Does a record player make that much of a difference??

Mijo, you have a CS Port and Safir?

Tomic, I’ve used my TP without and with the fingerlift(s). I use the plural because Herb Papier ( the original inventor here in Wheaton, MD) used to supply two, one with and one without threaded holes. I find the former one to be indispensable for mounting cartridges that don’t have threaded holes. I’m using that one with a Nagaoka MP500 right now. I’ve never heard a difference with vs without the fingerlift, and adding heat shrink would only add mass at the headshell; I think the metal parts would still resonate if in fact I cared to worry. One reason I don’t worry is that the fingerlift is tightly coupled to both the headshell and the cartridge. Thus I think it resonates as part of the net effective mass of the ensemble and only alters the resonant frequency by virtue of the tiny added mass to the whole. But that’s just my way of thinking.

Just for any neophyte to know, there is a school of thought against spring suspensions and especially against the use of a dust cover during play. But you should experiment and decide for yourself. I definitely agree that TT isolation is important but not with springs.

I'd say it depends on the rest of your system. Somebody with a relatively inexpensive setup might not be able to tell the difference between TT's, but somebody with a more resolving one could hear a large difference. Same would go for carts, I'd think.

MM cartridges can be great - I've got a Clearaudio Charisma MM; it's not cheap at $2000 but it sure does sound excellent.... 

Clearer decay….clearly my observational powers don’t emphasize spelling… regrets.

I think a more appropriate model for the headshell block / fingerlift / armpipe interface is to think about it as two blocks with a tuning fork hanging off one block… damping the tuning fork vs the effects of adding mass probably better explain the increased effect on the Lyra vs Kuzma carts. The thing about models is they are wrong…but by how much ?

but these are subtle things…almost…ephemeral ?

Lew my TP 7 mk2 has a single screw that attach it to the cartridge block.

"Lew my TP 7 mk2 has a single screw that attach it to the cartridge block."

I will go to the TP webpage and hope for a photo of a modern TP, because I don't get a visual image from your sentence.  I bought mine from Herb himself back in the late 80s or early 90s. I happened to be in Herb's house one afternoon, during the period when Tri was visiting him to learn how to build the tonearm. I was there to have Herb re-wire my TP.  In any case, the nonremoveable headshell on my older TP is slotted as per usual.  Then one used either of the two fingerlifts such that it sits atop the headshell with the cartridge bolts extending from below up through the slots and then through the threaded or non-threaded holes in the headshell, depending upon whether the cartridge itself already sports threaded holes.  You almost have to use one of the two fingerlifts to get a nice sturdy mount.

cartridge>phono amp>tone arm>TT