VPI Classic 1 isolation upgrade

Damn korakotta, you know your isolation! I have Rollerblock Jr's (and the Canadian-made Ingress Engineering knock-offs, which are cheaper and slightly better), and have had the Bright Star Big Rock (sand box), Townshend Audio Seismic Platform (inner tube isolation), marble slab, Torlyte shelf (big in the UK in the 80's), Navcom, Sorbothane, EAR IsoDamp, and just about anything else you can name. I recently acquired a set of the Townshend Audio Seismic Pods, the best of them all. A set of them under a good shelf (non-resonant, stiff) is the best "affordable" isolation I have found.

If you are deadly serious, and are flush with cash, the best isolation is that provided by either the passive platforms offered by Minus K, or the active ones by Herzan, Newport, and a few others. The Minus K's are priced at around $2500, the Herzans more, I believe. For a look at the Herzan, check out folkfreaks system in the AudiogoN Virtual Systems.

The Townshend Pods are about a hundred bucks each from England ($150 in the U.S.), and you need nothing else besides a nice stiff, non-resonant shelf between them and your table. You definitely want to get rid of the MDF---it’s nowhere near stiff enough (it’s ground up sawdust and glue, after all!). I found marble to be too "ringy", slate might be better. Two pieces of 3/4" Baltic Birch ply with a later of constrained layer damping between them makes a great shelf. Or, if you have the dough, the Symposium shelves, which have constrained layer damping themselves, are great. You probably know Symposium has a special model shelf for turntables, which adds their own springs for vertical isolation. I don’t know if they are as effective as the springs in Townshend’s Pods, but I’m sure they’re good.

If you want to stay with the inner tube, it plus roller bearings provides good isolation for the money. The inner tube for vertical, roller bearings for lateral/horizontal.