HELP-woofer moves alot when playing lps


Hi-
When I play a record on my TT, I get an excessive amount of woofer movement, even when no music is playing. When I lift the arm off the record with the finger lever, the movement stops, and the phono stage is dead quiet. Its only when I drop the needle and turn it up a bit, the woofer starts to move in and out. I dont get this when playing cds, only lps. I have my system on a shelves, with the table onto and my integrated amp directly under my TT. Might this be an isolation issue? Thanks in advance.
tbromgard
Hi, **I suspect you are correct that it is NOT cart/arm mismatch (its rega and clearaudio). If I ignor the issue, wont the woofers be damaged by too much pumping?**

Right the first time. It's unlikely an arm/cart resonance problem and yes the woofers can be damaged eventually, especially if they bottom out. The major cause of woofer pumping is acoustic or mechanical feedback. If you get a wall shelf or suitable support and position where your speaker isn't playing directly on it, chances are you will cure the problem. If this isn't feasible maybe you should get a subsonic filter as suggested.
Regards,
You can reduce the size of the ports with some cut foam strips (assuming your handy). This will increase the damping factor and reduce the pumping. A peripheral turntable platter clamp may also help. A subsonic filter did not have any affect in my st-up. FYI, I use a pair of ported full range floor standing tower speakers with the port diameter reduced. Note that is would be extremely rare for your woofers to be damaged. Don't let the handful of responders get you paranoid.
Agree with Stereo5 - the KAB filter is the best thing going to eliminate this issue. I love mine - zip zero nada downside to using it, absolutely no negative sonic impact and 100% solves the problem.

I have mine between my phono stage (PS Audio GCPH) and amp (Cayin A-70T).
We don't know what speakers we're talking about here. Whether or not the woofers could be damaged depends on the size of the woofer, it's excursion capabilities, and the extent of the pumping. MANY woofers will be damaged by repeated linear excursions in excess of their capabilities. If the pumping is severe, it's a recipe for disaster. At the very least, you're getting lots of distortion. If you get/make a more suitable mount for your TT, it will probably sound much better and eliminate the pumping. If the pumping is not severe and bottoming out, you can probably ignore it, and wallow in mediocrity.
Regards,
From a speaker perspective, big movement like that is way wrong. You are seeing a speaker attempt to reproduce a subsonic wave, introduced into the system by the playback system (turntable). Count how many times a second it moves and you have the freq-5Hz-7Hz? Subsonics eat up all your amp power as your amp is attempting to reproduce what you cannot hear and the power curve is highest in the low end. Moving woofers in out to their extremes as pushes the drive unit coils out their gaps (there is a point inside the coil where it is centered n the magnet and outside that, distortion goes straight up). Loud enough, it will damage the woofers as they are not designed for subsonics. Now normal audio is now riding on top of that woofer moving in and out, so its "smearing" everything. A mess for sure. FIx it fast.

Get rid of the subsonic input -a filter is the your best initial choice. Some built in subsonic filters are not so good-they are too high or use to slow a slope-like 40Hz is too high and if its slope is only 6 dB per octave, 20Hz will only be 6dB less than 40. If you still see some woofer movement after your engage your filter, or can hear the filter dramatically change the low end, find a better filter. However, some low end change is better than the tremendous masking artifacts and distortion the subsonics are introducing elsewhere. Subsonic filters at 20Hz are ideal, and a steep rolloff, like 18dB per octave would be best (20Hz 18dB per octave would mean 10Hz is 18 dB down from 20Hz). I defy anyone to hear a 20Hz filter (if you can, turn yourself in to science).

Next, find where the subsonics are coming from: a bump in the turntable /motor/belt? Acoustic feedback (improper mechanical or acoustical turntable isolation from the speaker)? Warped discs? FInd it and fix it. The KAB company makes an argument that rumble can be introduced by the cutting lathe (built in to the master disc) and this is true, but far less common than turntable/disc related problems within a turntable/disc warp/isolation. Most companies tried to catch cutting lathe issues on QC.
Brad

Brad