Sota Sapphire with or without vacuum?

I've owned one Sapphire w/o vac, one w/ vac, and now have a new NOVA w/vac. To my ears vac produces greater detail throughout, especially with base tones. I've not noticed the dullness Dusty wrote of but agree about the enhanced detail and absence of resonance. For me the vac sounds nice and "black". Although I upgraded arm, cart,+ phono stage at each change I believe I can still say that I prefer the vac. I would not do otherwise at this point.

I agree with above, Ive owned the whole line and currently have a cosmos IV. Ive also owned tables with periphery rings. I prefer the vacuum to any other system. I have never noticed any "dullness" but I have noticed the highs are rich and clean in comparison to other tables.

By "dullness" I meant that the reduction in higher frequency resonances seems to make the highs less prominent when using the vacuum. A quick A/B would indicate that without vacuum you get more "highs" but that really isn't the case.
The vacuum is better.

I'm running a Star Sapphire w/ vacuum - I've never tried it without the vacuum, but in general it has very deep bass, lots of clarity and a very smooth top. It sounds great!

I had a Sapphire w/o vacuum years ago circa 1989, one of the first. It was an extrordinary TT.

In the mid-90's I heard a Vacuum model, and I couldn't believe my ears. It cost so much more and was NOT even close. I think it lost its resolution and detail, and sounded dull, not warm, but dull. I would stick with non-vacuum.