a widespread belief that increasing mass will get reduce the impact of vibrations from a spinning cd, lp or even from transformers. I am sure it has some benefit but as opposed to a flimsy machine most metallic materials do not actually dampen anything rather they transfer vibrations nicely to the next part they are attached to and ring quite nicely which they would not do if they actually damped vibrations.
Getting rid of the vibrations means converting them to some other form of energy which will not shake your circuit boards and the like. That is what materials like sorbothane do, convert the energy to heat. I have had very good results adding this material to a range of players from Woo transports to $40 portables. (not to mention headphones and speakers)
That said, I am not a fan of the various sorbothane footers sold for this purpose. I have had far better results using small ( 3/4 inch sized) 1/4 self-stick 70 duro or 1/2 inch glued with Lord 7650 adhesive. I apply this near the playing mechanism and near transformers. Also small thin pieces can be applied to the clamping mechanism where it presses on the cd. This is more tricky since the disc may stick to the sorb in some players or block ejection of the disc. The effects are revelation in sound and cost about $2-3 per player, a ridiculously cheap alternative to paying thousands.
I have note that the sorbothane route is not unique to me. For example I note SME is applying some kind of constrained damping (which means a visco-elastic material with a backing, sorb is one of such materials) to its tone arms "Internal constrained layer damps minute residual vibration leaving the tone-arm acoustically inert." I noticed they also applied use various damping procedures to their extremely heavy and expensive turntables "
the duration of a vibration can be shortened by suitable damping.......This control of vibration is fundamental to the design of the player and goes much of the way to explaining the stunning tonal and dynamic neutrality that it exhibits." (bold added)
http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/94863/SME-Model_2012A_Turntable_with_312S_Tonearm-Turntables This form a $20.000, 74 lb unit. They clearly understand that mass alone will not solve the problem.
