Analogue front end. You want more weight, scale and dynamics.Where do you start upgrading?

Without really thinking it through systematically, I kind of went through a similar thought process to this several years ago, which I will try to remember and report here as a case study.  It all started with a VPI Prime.  It came with stellar reviews and I was all excited about it, but the thing really was meh.  So what to do?  Well right away I figured out that it was off speed so I bought a Roadrunner/Eagle tach and digital controller from Phoenix to stabilize the motor.  Then I talked to Harry and bought a second arm, the second one metal which sounded better and facilitated cartridge changes. Counter-Intuitives from SoundSmith made cartridge changes easier.  Then I added 3 belts, which tightened up the pace and timing.  Then Harry developed the stabilizer mod for the arms, which helped.  All of this did improve the overall performance, the weight, scale and dynamics of the turntable if you will.  But I never felt like it reached the level of performance that I wanted.  The solution was to trade it for the just introduced HW-40, which has met or exceeded my expectations ever since.  While all that was going on I also had an HW-19 in an older system that met expectations as well as a Technics SL1200 in a less demanding roll both still with me today.  

Ralph, I am sure you are right, but I only compared Boston mat to the felt mat and the improvement was striking, in fact. I bought that mat, to begin with, because almost every Nottingham Spacedeck owner highly recommended it, and they were right. Perhaps, there are better mats for this table, I just never explored this further.

billstevenson, so it is the table more than other elements. Like a tape deck, you start with transport and continue from there.

Why do some people resist this simplicity and get too creative ?

If you want to increase the scale, weight and dynamics you need to focus on reducing the system’s noise floor.  The turntable, cartridge, tonearm, and the resting platform must optimized to work together.  

Well I just shared my experience as an example, but really you could start anywhere.  As lewm said it all starts with a thought process.  Think about where you are now, what are your goals, what things might be tried to achieve your objectives?  Sources and the components that handle them are half the battle.