I just wanted to mention something on the suspended vs non-suspended topic. I own an Oracle turntable and the springy floors in my apartment meant that I had to custom build a solution to isoalate the entire rack I use(Michael Green rack) from this. It finally worked. Now my brother has two turntables, an Ariston and an old Kenwood. He has the same floor problems as I do in his house. Now the Ariston(basically a cheap Linn) bounces when you walk past even though it's a suspended design, while the massive Kenwood table(this thing is heavy!) doesn't care what you're doing. It just plays on without missing a beat. Now I've been told by people that the "Truth" of the matter is the opposite of my experience (that suspended tables are better with springy floors)but I can't argue with results. A friend of mine who's an engineer said that he didn't see any way you could make a blanket statement concerning this and thought the idea that there was hard and fast rule concerning this was ludicrous. He said that you would have to take in all the factors, floor, rack, weight of items, other vibration control and suspension into the equation.
I was looking at Basis tables (probably the 2001 sorry Dan_ed, I probably would've bought yr table otherwise) but with what my own experiences showed me and looking at many high end designs, I decided that I wanted to get a non-suspended table. This thread has solidified the ideas that I have had. To match Artar I will post my decision which is between two tables:
1. Table -Teres 255 or 265 or Galibier Quattro ALU
2. Arm - Shroeder DPS
3. Cartridge - Shelter 501 II
After reading what Doug and others wrote about the Airy I am very curious about this cartridge but the stretch I am making to get the Schroeder arm means that I will try my best to not think about it now.
One other thing I would like to point out here - this remark from Raul:
"I know that I'm not " soft and kind " like you Twl and maybe that's don't help to have a better understanding"
Raul - I would not say this is the matter. It is not that Twl and Doug and Artar are "soft and kind", the fact is that they understand that this is a dialogue between people with common interests. They also understand that there are many relativistic factors here, components, power, rooms, musical tastes and different tastes concerning what kind of sound they want. They put forth their knowledge in the form of a conversation and will explain as needed and let people make their own decisions. They are not here to lecture others on right or wrong. They are not concerned with who thinks they're a biggie smarty-pants or an "expert". I find your tone and your dogmatic approach to be more of an authority control thing and while I appreciate the fact that you care about this hobby, I can't take your knowledge seriously when it's presented as the only "truth" or the only "fact".
I am not an audio expert, that I will freely admit. I have been going to concerts for 27 years and have seen thousands of live concerts of all kinds. I have been collecting records for 34 years. I have years of experience in record retail and used to be a classical buyer for Tower records. I have only been an audiophile for 8 years. What does all this make me? A person who loves music enough to devote a large part of their existence and most of their finances to it. I am trying to develop a system to play back the music I love and I very much appreciate the help I get on forums to make up for my lack of "audiophile" expertise. As an intelligent individual with some experience and knowledge, I have the ability to sort the facts and figure things out. I do learn a lot more when I feel that I am having a constructive dialogue with others and that they are taking MY SPECIFIC CONCERNS into their assessments and not dogmatically pushing an agenda.
I have named those I think do this and there are plenty of others. YOU GUYS ROCK. Thank you.
The rest I tend to ignore but at this point felt that I wanted to weigh in with my two cents worth on this whole thing.
And remember, YMMV, and this is IMHO.
Chris
