I want to upgrade my Turntable to something heavier

SOTA - made in WI - from personal experience, I can say SOTA post sales support is on another level - in a good way - vs VPI. 

If you are looking at balanced, I would seriously look at Austin Audio Works for a phono preamp, and if you can get hold of Barry, talk to him about balanced vs unbalanced. 

BTW - I retired in 2019 - LOVE IT - I also upgraded my VPI to a SOTA with Korf arm and London Decca super gold - WOW - talk about musical. My AAW black swan is a few weeks old , and just adds to the new front end. I told Barry that I now have to re-listen to all my albums to find out how good they sound. 

Anyway, good luck with your search and listening. There is MUCH MUCH more to life than working. One other thing, you have to retire TO something, not FROM something. Looks like you will be retiring to your music, which is great!

A wall shelf, if properly anchored to the wall studs is best. If you have a basement beneath your audio rack, consider installing a tight-fitting 4" x 4" beam between the concrete floor and the floor joist beneath your rack to keep your system level and more vibration-free. Measure twice, then have Home Depot cut it to measure, and use a shim to get it really tight if necessary. Then add footers beneath your turntable. Stack Audio makes some affordable and very effective ones. They also make a very effective platter mat. As others have said, as you get older, having the turntable at shoulder height makes cuing up LPs a lot more fun. And if all that doesn't help, go out and buy a new turntable for thousands of dollars. Good luck!

I recently had great dealings with Sota.   I had their Escape table for about 4 years and was thinking of upgrading it with their RoadRunner tachometer.  

I contacted Christan at Sota to discuss and it made a lot more sense to step up to the Quasar factory equipped with RoadRunner 

It was a no brainer because they offered a generous trade in.  They made it super easy.   I kept my arm and cartridge and mounted it on the Quasar.   

The Quasar with Full Eclipse package and Reflex Clamp  is awesome.  I listened to it a few months with a 2m Bronze but just mounted the excellent Dynavector XX2 mkII on it.   Amazing sounding combo.  

Pretty much done upgrading but will most likely order the Eclipse Linear Power Supply to replace wall warts.   

Good people over at Sota