Where do classical vinyl records get their rumble from?

It has been interesting to read this post. I am not an audiophile and my system, comparitivley, is dirt cheap. I like to spend my $$ on live rather than recorded performances and is 80% classical in both. I have noticed that one of my favorite vinyl recordings,  Karl Bohm Vienna Pastoral, a DG Original Master, does seem to have a lot of surface or rumble noise but I tolerated it because otherwise it is quite good. My Chris Botti Blue Note 1 is absolutely quiet, no surface noise at all as are a few others in my limited collection. My take is that it is not related to the table but to however the original recording process was conducted. (pun intended)
But to say that you never hear any surface noise or rarely hear it on vinyl just seems impossibe. At 73 I have listened to vinyl for years.  

@audphile1

my VPI table has a heavy aluminum platter. If I’m not mistaken this platter weighs about 25lbs

We can do a quick fact check!  Aluminium weighs about 0.1-lb per cubic inch.  A 1" slice of platter contains Pi x 6 x 6  or about 113 cubic inches.  So a 1" solid slice of aluminium platter comes in around 11.3-lb.  If your platter is solid and weighs 25-ibs, its thickness would be 25 / 11.3 = about 2-1/4 inches.  Certainly doable 

VPI does sell mats, for example:

Our VPI Black Slipmat, made to protect and keep your platter clean.  Record mats can change the sound of a musical presentation

Obviously, the heavier a platter, the heavier the conventional bearing that is needed.  Most manufacturers are looking for a flywheel effect to smooth rotational irregularities, so concentrate the platter mass towards the rim.

But few metals are good at damping vibrations, no matter what the mass.  Big Ben weighs in at 13.7-tonnes and has a very famous ring.

Cast iron is an exception because the carbon atoms dissipate energy as they hop between the relatively big holes between iron atoms.  Sophisticated lattice structures made from sintered metal powder, like the titanium laser-fused structures created by Wilson Benesch, are great at damping vibrations.  WB use them for cartridge bodies and tone arms but not platters.

Climate obviously affects static production.  Where I live, in the mountains of the driest inhabited continent on earth, we rarely get the high relative humidity needed to create leakage paths for static.  Conditions are often great for creating huge thunderstorms, which often ignite bushfires.

In fact, the terrible bushfires in Canberra in 2003 created their own severe 'dry' thunderstorms, which sparked downstream fires.  Whole pine plantations burned out, and all the remaining trunks have been bent over by the wind and 'frozen'

@dogberry 

Can I ask for clarification - your title mentions rumble on classical records. Are there records, of any sort, without rumble? Because if there are, your turntable is not at fault.

Yes, I have mentioned a few records that are very quiet.

They tend to be labelled "Audiophile" and 180-grams but I just think the producers have taken more care than usual.

Classical records tend not to be closely miked and 'voiced' on mixing desks, so there is more chance for venue noise to make it to the vinyl.

And I suspect with some genres, it is very difficult to tell the difference!

@sbsail9 

But to say that you never hear any surface noise or rarely hear it on vinyl just seems impossibe

I agree, but I also think the resolution of your equipment matters.

The Holbo has a very low intrinsic noise floor, and when I coupled it with a DS Audio optical cartridge, which has both high output and low noise, I started to hear things I had not noticed before - like very quiet, low organ notes and what I call record-rumble.

Having heard these things for the first time, I can still hear them when I go back to my more conventional Garrard.  Using the Holbo has in effect trained my ear/brain.  That's a bit scary

@billstevenson 

Arm/cartridge resonance has nothing at all to do with how loudly you play your music.  In fact resonance can be measured in total silence. 

Agreed, except that I think my Tacet test record requires acoustic feedback and a human ear to listen for mis-tracking.  It is totally different to say Analog Magik which uses computer programs to analyse waveforms.

The target is for the arm to vibrate in a range between 8-12 Hz.  Yours is 6 Hz, which is causing something to vibrate sympathetically, probably a simple multiple of that value. 

There seems to be a resonance at 6-Hz, but I now think it is not the arm, but the sub-plinth where I was aiming for 4-Hz.  Will let you know in a few weeks after I change the suspension from 8 sorbothane hemispheres to 6!

By placing a weight on the head shell and rebalancing the tonearm, you effectively increased the mass of the cartridge/arm assemblage.  I know that is counter-intuitive, but it changed your resonant frequency and got you our of that situation.  End result: it sounds a little cleaner.  

I did not really see any change in the resonant frequency!  It is still 6-Hz.

This is all useful stuff - thank you