Greatly appreciate some wisdom.

I have a very small finished basement with Vinyl floor and two pinball machines (soon to be third with venom). As it stands I have an old rug tossed underneath both machines for both foot comfort plus a "perceived" amount of sound dampening (hope is to remove the carpet and just have foot pads for comfort)

So the question boils down to just how much sound dampening does carpet give you in general, especially if is basically only under the machines and not in the rest of the space. Further, I see most posts discussing hard wood but I have vinyl flooring and unclear if that changes the dynamic or is basically the same thing.

Thanks in advance.