Help! Tweaking My Lovan Rack for new Big A**ed Transrotor Turntable!


Folks, some input would be mighty appreciated.

I’ve been using a hand-me-down (though very nice!) Micro Seiki dd-40 turntable for a number of years and finally got the upgrade itch (it helps the upgrade itch when your cartridge is going on 30 years old, and sounding like it!).

I went down the rabbit hole and picked up a Transrotor Fat Bob S turntable, with an Acoustic Solid 12" arm and a Benz Micro Ebony cartridge. All with only about 30 hours of use at a great price. Yay!

Though I have considered getting rid of my old Lovan Classic rack for a new custom jobby, I’m pretty much spent out and I think I’ll have to make do for now, working with the Lovan.

The Fat Bob turntable is 55 lbs of solid aluminum and built like Thor’s hammer.

I figure this will finally get me to fill my Lovan stands for a bit more rigidity - probably with rice. The stand is the old 3 legged triangular shaped bass, which means the thin MDF shelves can feel like they sit sort of precariously on top. But the stand itself feels quite solid.

I want to incorporate a wood platform base, as many do, because I really love the look of a nice wood slab.

At first I thought maybe I’d have 3 spikes drilled in to the bottom corners of the wood base to directly couple it to the rest of the Lovan frame, vs resting it on the top mdf shelf. But I’m not sure that’s really necessary. And I’d like to incorporate some isolation as well, I think. So I’m thinking of just laying it on the top shelf, with something in between.

My first thought is to place a Symposium Segue shelf between the top of the Lovan shelf and the wood base.

Other than that...I’m flummoxed as to all the other choices...roller blocks? Symposium Fat Padz? Vibrapods? Herbie’s Tendersoft footers? Voo-Doo Isopods?  What should I put between the wood platform base and my Lovan shelf?

Any comments of suggestions on the direction I’m going?

Thanks!

(BTW, I’m an resolutely NOT a DIY/Handy-man type, so I’m not trying to go to heroic efforts, wishing this to be as painless as possible).
prof

Showing 2 responses by lewm

Dear perfectpathtech, You wrote, "No disrespect but MDF is Medium density fiberboard, most speaker manufactures use it".  I welcome your dissent, but your statement proves what?  It proves that MDF is cheap.  Lots of turntable plinths are made of MDF, too.  MDF plinths are usually found on the lowest end turntables, in terms of cost.  Certainly MDF can be used as one layer in a CLD construction; Adona uses it that way very successfully.  But two layers of MDF separated by foam would not have any CLD property, because the foam is mushy in between two layers that have identical properties.  The foam would impede energy transfer between the two layers of MDF, at least in my opinion.
MDF-foam-MDF is not going to give you constrained layer damping, and MDF is a bad choice for audio in general, IMO.  But there are good materials for sale at Home Depot.  See if they have a cement paver that is large enough to support your TT, for one example.  Check out Adona; they may sell their excellent CLD shelves separately.  Or used.

I would use lead shot, not rice, if not sand, as a filler in your Lovan.