Turntable and subwoofer living together in peace and happiness


Unfortunately I got readdicted to audiophile disease a few years ago. I amassed a new system via the used market: Rotel Rb991, NAD c658, Rega Planar 3 w/motor upgrade, tonearm rewire, upgraded arm counter balance, Hana ML, Clear Audio Basic+, B&W 805 Matrix, B&W ASW800 subwoofer, Kimbers all around.

My issue has been subwoofer integration. I get rumblely feedback from the subwoofer as soon as I drop the needle into the lead in groove. With digital playback this is not an issue. Thinking that the turntable was picking up vibration from the floor and cabinet, I built an isolation platform that consists of a 6 inch deep box made of Peruvian Walnut filled with 50lbs of sand and topped with a 1/2 inch granite all of which sitds on Sorbothane spiked feet. I thought i had the subwoofer was far enough away. 

Any and all thoughts would be appreciated. 

horn13

Get thee a Preamp with a rumble filter; Low Cut Off Filter, they were designed for exactly your problem.

I have to use mine in my Vintage Preamp when playing my Shure V15VxMR that tracks at 1 gm, and it is mounted on a ’too heavy’ arm best for medium compliance cartridges. When a big warp hits, a light tracker, with a too heavy arm may even get yanked up out of the groove.

Wood floors, mine are like a Flexible Flyer, my final solution, (after all the weight of your stand is level/down, no forward weight when the floor flexes), is a set of isolation blocks 

 

My light trackers, I have to tip toe away, you develop the skill of just getting your lifter started down, and get out. Steve at VAS is going to change the fluid in my Vintage JVC Victor UA-7082 arm lift that drops too quickly.

btw, are you sure your arm and cartridge compliance are good together?

OP, there are many threads on this topic. Just do a search, then ask questions. Respectfully.

I have a Clearaudio Master Innovation and use large floorstanding speakers and a six-pack of REL S/510 subs. 

I have no issues whatsoever with bass feedback/woofer-pumping, but I have also invested in great isolation (HRS EXR rack + HRS M3X2 isolation base for the turnable).

I have old wood floors that aren’t braced, I don’t use platforms under the subs (they are designed to couple to the floor anyway), and I don’t bother using the 10Hz low pass filter on my phono-stage. However, the Rega Planar 3 and my Clearaudio TT are very different animals.

Also I don’t have to tip-toe around the room. If a record is playing I have to jump up and down enthusiastically to upset the cartridge tracking...and it still doesn’t skip. Footfalls from normal walking around are inconsequential.

I’m a firm believer in isolation. I treat it as a component of equal or greater importance to everything else. I’ve also been down the road of DIY isolation solutions (that really aren’t effective enough, if at all)...sorbothane footers, hardwood cutting boards, or both blah, blah, ad nauseam. I never solved those problems until I invested and left it to the pros.

Clearaudio Master Innovation + REL six-pack

Your problem is lack of a rumble filter most likely. I have one of those highly maligned Technics SL-1200MK2 turntables with a Goldring E3 cart. Not exactly high end, I know. It sits on top of a 3-tier glass unit all in a room with wood floors.

I can play albums at any (reasonable) volume with zero effect, No T/T isolation required. I run dual HSU subs and a 330 watts into 4ohm amp. Plays clean as a whistle.

Rumble filters are mostly just a kludge that mask the root source problem, without solving anything, IMO. I’ve been down that road, had the KAB filter which was nothing but a kludge and got rid of it as a waste of money. It masked the issue a little bit. I had to solve the root problem. In my case that was a tonearm with magnetic bearings that got upset too easily. I solved that by replacing my tonearm to one with mechanical bearings. 

Rumble filters are not a panacea. In my experience they’re a bandaid that doesn’t stick well enough to prevent exposing the wound.