Turntable: rack? wall mount? Your recommendations, please!

[engadin]

I own a Basis Good standard turntable with AirTangent 10b arm, now boxed.
In maybe 12 months I will have it playing music, again.

Newly built hose, parquet floor glued on zement with heating inside, on styrofoam.
Better to use a wall mount?
If diy wall mount, what material as top platform?
Acryl like the tt? Maybe wood?

Get a renowned rack like Artesiana?

Thx for your advice!

 

[Nemal1]

Having suspended floors upstairs where my system is located, my avid acutus reference is mounted on the quadraspire SVT wall shelf. No footfall issues and isolates excellently.

 

[Another Johnson]

I think you could choose either based on the floor you’ve described. I have used both at different times over many decades.

The only times I’ve been dissatisfied with a wall mount have been in rooms with flimsy 2x4 studs. Such walls tend to vibrate.

The only times I’ve been dissatisfied with a floor mount have been when I’ve put the TT on the top of an equipment rack that was not perfectly rigid.

My present set up is on a concrete floor with LVP over foam underlayment. I am using a heavy, low console and it is like an extension of the concrete floor. Very stable.

In this set up that console is wide enough to support two LP12s and a Ref Phono 3. The LP12s connect to the Ref Phono 3 via their tonearm rca cables. The Ref Phono 3 connects to the Ref 6SE by a pair of 25’ long balanced Transparent Reference series interconnects that were tuned by Transparent for this specific arrangement.

By putting the TTs far from the speakers , I’ve further reduced room acoustic affects at the TTs compared to when the TTs were near the front wall. Of course YMMV.

 

[DasguteOhr]

I own a Basis Good standard turntable with AirTangent 10b arm, now boxed.
In maybe 12 months I will have it playing music, again.

Newly built hose, parquet floor glued on zement with heating inside, on styrofoam.
Better to use a wall mount?
If diy wall mount, what material as top platform?
Acryl like the tt? Maybe wood?

Get a renowned rack like Artesiana?

Thx for your advice!

When we started discussing air suspension in another forum in 2009, there was a lot of enthusiasm. What material should be used for the air springs on which the turntable stands? After many trials and errors, the material was decided. The unanimous opinion was that slate is the best material. It has many strengths and few weaknesses in terms of sound. The only requirement is a minimum thickness of 3 cm, otherwise the sound becomes too thin. When we placed a large order for air springs with a company, they became curious and asked what we needed the springs for. "For turntables," was my answer. The astonishment was palpable on the other end of the line.
In the end, they launched a table based on these specifications. Just specify the size you need and the weight of the turntable. Ask for the price. I can only say that you're guaranteed to like it.

Optische Tische | cplusw GmbH

www.cplusw.de

 

[Another Johnson]

We used this type of table for laser interferometry back in the day. Even in a basement lab on thick isolated concrete, we had to wait until the wee hours of the morning to avoid blurring due to normal daytime city traffic.

 

[DasguteOhr]

You could drive a tank through my living room or jump kangaroo in the room and still not hear a sound or feel the membrane move from the speaker when the needle is lowered onto the platter. Even with nti vibration meter no movement mesureable

 

[Another Johnson]

My setup has changed dramatically since my first post in this thread. When I picked up the Clearaudio Master Reference and TT2, I traded away my mid spec LP12. The Clearaudio Master Reference is so heavy that I had to reconsider my support platform.

I thought about an optical table. Obviously if it can deal with stabilizing adequately for optical wavelengths, it will also be good for acoustical wavelengths. But, as you point out, the cost is high.

I ended up modifying two audio racks I already own, and they are working well.

FWIW, I can rap the rack next to the Clearaudio Master Reference and you do not hear it. In the case of the LP12, it is audible. This would suggest that Suchy’s solution of great mass and rigidity isolates better than Tiefenbrun’s sprung subchassis. But in the end, listening to both suggests that for music, both schemes work.

 

[DasguteOhr]

My setup has changed dramatically since my first post in this thread. When I picked up the Clearaudio Master Reference and TT2, I traded away my mid spec LP12. The Clearaudio Master Reference is so heavy that I had to reconsider my support platform.

I thought about an optical table. Obviously if it can deal with stabilizing adequately for optical wavelengths, it will also be good for acoustical wavelengths. But, as you point out, the cost is high.

I ended up modifying two audio racks I already own, and they are working well.

FWIW, I can rap the rack next to the Clearaudio Master Reference and you do not hear it. In the case of the LP12, it is audible. This would suggest that Suchy’s solution of great mass and rigidity isolates better than Tiefenbrun’s sprung subchassis. But in the end, listening to both suggests that for music, both schemes work.

I also have the inexpensive solution in operation: 3 x air spring feet SLM 1 (max. 45 kg per foot) costing around €400 with some hoses and valves from festo. A planned slate slab 5.5 cm thick, 70 cm wide × 55 cm deep cost me €350. It is important to have a stable rack that can also carry 135 kg. You can practically turn the slate plate+ turntable into a subchassis spring system from 3 Hz upwards, which works excellently.

 

[engadin]

Thx for your input!
Slate somehow never sounded well under my tt.
Tried one layer slate, slate on bamboo, two layers of slate, all on top of Stillpoints.

In the end I acquired a used Stillpoints rack for all my stuff.
Basis tt on Stillpoints Ultra 5v2 with Ultra bases, rack sits on Ultra 5.
Results are pretty good.

 

[DasguteOhr]

Thx for your input!
Slate somehow never sounded well under my tt.
Tried one layer slate, slate on bamboo, two layers of slate, all on top of Stillpoints.

In the end I acquired a used Stillpoints rack for all my stuff.
Basis tt on Stillpoints Ultra 5v2 with Ultra bases, rack sits on Ultra 5.
Results are pretty good.

Nice turntable,Its OK If you don't like it.the secret is the thickness of slate

 

[spiritofmusic]

Nice turntable,Its OK If you don't like it.the secret is the thickness of slate

Maybe, the Stacore Advanced isolation platform that I run my TT on has a 2cm thick slate shelf isolated via rollerballs upon the slate chassis, sitting on a single tier slate stand.

 

[thekong]

When we placed a large order for air springs with a company, they became curious and asked what we needed the springs for. "For turntables," was my answer. The astonishment was palpable on the other end of the line.

Optische Tische | cplusw GmbH

www.cplusw.de

View attachment 161082

This reminds me over 20 years ago when I saw the TMC optical table for the first time and thought it looks exactly like the table under the Rockport TTs. So, I sent an email, with a photo of the Rockport, to TMC and asked whether it was their product, and what the cost was. As first they didn’t reply, so I called them, and after I told them what I was calling for, their first reply was “so you are the turntable guy”

 

[the_nines]

You could drive a tank through my living room or jump kangaroo in the room and still not hear a sound or feel the membrane move from the speaker when the needle is lowered onto the platter. Even with nti vibration meter no movement mesureableView attachment 161085

Me too.

Although I took a different path to the same destination: Isolation bliss without compromising sound and keeping the living room looking good (crucial for the WAF).

After having exhausted all options (and dropping a couple of bucks $$ in the process of experimenting), I settled for this:

An elephant can walk in front of the TT and you wouldn't know it.

 

[DasguteOhr]

Me too.

Although I took a different path to the same destination: Isolation bliss without compromising sound and keeping the living room looking good (crucial for the WAF).

After having exhausted all options (and dropping a couple of bucks $$ in the process of experimenting), I settled for this:

An elephant can walk in front of the TT and you wouldn't know it.

Today, an active solution has an ultra-fast response time, but that wasn't the case in the beginning. Get yourself a 3 cm thick slate slab and lay it on the passive minus k base. Of course, only if you don't exceed the maximum weight. Calculating the weight of slate is very easy. 1 cubic meter of slate weighs 2800 kg, for example.
70 cm wide, 55 cm deep, and 3 cm thick.
0.70 x 0.55 x 0.03 x 2800 = 32.3 kg

 

[Mike Lavigne]

another approach could be hanging braces from the ceiling to locate the turntable properly, especially in a corner where the structure in most buildings would normally be very stout and not as effected by music feedback. of course, corners can have bass build-up as can walls too.

 

[Another Johnson]

another approach could be hanging braces from the ceiling to locate the turntable properly, especially in a corner where the structure in most buildings would normally be very stout and not as effected by music feedback. of course, corners can have bass build-up as can walls.

David Wilson hung one in a closet at one point early in his experimenting.

You really don’t want to put it where it will be a microphone. The idea of getting it out of the sound field is a good one, but if you can’t, you still want to minimize the impact. Corners are a pretty risky location.

 

[spiritofmusic]

When those cables holding the TT in mid-air end up snapping, it'll bring new meaning to the phrase "dropping the stylus down".