@bba - I'm cheap and lazy. Went to Amazon and picked up a maple (mable?) butcher block end grain board about the same size as my table. I have a few different materials to try under the board including a couple of different types / shapes / thicknesses of sorbothane, a lifetime supply of different Vibrapod products (pucks and cones), cones, felt pads, mouse pads, bags of lead shot.... Long list of stuff.
I just wanted some suggestions on what others are using successfully to help shorten the experimenting.
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@glupson - LMAO is an abbreviation for Loose Molecular Attraction Oscillator. It an advanced audio component that mounts next to any power outlet used for audio equipment. It's purpose is to magnetically remove bad electrons and re-spin the remaining electrons to help remove RF and to create a more pure 60hz A/C current source. The device uses pure natural vacuum that comes from the vacuum mines in northern Iowa. A recent shortage of this particularly desirable vacuum was the result of a series of mine implosions. Most of the remaining vacuum is being stored in liquid form in 7 tanker cars on a railroad siding outside Bozeman, Montana.
LMAO also stands for Laughing My Ass Off. |
@ glupson - Be very careful! Mine implosions are dangerous. The results just suck. And beware! Most of the visitors to Iowa go missing. They just wander out into the fields and are never seen again. Rumor is they die of boredom, but nobody has gone on a rescue mission. They just aren't awake. |
@lewm
Sauerkratut cans work just fine under tables manufactured by the Swiss and Germans. |
@geoffkait
One of the best characteristics of Spam is that it has no expiration date. It's good forever even if it's left out in the open at room temperature.
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[tfpic mode /on] The reason maple butcher block is used because there is a scarcity of The ideal material, solid blocks of argon. It's perfect, but very hard to keep in its solid state. [tfpic mode /off]
It seems that maple block is not the best material. Bamboo seems to sould better to many, but maple has been around for a long time. I think the reason is that it's better than most of the shelving material. |
@stringreen Great thought and common sense overlooked! The table currently sits on a robust set of shelves on which also rests some electronics and hold around 1,000 records. Maybe not the best place to place a turntable.
My listening area in a finished basement room. I can spike a rack to the basement floor, spike the (new) Chop Block board to the rack and use original StillPoint cones on which to mount the Aries Extended. Hadn't thought to remove the Aries "feet" but they are not in use, that's a no-brainer with this config.
All I'm REALLY trying to do is get rid of some warmth that seems to be coming from the table (vinyl chain). I know it's not the electronics (all Herron Audio) and have pretty much isolated it to the arm (JMW Memorial 12) or table itself.
At the amplification used for mc carts, it's easy to pick up very tiny signals or resonances outside of the music. |
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@noromance The table rests on three original Stillpoints. I doan need no steenkin mat.
All kidding aside, the previous owner of the table saw this thread ad gave me a call over the weekend. Made a couple of suggestions. Both have improved the sound and reduced the magnitude of the warmth I was trying to address. Still room for more tweaks. |
Placed the maple butcher block on three cones solid brass (facing up) on the top of the record shelves (same shelf / position as before). Placed the Aries Extended on the butcher block. Put three stillpoints under the table at the approximate position as the cones under the bb. Adjusted for level.
There was an improvement. Dynamics seemed a bit shrper, bass a bit tighter. The subtle warmth around the lower registers of a harp and clarinet was reduced providing more detail, particularly woodiness of the clarinet.
Maybe the soundstage was improved. Maybe. Maybe the imaging was a little tighter. Maybe. Maybe tenor and also voices were a little more natural (less chesty, but since its vocals, who know what they REALLY sound like live). Maybe.
My conclusion is that the ~ $120 investment was worth it.
I do intend to try a set of dedicated rigid shelves that are "coned" directly into the concrete floor with the table sitting in a configuration with the maple bb like above. Not sure there is much room for improvement, but it might be worth a try.
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@geoffkait What golden rule of cones. Oh, no. I didn't know!! Please don't call the cone police! Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! ;-)
I didn't want to put threaded inserts into the maple bb. My thin and weak excuse is that I didn't want to risk damage to the bb. The real reason is that I was too lazy to drill out holes for the inserts. Figured it would be OK.
The Stillpoint cones are point-up, BearClaws are solid brass and point-up.
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@blueranger When you said "half inch high dampened spike stands," were those by chance rubber damped spike stands?
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@blueranger My opinion....
It has been my recent experience that using rubber for turntable damping does not seem to produce the desired results. Removing the "half inch high damped spike stands" that use rubber may have cleaned up dynamics and the midrange. At least that has been my experience with a couple of VPI tables.
That's only my opinion. YMMV. |
I recently bought a 3" thick bamboo cutting board that I made into the top of turntable stand. I cannot make a direct comparison because it was for a new turntable, but the system sounds very good. |
