Turntable isolation...

"Arcicci suspension rack. The top has a 70lb steel platform resting on 3 air bladders, probably overkill for my basis 2200 which is suspended but I love the floating shelves underneath for my components."

Imagine a car, let's say a Rolls Royce, barreling down the road with two shock absorbers attacked in series to each wheel instead of one shock absorber per wheel.  It would be a VERY bumpy ride, chaos, since the two shock absorbers would interfere with each other.  Same goes for isolating suspended turntables.  

I use a Herzan active vibration isolation table for my SOTA Cosmos.  It made a surprisingly big difference, I thought, when I installed it ater 3 years of using the Cosmos on a heavy walnut shelf/rack.  The unit has lights that show you when each of the different axes of active isolation are actually in use, and they really only go on when I am playing at loud levels with a lot of bass energy.  The main table seems to be a heavy aluminum plate on tuned springs, and by itself it makes a clear difference.  It just upped the level of transparency in the musical presentation, removing some consistent colorations/resonances that were overlaying the playback.  And I could also clearly hear deeper into the music.

I stumbled upon two of these tables on Ebay 6 years ago, mis-labeled, and I bought them for ~$800 total, otherwise I probably would have a hard time justifying them.  When they arrived at my workplace on a pallet, we hauled them onto some welded steel tables in our Lab, plugged them in and let them warm up.  I then poured 4 cups of water and placed one each on the two Herzan tables, and one each on either side on the Lab tables.  I then "tympani rolled" the table tops with my fists and the water danced out of the cups sitting on the Lab tables, but you saw no ripples on the ones on the Herzan tables.  I howled with delight!  They sure seem effective.

put your turntable in a ground level room with no basement or suspended floor.  Difficult to get a more solid platform.

"put your turntable in a ground level room with no basement or suspended floor. Difficult to get a more solid platform."

There’s a lot to be said for shaky and wobbly as in the Flexy Rack of yore. The ease of motion in a particular direction is proportional to the effectiveness of the isolation in that direction. The Earth ’s crust motion forces the entire house structure to move, including the basement concrete slab, like a flea on a wet dog shaking itself.

geoffkait you make a good point.  I have tried it both ways and cannot tell (hear) a difference.  I have had the table on maple, MDF, and on top of my current rack.   The only thing I haven't tried is putting it in the rack on  acrylic shelves that are doubled and separated by ceramic balls.  I think that could make for human error having to navigate around the table even though the rack is large enough.

 My theory is the steel plate is so rigid that the fluid suspended Basis "resonant annihilators" are able to stay linear and do their job - much like the calibrator base does when used.   I could be wrong but I still can't hear a difference.