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Help! Tweaking My Lovan Rack for new Big A**ed Transrotor Turntable!

Folks, some input would be mighty appreciated.

I’ve been using a hand-me-down (though very nice!) Micro Seiki dd-40 turntable for a number of years and finally got the upgrade itch (it helps the upgrade itch when your cartridge is going on 30 years old, and sounding like it!).

I went down the rabbit hole and picked up a Transrotor Fat Bob S turntable, with an Acoustic Solid 12" arm and a Benz Micro Ebony cartridge. All with only about 30 hours of use at a great price. Yay!

Though I have considered getting rid of my old Lovan Classic rack for a new custom jobby, I’m pretty much spent out and I think I’ll have to make do for now, working with the Lovan.

The Fat Bob turntable is 55 lbs of solid aluminum and built like Thor’s hammer.

I figure this will finally get me to fill my Lovan stands for a bit more rigidity - probably with rice. The stand is the old 3 legged triangular shaped bass, which means the thin MDF shelves can feel like they sit sort of precariously on top. But the stand itself feels quite solid.

I want to incorporate a wood platform base, as many do, because I really love the look of a nice wood slab.

At first I thought maybe I’d have 3 spikes drilled in to the bottom corners of the wood base to directly couple it to the rest of the Lovan frame, vs resting it on the top mdf shelf. But I’m not sure that’s really necessary. And I’d like to incorporate some isolation as well, I think. So I’m thinking of just laying it on the top shelf, with something in between.

My first thought is to place a Symposium Segue shelf between the top of the Lovan shelf and the wood base.

Other than that...I’m flummoxed as to all the other choices...roller blocks? Symposium Fat Padz? Vibrapods? Herbie’s Tendersoft footers? Voo-Doo Isopods?  What should I put between the wood platform base and my Lovan shelf?

Any comments of suggestions on the direction I’m going?

Thanks!

(BTW, I’m an resolutely NOT a DIY/Handy-man type, so I’m not trying to go to heroic efforts, wishing this to be as painless as possible).
prof
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
slaw
Well knocking on a material, does give one a very good reference as to how it will react in audio applications when that person is an observant "knocker".

Holiday Hint: Don’t knock on the stand whilst music is playing. If your stand is on springs or air bladders the top plate is isolated anyway, so in the case of real seismic isolation the actual material of the top plate becames almost, uh, immaterial. It could be rabbits if you could catch em. 🐇 🐇 🐇 As I’ve observed previously stiffness of the top plate is a high priority. Furthermore, ANY residual resonance of the top plate can be controlled by damping.
prof OP
3,485 posts
 
@geoffkait

The Townsend springs clearly isolate whatever is above them from vibrations coming from below. So from exterior vibration. My main concern has been what is the effect adding those springs in terms of the system vibration itself (turntable spinning, motor, cartridge reading vinyl vibration....).

The video demos of the Townsend vibrapods under speakers show a deadening of ringing when the speakers are tapped, when sitting on the pods. However, in some of my tests using the ipad app, it seems I get a bit more ringing showing up on the tap test with the ipad or turntable sitting on the springs. Which seems understandable if you are tapping something sitting on wiggly springs. That doesn’t seem like a good thing.

But I seem to remember this ringing reduces with the amount of weight I put on the springs - e.g. if I add the butchers block along with the turntable on the springs. Perhaps the pods need to be loaded with a certain amount of weight before they also help reduce ringing from the item they are holding up. Does this make sense to you?
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Generally speaking, springs should be loaded according to their springs rate (stiffness). The more mass the lower the resonant frequency of the isolating system thus the better the isoalation, all things being equal. In the case of speakers it’s not really critical how you load them since speaker feedback via the floor to components cannot be less than what, 30 Hz or so anyway, whereas for electronics the seismic vibration goes down to 0 Hz. So for very low frequencies you definitely want to minimize spring rate and maximize mass. Thus, whilst stiff springs like mine or Townshend’s under speakers do prevent vibration from the floor being transmitted to the speakers, that’s a true statement, the real issue is mechanical feedback to the electronics.

The rule of thumb is to load springs until they are 2/3 of their uncompressed height. But it depends since springs have different numbers of coils, different heights, etc. But obviously you don’t want any coils to touch each other. Due to center of gravity issues for heavy objects like speakers, lateral support must often be increased by using the outrigger idea which I think Townshend does. The speakers/springs are way too unstable (top heavy) if you try to place springs directly underneath them.🏋🏻‍♀️
prof OP
3,485 posts
 
Thanks geoff.  Townsend has several different pods/springs rated for a certain amount of weight, so I'd ordered the correct ones based on my calculation of the weight of my turntable/maple block base.  So in theory I should be good.

I go back and forth with using anything between the maple butchers block base or just placing it directly on my stand, since I notice when I place the ipad app simply on a very solid surface vibration and ringing tests seem very good - e.g. a tap test on the ipad yields a spike with almost no ringing, and taps beside the ipad yield little vibration.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I always use points down cones under the component and under the stand. It minimizes the contact area considerably, by what, a million to one?
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