2. analog
  3. 977364210

Isolation for turntables

I'm looking for some ideas on how to keep my turntable on the straight and narrow. My Oracle Delphi IV/SME345/Grado Reference is not in the ideal environment. I had a custom oak stand built for my gear and certainly blends well with the decor. Trouble is, my listening room has an oak strip hardwood floor, slightest footsteps makes the cartridge jump. Ouch. I bought a Townshend Seismic Sink HD and slipped it under the 'table, no real improvement. So, I'm going to sell the Sink and get something else, question is, what can I use to keep my rig from bouncing around? Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions, Jeff
jeffloistarca
phild
603 posts
 
I don't know if this is possible in your particular situation, but I bought a wall mounted audio shelf. I had the same problem, and now it never ever skips. It's not very fancy, but it does the trick. It's a steel frame (black) with a black plank of wood resting on small spikes. If you want additional isolation, I suppose you could always put the Townsend thingy on the shelf.
redkiwi
1,092 posts
 
Another method is to put a supporting concrete pile under your house directly under the turntable - although I concede this is not always practical. Since the Oracle is sprung, then any additional compliant isolation will cause sonic degradation through creating nodes between the resonant frequencies of the two systems. Another method would be to find where the floor has solid supports, and put the turntable on top of one, or put it on a rigid plank that spans from one to another of the supports.
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Two solutions, wall mount it, which is the easiest. If you have a crawl space or basement under the floor (joist and frame construction) it would't hurt to beef up the floor under the turntable. Those joists need reinforcement with a couple of piers and stringers running perpendicular to the joists or columns and stringers if a basement. This may not be practical in the case of a basement. Who wants an extra column or 2 in the middle of their basement? Without knowing all the specifics, this information is general but, you get the idea, your floor needs more support down under.
david99
1,467 posts
 
I went wild building a wall mount shelf for my P-25.I bought some heavy steel 18"long L brackets and bolted them to 2 2x4's which I then bolted to the wall.The bolts go through the wall to the outside where they are very tightly secured with nuts.On top of the brackets I placed 4 rubber grommets.On top of those a 16"x16" x1" MDF shelf rests and on top of that a Bright Star Audio Big Rock #4.Never had a problem amd the sound improvement was very noticeable.
More to discover