Looking for turntable isolation advice


Greetings from Oregon,

Was hoping to get some suggestions on turntable isolation for my particular situation.  My setup starts off with two strikes against it - suspended wood floors in my apartment and the turntable between in the speakers.  Neither is ideal, but that's the room I have.  As it's an apartment, structural changes are out of the question.  I have a VPI Prime on the stock feet, which are a nice step up from the feet on the Traveler that I had before, but I'm not sure about their ultimate performance.  

For my stand, I am using two heavy duty (about 70lbs. each) Sound Anchor speaker stands facing each other with a 4" maple platform on top of them (with blue tack between the stand and platform).  The stands are spiked into Herbie's gliders.  I find that all of my stands sound better on the gliders or generally decoupled from the floor.  The speaker stands are only about 10 inches wide but the platform is 24"x19", so it's probably not the most stable set up.  I'm getting good sound, but I know that the table is still subject to some vibrations.  I'd like to get advice on anything that I might do to better the performance of the table.  

I've considered some the following:

1). Aftermarket footers for the table, possibly Stillpoint Ultra SS.   

2). Better spikes on the stand - Gaia, Stillpoints, Track Audio, etc.

3).  Paving stone under the stand

4). All of the above

5). A wall shelf.  This would be a big task as the table weighs close to 60 pounds.  The only commercial turntable wall shelves I've seen hold 40-80 lbs. max weight, and I'd like something that is rated much higher to be safe.  I guess I could try a DIY project.  Would love to get the maple platform on brackets on the wall, but that would bring the weight over 100 lbs.  

So, any thoughts would be welcome.  It's turntable only rig, so I'm trying to wring every last ounce of performance out of it.  

Thanks so much for any insight that you might have.

Cheers,Scott
smrex13

Showing 6 responses by smrex13

@folkfreak Thanks for the recommendation.  Your TT shelf is amazing - nice work!  You should market it.

Best, Scott
@ Randy-11.  I wish I could put it in another room, but there's no way to pull it off without drilling through walls and running cables across walkways or doors.  

@yogiboy Good idea to figure out how much vibration is actually getting through.  It might be good as is.

@williewonka Thanks for the great ideas.  I might try the MDF as it would be a relatively cheap experiment and I could compare it to the maple to see which I prefer.  And the ball bearing feet look like they might be fun to experiment with.  Will keep you posted if I try either.

Best, Scott
Thanks for the great suggestions - this has been a very informative discussion.  A couple of responses:

a.  I probably can't remove drywall, both due to my lack of skill and the fact that I'm in a rental.  Don't want to mess around with that.  But the thought of a wall shelf is still is intriguing.  

b.  If I use a stethoscope, what should I be listening  for and where should I be placing the scope?  

c.  I like the sandbox idea.  A while back I noticed that Adona's top TT stand has a sandbox top.  I'd forgotten all about that option.  

Best, Scott
@franks thanks!  I didn't know Symposium had footers for the prime.  Will definitely check them out.
@767400 Do you have a heavy turntable?  Did you have any difficulty leveling the table?  Mine has fairly uneven weight distribution, and I'm worried about the springs compressing too much under the heavier side.

Thanks!