Back to separate arm pods - from Oolong, ho'.
Firstly, both the arm-pod and the tt has to be 'hard' connected to the surface they stand on - plus it better a as level as it gets.
Now you have the issue with platter and arm-pod standing un-damped on a hard surface --- not so good at all, or?
The hard-connected tt will need to stand on some pretty well functioning damping platform, so does the motor too, and the arm-pod? - Too - and separately damped?! This starts too look pretty tricky now.
I think this separation-scheme is looking for trouble, never mind just getting pushed over or only just moved out of alignment. And nothing said about the motor-pod yet, standing on the same resonating slab as the arm pod?!
Greetings,