Skeletal vs Plinth style turntables

Find the thread started by Halcro on the "Copernican Theory". The theory does not expressly deal with your question, but Halcro is a devotee of the open, non-plinth plinth. Good arguments pro and con to be found there.

What you say about low rpm equating to low vibration is probably true enough, but belt-drivers would say that the belt affords isolation from the motor. Most direct-drivers (like me) prefer very very heavy plinths, but then there is argument about what is the best material: wood, exotic wood, slate, granite, etc.

My 2 cents worth.

IMO a perfect TT needs to satisfy three criteria.
1) Perfect DYNAMIC speed stability. No drive system meets this and passing the (in)famous timeline test is zero guarantee of dynamic speed accuracy, only average speed accuracy.
2) Perfect dynamic dimensional stability. Impossible unfortunately. My view is that a skeletal design makes this goal more difficult to achieve since we are introducing the support structure, shelf, platform, into the equation. It effectively becomes the plinth. Related to this is the minimisation of joints and material changes in the platter-arm loop.
3) Perfect stillness. Again impossible, but careful choice of materials and correct implementation of single point mechanical grounding or isolation, would likely be advantageous. This too suggests that a skeletal design is not optimal.

A heavy, inert, one piece plinth is indicated if you agree with goals 2) and 3).
I will not open Pandora's box with any comments about goal 1).

Propagation speeds of the materials chosen also need consideration.

Hello Richard - thanks for your contribution as I know that you've probably forgot more than most people know about decks. Most of the 1970's DD's of yore seemed to all consistently have heavy plinths. The decks having been designed at the height of vinyl when the multinational companies really threw all their resources at turntables - so they probably knew a thing or 2 I guess.
Not being funny when I say this, but I also consider the SME range of decks a skeletal design - albeit with high mass. I personally quite like the idea of combining reasonable mass, intelligent damping, and suspension.
I have read around, and some people take just one concept, be it mass, suspension, a single tasty material - and then they use it to the absolute extreme thinking it is the be all and end all. By way of developing my point if mass alone were the way forward then one would fix a turntable into the stonework of their homes.
I am going to have to read a bit more on propogation - in laymans terms does that relate to how a material in fact transmits, or absorbs a given vibration or sound?

GrooveMaster Vintage Direct

Above is our take on it

Good Listening

Peter