Does any Audiogon member have a Holbo air-bearing turntable?

@lewm 

Thanks again Lew

We don't have Home Depot, but an Australian institution called Bunnings Warehouse, which has a stranglehold on hardware and owns half of our grocery duopoly.  Aussies love Bunnings, while being ripped off mercilessly,

I have a homemade stand under my Garrard - just 4 Bunnings steel legs and a thick MDF base.  Then two sandstone slabs separated by damping layers and an internal MDF structure inside the plinth, supported on three IsoAccoustics OREA pucks.

I have the woodworking gear to make a cabinet from scratch (er, from a log) but laziness stepped in.  I bought the SolidSteel rack but have yet to get it home for assembly.

SolidSteel is a bit of a misnomer these days.  The legs are aluminium and the shelves MDF.  Only the spikes and bolts are steel!

My guess is that Sydney sandstone has many of the acoustic properties of loose sand but it is easier to seal - the Holbo comes with a warning to keep dust away from the cantilevered rod the tone-arm slides on.  A white cloth is provided!

For what little it is worth, I am not a fan of MDF in speaker cabinets or in shelving or probably in plinths. Based on personal listening experiences but not done in a "scientific" way.

@lewm 

I am not a fan of MDF

Yes, I was aware of that from previous posts!  However, I think it is better than the chipboard that SME used for my Garrard 301 plinth and motor-board.

Most likely there would be little demand for a cartridge body made of MDF rather than rosewood or other exotics, but would HDF (High Density Fibre-board) be attractive?  Or some other engineered wood like Panzerholz?

Natural wood is a good resonator which is why so many musical instruments and concert halls are made from it.  But resonance is the last thing most designers want from speaker cabinets, and many use MDF because of its inherent vibration damping properties, as well as consistency.

I am not sure whether audiophiles are attracted to turntables and vinyl because of induced vibrations, or despite them!  For now, I am trying to reduce them.

The one-piece motor-board / plinth of the Holbo is made from MDF and I think the Japanese DC motor is directly attached to it.  The plinth probably weighs in at 4.5-kgs so will be a good sink for any vibrations from the motor.  In use, the platter is isolated from the plinth and motor by air and the belt drive, which looks very flimsy to my Garrard eyes.  Nevertheless it seems to spin the 5-kg platter to 33-rpm in about 4 seconds, and brings it to a stop in about the same time.  Without the belt, the stop time is rumoured to be about three minutes.

Unlike the Garrard or say a Wilson Benesch turntable, the Holbo seems to me like a black box full of trade secrets.  Certainly, there are no exploded drawings or white papers!

My eight Sorbothane hemispheres arrived a couple of days ago.  Turns out they do have the 3M self-adhesive bottoms that the local office knew nothing about.  They are very black, very squishy and very,very sticky.  If you found them washed up on a seashore, you’d throw them back in the drink.

There was an option for water resistant ones coated in polyurethane!

Obviously they are much less expensive than something similar encased in stainless steel cans with fancy names ...

It really is amazing what some of these simple, easy to get products can do in relation to the audiofool stuff that costs an arm and a leg!  Trust your ears and not the wallet!