Turntable that will be around heavy foot steps?
You have only two choices, SOTA or SME, the suspended tables only The STST Motus II is a low-torque direct drive with a very effective suspension. And it can be ordered with a huge choice of finishes. And its around the OP budget new.... I'm the importer for North America for full disclosure, but just check some of the recent reviews... |
You have only two choices, SOTA or SME, the suspended tables only. Both are excellent tables by any measure. The SOTA Cosmos is an incredible bargain. It is just as good as the SME and 1/2 the price. You have a little more versatility with the SME in regard to arms. Both are single arm tables but the tonearm boards are easy enough to change if you want to switch to another arm. To me this business about making a turntable look like jewelry is silly. The SOTA Cosmos in Macassar Ebony is gorgeous. |
A bit late to the thread here, but as others have mentioned, go SOTA. You will have zero issues with vibration or footfalls. They are very easy to set up, bullet-proof reliable and can be had brand-new with a top-flight tonearm and cartridge for well under your total budget. In your circumstance, I feel that would be the way to fly. Transporting them is also very easy, but there is a trick: You have to make sure the sapphire bearing is isolated first. There are a couple of grub screws with lock-nuts on either side of the platter shaft that perform this function. You simply tighten them, lock them in position with the nuts and you're good to go. I also used a couple of C-clamps and soft cloths to clamp the platter suspension down. Moved the table that way across the country twice with never a problem. Good luck & happy hunting! |
+1 for geoffkait. You are going to be unloading and setting up how much equipment? You will need something light and easy to set up and adjust, IMHO. Used a similar set up in my youth in a Vets Housing rental. All wood buildings. Used a washing machine spring connected by four small ropes to a platform. Hung from the ceiling with a turntable on it, the tt never skipped again. Good luck in your quest. |
noromance1,839 posts04-03-2019 1:59pm"Look at framing out the specific area under the turntable and supporting the floor from underneath with lolly columns." I agree with noromance....If you can, beef up the floor under your system components. It won't be that expensive..... |
The suggestion of the Townshend Rock turntable is an excellent one. Unfortunately, the table is not currently in production, and used ones rarely come up for sale. I’m not about to sell mine, nor is, I believe, @slaw. But the Seismic Pods (around $400 for a set of four) can be used under a shelf supporting a table, or a table can be placed on top of the Seismic Platform (a little under a grand, I believe). |
SOTA. Footfalls are not a problem, my 200 lb teenage son walks like a T-Rex too. The TT is on the second floor of a wood frame house where you can feel the floor oscillate when the dog walks across it, and the SOTA is impervious. You can literally rap your knuckles on the plinth while a record is playing and not hear it through the speakers. |
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SOTA turntables are genuinely fantastic at this, and getting one is a hell of a lot easier (and more aesthetic) than trying to isolate for your specific room/floor/etc. Outboard spring/mass solutions may work well too, but SOTA’s suspensions are simply tuned perfectly for their own mass, and oscillate at the right frequency to deflect most of the damaging energy - not like the super-springy, unstable suspensions on other turntables that you may recall from the past. |
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dnath, When I bought an expensive new turntable like most I wanted to ensure it was free from the interference of external vibration. In particular, our wood floor transmits footfall to the stand like a bugger, and I have a 17 year old son who is big and stomps when he walks like Godzilla. I needed protection! Having tested a great many types of isolation and damping material, I found nothing...absolutely nothing...came close to the vibration isolating properties of putting springs under the turntable platform. In this case I use the spring-based Townshend Seismic Isolation Pods. They are expensive for what they are, but I'm sure you can get similar results via a DIY approach finding some similar springs. In any case, once the turntable base was placed on those springs, I could stomp all around the floor in front of the equipment stand and feel (and measure) almost nothing on the turntable. Works like a charm. So, in other words, I'm not sure you need to concentrate on the particular turntable to take care of vibration isolation - especially for really big vibrations like close footfall - where instead it may be better to simply concentrate on making an isolation base that could do a much better job of isolating whatever turntable you'd like to use. |
