Ring Clamps. What do you think?

The only tables that I've experienced that will lay flat a warp record are the original concave WTRP platter with reference clamp or a vacuum hold down. So, by your standard 99.99% of all turntables are junk.

If I am misunderstanding your brief quip, please clarify.

Also, because I mainly use it for settling down those warped records that are unmanageable by normal methods does mean that their may be some value to its damping properties. Although I haven't been able to discern a difference with or without it.

I hate that you can't modify your posts here.....anyway....I meant to say "doesn't mean".

Also, you didn't say the tables were junk but rather the rim clamp was. I disagree.anything that takes care of a warp is not junk. Finally, I use TTW's affordable rim clamp, which I bought used for around a buck thirty five, or so.

"Like an acoustic guitar, a record needs to breathe."

I don't think that's a very good analogy. The less a record
moves around, the better the stylus can trace the grooves. That
said, there is the Linn school of thought that believes one
should never use record clamps or anything on the record at all,
and the other extreme of heavy clamps and periphery weights to
prevent any movement.

You have to listen to it all and make your decision.
Personally, I don't want playing records to turn into a chore.
A simple record clamp works for me and I could probably just as
well live without that too.

How does a guitar sound with loose frets, fingerboard, bridge, or a delaminated soundboard? Not too good. The perimeter weight acts in a similar way as if you tightening and tune all the part of your guitar to allow it perform at its best.

Let's not compare an instrument that creates music to one that reproduces it. They have different functions.

Speakers maybe the closest to instrument tuning but turntables aim to playback what is in the grooves and eliminate as many extraneous variables as possible. There goal is to reproduce what the cutter created and to that point accurate extraction not added color via creating more resonate points.