I can tell by obsessive listening test, there is a slight trade off with and without one. I have a beautiful weight that I use when showing my system to friends. They will not notice a difference in sound, nor will 100% of the people that stop in for a album play. one night i was listening to a album while on my computer and thought , dam this system is making the hair stand up on my neck tonight, and continued listening, as I looked up I noticed my weight was sitting beside my turntable, huh??? I had something now to figure out, and I had to be sure about the magic that I heard was real, like I said it is NOT obvious to everyone. I switched over to headphones, replayed the album with the weight hovering over the spindle in my hand, and proceeded to set it on, and remove it , with the record playing ,and reset the needle in certain hair raising spots, over and over and over, weight, no weight through rather loud head phones, then quiet listening. This is my factual conclusion with my weight. WITH adding a heavier record weight, I think mine is 280 grams, the midrange instruments ( horns, piano, guitar) are a tiny/ tiny/ tiny bit recessed in the mix, BUT the lows are a tiny bit tighter and compressed. I relate this to possibly having less feedback from the album against the needle. This is only enough to know something has changed if I listen very hard, then it is obvious. This is only my experience, with my weight and table. I now prefer no weight when listening for my own pleasure.