A Copernican View of the Turntable System

Nick sr,

I imagined that the turntable produces vibrations when it rotates. These mechanical rotations are not the same as the indentations on the record and would be transmitted to a coupled tonearm (no matter how small the transmission). To isolate the tt is to isolate it from external vibrations but not its own self produced ones: here you can consider the difference that we get from isolating CDp's say with rollerblocks or the like!

To decouple the tonearm from the tt would therefore be to remove these additional vibrations. The issue about mating with the vibrations on the record would then (once the decoupled tonearm and armpod are equally isolated) become a question of the quality of bearings and trackng force accuracy and of the ability of that tonearm to match the movement of the indentations that are on the record's surface.

This is just me trying to understand what I hear in a (possibly) completely 'unscientific' way.

Dear friends: Several yeras ago when I bring to Agon my first naked TT fashion subject and latter the isolated armpod for that naked TT I remember that almost all the people that argue against were persons that argue against it with out having any single experience on that naket/TT-tonearm isolated fashion.

Almost all the more fierce persons were the ones that not only never had any experiences but that never will try that " experience " even that they can did/do it.

I almost don't like to post or give my opinion only based on speculations and theory.

In this thread is happening the same that happened when I start on the whole subject, more than half of the posts were posted for people questioning the subject that have no single idea on what is its real quality performance and even that people like Chris posted that through the time his armpod stay in place other people continue argueing about.

The TT naked/tonearm isolated overall " fashion " certainly is not perfect as the plinthed one is not either. The main sunbject here IMHO is where the trade-offs of either/each " solution " arrive in favor of better music sound reproduction at home.
Almost all the persons that like the naked/isolated " road " likes because our ears and audio/music experiences over a lot of years tell us that this " fashionable " version in our systems gives us a better quality performance level than the stock plinthable version and this is the main subject: we already made comparisons with and with out and there is no single opinion where to a person prefered the plinth version: means all these something to you people that are questioning our version with out have/live any experience in your own system about?

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Raul makes a reasonable point.
Whilst it is in our 'audiophile' nature to be skeptical and delve into philosophical discussions regarding our understanding of the playback system, there has not been one report from those who have actually tried the isolated armpod, which casts doubt on it's benefits?
In the interests of proper discussion it would be worthwhile if anyone has had contrary experience, for them to hopefully contribute their findings in this Forum?
In the absence of any dissenting personal experience, it is hard to accept seriously, the views of the naysayers?
And I know Lew.........too many question marks? :^)

Dear Halcro: Way before we go into the tonearm isolated/stand alone arm boards some TT manufacturers already had in their designs like: Red Point, Kuzma, Galibier, etc, etc.

My point here is that I can't remember any single post against/questioning these commercial turntables with stand alone/isolated arm boards.
It was till we " amateurs " bring the subject at this forum when all the " enemies " arrive: well the audio world is something " weird " for say the least.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Raul,
If you look at the original marketing materials for the Kenwood L-07D from almost 30 years ago, you will find a clear 'explanation' against having the arm base be dis-connected from the bearing mount of the turntable. A similar explanation is in some of the original marketing materials in Japanese for the Exclusive P3. In fact, the P3's construction is not terribly different than some of the 'armpod' implementations. What some of the philosophical 'naysayers' bring up as an objection is not necessarily the lack of bulk-cladding (plinth) around the motor OR a heavy armpod. The philosophical issue some of us have is that of putting an isolation layer between the motor bearing and the arm bearing.

In the design of your arm, I imagine you are not going to put an isolation buffer between the armwand and the bearing - that would strike you as less than optimal, and not even worth testing. Some of us feel, perhaps to our detriment, that an isolation layer between motor bearing and arm bearing is not much different.