Springs under turntable


I picked up a set of springs for $35 on Amazon. I intended to use them under a preamp but one thing led to another and I tried them under the turntable. Now, this is no mean feat. It’s a Garrard 401 in a 60pound 50mm slate plinth. The spring device is interesting. It’s sold under the Nobsound brand and is made up of two 45mm wide solid billets of aluminum endcaps with recesses to fit up to seven small springs. It’s very well made. You can add or remove springs depending on the weight distribution. I had to do this with a level and it only took a few minutes. They look good. I did not fit them for floor isolation as I have concrete. I played a few tracks before fitting, and played the same tracks after fitting. Improvement in bass definition, speed, air, inner detail, more space around instruments, nicer timbre and color. Pleasant surprise for little money.
128x128noromance
mijostyn
... the devise that has to be level to prevent skating forces is the tonearm. So the best place to put your bubble level is on the tonearm board or plinth right at the base of the tonearm. If the platter is a tiny bit off it won’t matter.
Even a level pivoted pickup arm will generate skating force provided the arm has overhang, which almost all do.

The armboard, platter and plinth should all be located on absolutely parallel planes and if they’re not, there will be an issue. In mijostyn’s case, he’s mentioned several times that his pickup arm azimuth changes when VTA changes. That can be explained by a misalignment between arm/platter/plinth.
Obviously cleeds. But out of level a tonearm will add additional skating forces one way or the other and yes in an ideal world all parts of the turntable should operate in exactly the same plane. It is just a good measure to put the bubble next to the part that matters the most. And you are dead wrong cleeds. Unless you are using an arm that is dead straight raising and lowering the arm will change the azimuth, within the arc where the arm is expected to operate it is very slight but it will change by a minute or two.
mijostyn
... But out of level a tonearm will add additional skating forces ...
That’s true.
... in an ideal world all parts of the turntable should operate in exactly the same plane.
Yes, or at least in parallel planes for the turntable, plinth, and arm.
It is just a good measure to put the bubble next to the part that matters the most ...
If you’re using a typical little bubble level to set up your turntable, it’s no wonder that you have some of the playback problems you report. You’ll get more precise results with something like this.
... Unless you are using an arm that is dead straight raising and lowering the arm will change the azimuth ...
Correct. But there’s no reason to accept a turntable setup where those critical component parts - turntable, plinth, armboard/pickup arm - are not in proper alignment. If they cannot be properly aligned, then one or more of the parts are defective. Or poor quality. You've previously said that your stylus tilts towards the spindle when the arm is raised, but I wouldn't accept that from my turntable setup.
Hello,
Thanks a lot to all who provided valuable feedback to my turntable level question. I am still a novice when it comes to setting up a turntable and I am learning a lot from the current discussion. There is a possibility that my platter didn't fit exactly as it should on the body of the turntable. Musical Surroundings folks replaced the platter of my Clearaudio turntable a few months back and they put a newer version platter making the required height adjustment of the tonearm. I am suspecting that something went wrong in that installation but the problem is how do I prove it to them and have them fix the issue. The turntable plays ok without a visible issue....
I had an idea...I think that a fine tuned damp mass in the speakers will do marvel but i cannot make it myself....

:)

But then i think that doubling the springs at the 2 ends of the speakers would be better and an improvement because the removing of resonance would be facilitated, less than with a fine tune damped mass but anyway.... That worked....

I put 4 (chinese copy of the nobsound springs) new  boxes with the 7 springs on top of the speakers adding only a few pounds of concrete to my already heavy load( around 75 pounds ).

More details in the imaging and better bass without negative impact on the higher frequencies...

Now my speakers are between 8 springs boxes each...

Total success....

Very low cost....

The mechanical embedding of an audio system is very important....Resonance kill the naturalness of timbre....To conduct listening test to finetune your springs installation for speakers, always listen to the instrument timbre first and last, not only to the frequencies affected by modifications....