In my younger days I loved speed but as I get older I have slowed to medium.

Find a piece of board for your machine to sit on. You can get an inexpensive piece of 4x4 at a home improvement store and they can cut it to the size you want. I have a piece that I use when I put my 401 down into the well. My other machine sets on top across the whole top. Takes pressure of any excess wait away from the other machine. very little noise no matter how fast I go. It basically needs balance and leveling. the board fixes the problem. You might also find a big cutting board that will work.

I never run my machine over half speed. I have the Innovis NX-2000 & I don't want to put too much wear & tear on the moving parts inside my machine. I can't afford to replace it every few years. That being said, one day I was sewing after setting up my machine in the table again & the speed lever had been bumped and was a little more than halfway up. The machine did start to vibrate & my table is a Gidget 1 which is real nice and sturdy! I moved the lever right back down again. Quilting is not a race... enjoy the process!

Since I recently got a real quilting/sewing table from Tracey's Tables (it's great!) I gave my old table--a very heavy, particle-board-based student desk--to my sister. It's made a huge difference for her. Her old sewing table was a 30" x 60" fold-in-half table that vibrated so badly she couldn't sew fast. This was good, she said, because she had to slow down and be careful...but she likes the new one now. :-)

For FMQ, I prefer the foot pedal but set the maximum speed governor on my VQ3000 to just over halfway. I've found that sewing somewhat faster allows smoother lines and more even stitches.