Since purchasing the Expression its been evident that removing screws from the deck has benefitted performance/sound. removing the hinge cover screws was enlightening, even when the table was 100% stock. i keep the lid secure now with a chunk of blue tak in 2 corners.
the tables underside has 3 large plastic pieces that cover the suspended motor, motor electronics and the spindle. after securing your table properly & flipping it over, remove each of the 6 screws that hold these pieces to the deck and replace them with pieces of sticky foam double sided tape. I used 3M heavy duty and it works great. spread the 3 pieces apart so they don't touch. no need to actually remove the plastic parts.
next, remove the screws and metal band that hold down the captive cables directly below the tonearm. stick a larger piece of tape to the deck and attach the wires directly to the tape. they have held upside down fine for a while.
If you haven't done so already, remove the on/off switch and let it dangle on the shelf. this is a weird one, and might be the least important. i've thought of carving out a cardas cube or other block to relocate the switch into. nice to not touch the tt to turn it on/off though & gets 2 screws outta da deck.
In all, i've removed 20 screws (repl 2 cartr screws) from the Pro-Ject Expression. bit by bit they don't make night and day changes, but this undercarriage tweak is leaving my speechless. added up it changes all the removals change this TT bigtime.
I had to adjust nearly every parameter immediately after this tweak: vtf, azimuth & Anti-Skate. initial impressions were of a harsh HF, adjusting the A-S cured it 100%...I had the initial setting for months, so weird. same with vtf. its as if the table is super sensitive & all the settings have to be spot on. the results are cool though, a huge strident soundstage with no holes.
this budget 'tables soundstage & real-ness is simply ridiculous now. should work with any of the Debut or Expression tables...maybe even lower end Rega too? dunno. my guess is most of the light & rigid tt's have these things under them.
its like my table let out a huge sigh of relief. i know I have...
