Upgrading my Basis 2500. Vacuum or no Vacuum?

What differences do you hear? Would you say the difference is similar to the difference using the Calibrator base makes?
Does the vacuum pump make any noise? Does it need to be placed in a seperate room?

I'm also interested. I have a 2500 Signature that has the platter cut out for vacuum, but I'm not using vacuum at this time.

John

I don't have a Basis table but I have had two vacuum TTs and I would not want to go back to a table without the vacuum, unless I found a truly great table that did not offer the option.

The biggest differences I noticed were in bass presentation and fine detail reproduction. I also noticed the soundstage and imaging were much tighter and focused. Vacuum platters are a good idea when properly exectued. The Sota is dead quiet...

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I have not listened to a 2500. But I do own a 2800 Signature. I can tell you the 2800 Signature sounds fantastic to my ears. The Vector is a great arm also as you already know.

The vacuum has worked flawlessly in my system. Never an issue.

Put a record on the platter, place the vacuum clamp on the spindle, and turn on the vacuum controller. Any record whether it is 180 gram or 200 gram or anything else now becomes a 25 pound record!! Record and platter are now one large spinning mass.

I think you would be thrilled with a 2800 or a Debut with vacuum.

John - The vacuum pump does make some slight noise depending how high you set the vacuum. I have mine underneath a leather sofa in the same room. With music playing at quiet levels, you cannot hear the pump. Some prefer to put the pump in another room.
With the vacuum, bass is improved, the background is 'blacker', and there is some improvement in spatial orientation of instruments. It may have something to do with the vacuum decreasing resonances on the surface of the record. Check with A.J. Conti, the creator. He can best explain its advantage.

Thanks all. Right now I am leaning toward Debut over the
the 2800. I was told it would be better having the Debut's
suspension over my 2500 or 2800 on my suspended floor. I
already installed floor jacks in the basement to avoid my
origonal foot fall problem. Maybe with a Debut, this may not have been necessary, but regardless is a good thing.
I am still on the fence on the vacuum as I figure I can always add it. I havent heard any negatives yet, although
in the past I have heard it's not as lively of a sound with
vacuum. It seems like that even if this is true, the positives outweigh the negatives. Also saw the Debut with
dual Vector arms on their website. It not only looks awesome, but what would be wrong with Dynavector on one arm and a Koetsu or Benz on the other. Not too much !!