Turntable isolation platforms

Non-Smoking Man

Wammer
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For the wammers with turntables (and any lurkers out there) I thought I'd trawl for experience with turntable isolation/support tables and platforms.

I must admit Ive never spent proper money on such items, considering them not top priority - it seemed to me in the past that at my level of mid=fi money could
be better invested elsewhere.

Now my systems have progressed a bit I reckon its time to delve into the theory and practice a bit more (not least because I know one or two people preparing to 'take the plunge' on such an item.

My mind became more focussed when I recently brought back a pair of medium sized Townsend springy speaker platforms for martiansunrise via the Wam Taxi.
'Ooh', I thought, one of those would go right under my new marble plinthed Thorens TD124 (under construction).

Also, whilst at the Stoke Show, a gentleman was invited to demonstrate his own professional support under Jess's 'Vinyl Passion' LP12. (Jess is a trade member).

Quite interesting..

Contributions to the thread welcomed from Wammers with technical and practical advice, listing partnering equipment etc., (in time honoured manner..)

Jack NSM
 

lostwin

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Hi Jack. I know that you grabbed some of those vintage aircraft spring mounts I have posted about before. Interesting that another Wammer said that they were also quite popular in the eighties as replacement feet on TT's.

I use them under my Gyro (actually under a IKEA Lack baseboard on which the Gyro sits). There is a school of thought that suggests that adding further sprung suspension in addition to an already suspended TT design could set up competing resonant frequencies - probably a case of suck it an see for these types of design. Since the Stoke show it has been a good opportunity for me to re-build the system and gradually introduce the various mods to re-assess the impcat of each, these springs certainly cleaned up some bass overhang when I put them back in. My Gyro has the rubber pylon suspension rather than the standard springs though.

For rigid TT designs results might be more consistent. Isolation to well below 10hz I reckon is required, so correctly loaded springs would seem to be the way to go.
 

martinpix

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I’ve tried a few but best thing I did was get a tirntable shelf from an old sound organisation stand on its own 3 spiked feet and a glass shelf on the top cost me around £35 works better than anything else I tried I have it sat on 3 metal speaker floor cups on top of a solid oak hifi rack , sounds great , I had a Townsend bladder thing that you pumped up never rated it at all . If possible put a turntable on a wall shell bolted to a brick wall is best option by far , but what I did is 2 nd after that or go for a naim style top shelf .
 

It Cost How Much!?!

Twisted
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I use the ultra heavy HRS shelf, really works with my 34kg turntable and matches to size and colour.

For the Transrotor I use a Hush plinth, which uses Townshend style damping I believe.

The best just feet I have used are Solid Tech Feet of Silence.
 

Neilb

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I have a large Audio Serenity Granite 480x400x30mm plinth under my RPM 9.1. Looks lovely and seems to work well. I think a Pro Ject Ground IT seems good value on Amazon (£120). The best turntable in my old Victorian house though was a Systemdek IIx. Really made me hanker after suspended designs again...

If only someone made a really simple clean suspended Plinth that didn't cost the absolute earth. They'd be brilliant with Rega's etc.
 

Nopiano

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I think there is quite a lot of potential for confusion here, much as there is with speaker isolation/coupling.

Lots of folk think they are isolating something, when they’re actually fixing it rigidly. You only have to look at the preponderance of spikes in racks, under speakers and so on.

It depends a lot on what one is trying to achieve. Issues might include:-
1. Problems with bouncy floors causing needle skip or excessive bounce on suspended turntables
2. Feedback from speakers, especially from bass frequencies at higher volumes. (It might be vibrating the floor or impacting directly on the turntable/arm/cartridge)
3. Audiophile wish to improve something that’s quite ok, but we are sure a bit of tweaking will work! (A swanky shelf looks cool too :cool: )

The once popular Sound Organisation and Target turntable tables were low mass and rigidly fixed - seemed suited to Linn, AR, Thorens types with sprung chassis. Conversely, big slabs of granite seem better for Garrard 401, Lenco, Technics SP10 unsprung types.

The Russ Andrews Torlyte is a clever low-mass design, but it looks pretty naff to my eyes. Probably great with Regas.

I recall a quite detailed series in Hifi News a few years ago explaining how to calculate spring rates, resonant frequencies, masses etc., for building a DIY platform.
 

lazycat

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My kit is on a very basic but heavy AV iron/glass thing. It really shouldnt work at all but it does. I did try a lightweight table quite a few yrs ago but the Technics sounded awful.

I do use some weight-calculated sorbothane pucks under the top shelf - T/T, they do seem to isolate very well. But I'm lucky, I have some kind of board floor and it is non-bouncy.

The latter yrs of LP12 ownership saw me buying a Trampolin and that worked well - I had to ditch it's own table because of limited space.
 

leroyd

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I have a suspended timber floor, but I used a hole saw to cut circular holes, slightly bigger than the legs of my rack, in the floorboard. The result is that the the legs of my rack go through the floor boards and sit on the concrete foundation of the house. My TT sits on the top of the rack, and like all the other components placed in the rack, is isolated from the room. A cheap but effective solution.
 

Warszawa

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I just have 80kg of kit on the rack my deck sits on. Does the trick. (y)
 
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toms wait

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I just have 80kg of kit on the rack my deck sits on. Does the trick. (y)
Me too but less kg's and less valves. About 50kg and 9 valves.
Not only....but also.
The deck does sit on its plywood table and a set of sorbothane feet on the mdf rack on industrial shock absorbing feet on my wonky old wood floor.
 

The_Krell

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I have a suspended timber floor, but I used a hole saw to cut circular holes, slightly bigger than the legs of my rack, in the floorboard. The result is that the the legs of my rack go through the floor boards and sit on the concrete foundation of the house. My TT sits on the top of the rack, and like all the other components placed in the rack, is isolated from the room. A cheap but effective solution.
Ok; now that is dedicated...:)
 
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leroyd

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Ok; now that is dedicated...:)
Not really. It took all of 20 minutes , cost nothing and saved me time and money in entering into the myriad of alternative options that are out there , and no doubt the possibility of encountering foo in the process.
 

The_Krell

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Iso acoustics Zazen or Delos platforms work well and relatively cheap dependent on the mass of your TT.
 

leroyd

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Iso acoustics Zazen or Delos platforms work well and relatively cheap dependent on the mass of your TT.
I have no experience with the Zazen or Delos platforms, but I did purchase Isoacoustic Gaia's for my speakers which sit on the suspended timber floor. I found no improvement over the comparatively cheap and cheerful Auralex sub dudes. I got them at a knockdown price and kept them, as the aesthetic pleased my other half.
 

Maverick

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if you can wall shelf, HOWEVER most designs rely on 2 top fixings and they IMHO over time will pull out so battens are needed. Also did you take a look at the clever wall shelf Solid Sounds were showing prior kindly offering it as an auction prize?
 

rabski

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Possibly I'm not taking my hifi seriously enough, but I do feel that cutting holes out of the floor so a rack can go through them may possibly just be a wee bit excessive. It certrainly would be here, as the listening room is on the first floor :ROFLMAO:
 

Jules_S

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Hi Fi Racks turntable wall shelf has 8 fixings - 4 above and 4 below the shelf itself. Into a solid wall it's about as sturdy as you'll get. Apparently it can hold up to 70kg (!) but I'm not sure I'd be that brave. 30kg or so seems about right. Certainly has no problem supporting my Voyd, which I'm guessing is around 15kg? The only thing it could do with is an add-on shelf below, for a TT PSU or phono stage. You can get a further "isolation" (?) platform to sit on top of the basic shelf but I didn't bother with it

IMG_1196.jpeg

The photo below shows the 4 lower fixings - there's 4 identical up above. (excuse the peeling wallpaper - a "temporary" job about 10 years ago!) The shelf did come with little wood caps to cover the screw holes, but I've moved the shelf from a previous location and when I tried taking them out they split apart. Must get something else to cover them up but as the shelf is in the corner of my lounge, behind the speaker, I can't really see it, so "meh" for the time being

IMG_1197.jpeg

UPDATE: 1/11 - had a reply from Hi Fi Racks about getting replacement wood bungs for the screw holes. £13.60 for 8, plus £4 postage! Maybe not, I'll get some plastic ones from B&Q and make do
 
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leroyd

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Possibly I'm not taking my hifi seriously enough, but I do feel that cutting holes out of the floor so a rack can go through them may possibly just be a wee bit excessive. It certrainly would be here, as the listening room is on the first floor :ROFLMAO:
A system set up on a first floor rules out my tweak for sure 😃. I don't have a dedicated listening room, so keeping my other half happy is crucial when making changes to the living room. What is important in this regard was using a hole saw that was ever so slightly bigger than the circumference of the legs of the rack. This results in an incredibly neat solution and the wife never noticed. Not in the least excessive, but incredibly effective.
 

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