I used a Leadshine closed loop stepper on the Z axis of my Bridgeport conversion. It's the "Integrated Easy Servo" version, where the driver is built in to the motor, so you just feed it volts (36V?), step and dir, then it does the rest. Pretty tasty - and being Leadshine it just works.
Being a stepper, it makes an audible noise but nothing like some of the cruder stepper drives. You can tune it with their software if you think you have what it takes and there is a configurable output that tells you if it's out of position etc. Why go closed loop if you don't then check it's in control etc.

http://www.leadshine.com/producttype...y-servo-motors

There are quite a few clones around now (Aliexpress, ebay etc) but I've no idea how good those are. Note they only do 2-3Nm max.

Like this: https://uk.banggood.com/JSS57P2N-Nem...r_warehouse=CN

For some unknown reason, AliExpress are doing a 15% "11.11 discount" today, so I've risked the wrath of the Domestic Manager by placing an order for a couple of 600W servo motor / drives from Lichuan. 11 isn't even a Chinese lucky number as far as I know but perhaps that's where I went wrong during the many years I spent visiting the damned place. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...191c4c4dmmZxSS For this, I blame a combination of beer, a late life crisis - and of course JAZZCNC, for recommending the buggers. No idea how well these will work out but I'll let you know.