Nude Turntable Project

When I started this  exercise over six years ago, I began rather crudely with the Victor TT-81 simply supported on cones.
MODEL 2010 
Unsatisfied with the 'flexure' of the motor-unit about the cones, three years later I designed an independent stainless steel cradle to support the now 'fully nude' TT-101 motor unit...
MODEL 2013 
Two years after that, still unsatisfied with the vibrational and torsional movement possible with the flimsy steel frame.....I designed a cradle cut from a solid block of black granite and then polished.
MODEL 2015 
Despite the fact that my floor is a reinforced concrete slab cast on the ground and the turntable is supported on a thick laminated shelf cantilevered from a solid brick wall.....I know that there are low-frequency vibrations in all building structures and materials particularly materials under stress like suspended floors, shelves and equipment stands.
When materials are in stress (particularly tensile stresses)....they actually emit low-frequency vibrations between 2-10Hz and these frequencies are easily transferred through turntable plinths, motor units, spindles, platters, tonearm mounts and thus into the tonearms, cartridges and vinyl records themselves.
So for this year....I invested in a Herzan TS-140 Active Isolation for my turntable/armpods combination.
MODEL 2017 
This stand is designed for electron microscopes and contains numerous electronic actuators which isolate to 0.5Hz in all six degrees of freedom.
HERZAN 
So what is the difference.....?
Exactly what I expected.....but still almost unbelievable 💥
The improvements at first seem subtle but are all-encompassing....
Be aware.....this has NO effect on frequency response,
But every frequency SEEMS affected by suddenly having a purity, transparency and 'body' that was somewhat 'cloudy' before the Herzan.
There is absolutely no strain or stress to any music at any volume and as you turn up the volume...so you want to continue turning it up 🎶
I thought perhaps the bass would be deeper or more solid but no.....the bass seems unaffected but all the clarity and delicacy is bestowed upon the midrange and the highs with a singular crystallinity emanating from every cymbal, string, flute and horn.
The first casualties of unwanted vibrations in the analogue domain are the tiniest molecular-sized groove modulations which contain the most ephemeral informational DNA.
Qualities like body, soundstage, spatial depth and positional indications are simply smeared when other unwanted vibrations are present.

So it's been an illuminating and rewarding journey...
I hope you all enjoyed it with me....
Am I finally done?
I think so 😎

Hi Halcro,

 Congras on the Herzan! An amazing piece of hardware we TT owners all wish for.  I have the Minus K and I have noticed the biggest difference in using this passive isolation platform is when the volume is turned up.

You summed it up perfectly “There is absolutely no strain or stress to any music at any volume and as you turn up the volume...so you want to continue turning it up”

 The degree of effectiveness in using an active or passive isolation platform largely depends on the amount of air-borne energy in the room. My TT sits fairly close behind my left speaker and sub. Prior to using the Minus K in my system, on one occasion, I was able to make my Talea/Titan jump off the record groove when playing  “1812 overture”.  In using the Minus K, the playback sounds consistently beautiful regardless of the volume setting.

The beauty with the Herzan platform is as simple as “plug & play”. The Minus K is a passive system that requires careful set-up (centring the spring, and is load sensitive) to maximize performance.      

halcro
Congrats on your latest acquisition, were you able to find
one locally?

Thanks Norm,

Five years ago after Thuchan listened to my system, he suggested I look into an isolation stand and I investigated Minus K (I didn't know about Herzan).
The trouble with the Minus K (as you would know) is that it requires the load to be more or less centralised and evenly spread.
It can't cope with isolated individual loadings. It's large-scale wobble movement was also rather alarming....😱
I'm sure it suits your turntable perfectly. Can you remind me what turntable you have mounted on it?

The degree of effectiveness in using an active or passive isolation platform largely depends on the amount of air-borne energy in the room.

That's a common assumption many make but I doubt its validity.
Just think about it.......with the Minus K stand, you have not decreased the amount of 'air-borne' energy one iota and as you turn the volume up.....you are certainly increasing it.
Yet isolation stands (of all types) cannot prevent the air-borne energy in the room from interacting with the turntable plinth, platter, tonearms and cartridges directly.
The fact is, the air-borne energy is not of a sufficiently low frequency (and amplitude) to be a direct consequence.
More likely that some of this air-borne energy is absorbed by the rooms structure (including supporting shelves and stands) and transferred via 'structure-borne' feedback.
That's why the Minus K and Herzan stands were designed to combat 'structure-borne' vibrations of the lowest magnitude.

The Herzan is certainly a 'plug & play' design as you say.....
I just hope the electronic actuators and motor controllers have a long and durable life....🙏🏽

Thanks totem,

Herzan USA is the Distributor for Australia (go figure).....so all dealings were directly with Reid Whitney and Tim Rather who were most helpful.
The unit was shipped via FedEx (when the custom top-plate was ready) and was here in three days....😀

As I understand it, if something untoward were to occur, it would most likely need to be shipped back to Switzerland where it was designed and built?