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

Yes, thanks, I'm aware.

My turntable and butcher block base would be between 75-80 lbs, and my Thiel speakers are 77 lbs each, so four Iso-Pucks rated at 20 lb each should work properly with either turntable or speakers.

Update:

Finally received my custom made "roasted maple" butcher block for the turntable base.

Looks beautiful. It's 22" wide by 17" deep by 2 1/2" thick.

I did a temporary set up, put the block on top of my Lovan rack with the Townsend iso Pods (spring based) holding it up, then added my turntable.

I tested with the ipad accelerometer app.  As predicted, the isolation from vibration (at least from the tapping and thumping type vibration) was excellent.

If I place the ipad on top of the Lovan rack shelf and tap the shelf, or walk around or stomp the ground in the room, the app clearly shows big spikes, registering the transmission.  But if I place the ipad on top of the butcher block or the turntable, the stomping the ground or tapping the top of the lovan rack is barely registered at all.  Further, if I placed the ipad on top of the lovan shelf, and tap or bump on the turntable bass or the butcher block, there is almost no transmission showing up on the ipad screen.

So, at least in terms of the type of vibrations I'm creating, the spring based system seems to provide excellent decoupling in both directions.

I know people with a rack like the cheaper Lovan worry about "ringing" of the metal tubes and try to combat this by filling them with sand or led shot or whatever.  I don't feel compelled to worry about that given how decoupled the turntable seems from the Lovan rack.  I don't see how for instance the turntable will set the lovan rack "ringing" or, any music transmission (the turntable is in a separate room down the hall from my speakers), or how it would be such as to rise up through the spring system into the turntable system.

But, hey, whaddoIknow?   I'm just fooling around doing whatever gives me some peace of mind.

Just another little test tonight - ipad w. accelerometer placed on the Transrotor platter.  Wow.  What a difference between this and my previous Micro Seiki floating suspension design.  (As one would expect, of course).

When I'd placed the ipad on the Micro Seiki platter and tapped the turntable or platter itself, there would be a massive register of vibration and ringing. 

The different design of the high mass Transrotor shows up in this test.  When I put the ipad on it's platter and tap the platter, it only shows the tiniest spike of vibration.  In fact, no matter how hard I wack it, with the ipad right beside where I'm tapping hard, I can't really get more of a reading.  It just stays this tiny spike.

I guess that's what high mass does for ya.  (And the Townsend isolation system appears to help somewhat here too).

Fun stuff.

Folks,

New question:

I have a bunch of new gear to accommodate in my rack, which means moving things around.  I need a new shelf for my Benchmark DAC.
I just realized that there is actually space for the DAC in between the top of my Lovan rack and the butcher block, since the butcher block is held a couple of inches high by the Townsend pods.

Is there any issue with placing a DAC under the turntable bass, in terms of any forms of interference?   Again, the maple bass is 2 1/2" thick, then the thick turntable above it.  The cartridge would be about 15" away from the DAC separated by the turntable/maple bass.

I also need a space to put my tiny raspberry pi computer (about the size of my palm) which feeds the DAC, and it could also fit under the turntable bass.

Any issues?  Thanks.

Not that I think there is any interest left in this thread but...

Bit more update:


1. Today I received my order of the ASC Wall Damp material, suggested by bdp24.  Thanks bdp24!

I ordered their cheapest box of 25 4"X4" self adhesive sheets.  My main goal is to use them as both a layer of damping material and a way to bond the top thin Lovan rack MDL shelf to the thicker 3/4" MDF sheet, to thicken up and strengthen the top shelf upon which my new butcher block/transrotor sit.

I was told by ASC that diminishing returns set in pretty quickly in using the damping material, meaning I don't have to cover every bit of surface in order to realize excellent gains in damping.  With that in mind, I'll probably cover about 75 percent of the area between the thin/thick MDL shelf, after which I'll have a bunch of sheets left over.  And I figure, what the heck, I'm going to attach them to the bottom of my butcher block base to add further damping to that block.

Also:

2. I received the Soundeck PM Black (platter mat), made by the sounddamped steel folks. (See my link in a post a bit earlier).

On sheer looks and feel alone I love it!  It's a nice, solid extremely non-resonant constrain-damped steel disc, with a really nice black/dark gray finish that has a nice bit of texture and catches the light with a bit of sparkle.  It looks perfect on top of the big aluminum Transrotor turntable, looks like it's part of the table and elevates the look even more.  Sonically?  I won't know until I finally have my turntable up and running.

It also gives a bit more grip between the top of the turntable (which is black...either rubber or acrylic or something, and a bit more slippery). 

On that note: I have also received with the Soundeck platter mat a thin neoprene mat.  And I received my Herbie's "way excellent turntable mat."  

My intuition is that I would want the record as "bonded" to the turntable platter as much as possible with as little possible slippage.  I tried the mats in various combinations and the best one seemed to be:

Soundeck (metal) platter mat right on top of the turntable platter, with the thin Soundeck neoprene mat on top.  There was the least "slippage" with this combination.  I could turn the big heavy Transrotor platter via touching only the outer edge of the record itself, and bring it to an easy complete stop by putting my finger only on the record edge, with no sense of slippage.  It felt bonded to the platter. 

Plus I like the way the neoprene layer gives a yielding, non-abrasive surface for records.

The Herbie's platter was very good that way, but not quite as good.  Plus, worryingly, the Herbie's platter seemed full of static!  Every time I touched, lifting it off, there were crackles of static.  There is nothing like this with either of the Soundeck platter materials.

I don't like the idea of dust gathering on my turntable's platter between record playing sessions.  So I've decided when I'm not playing records I'll have the neoprene layer with the Soundeck steel platter on top of it.
That way the neoprene layer is protected from dust when the turntable is not in use, and the metal platter on top looks far better.  I'll just reverse them when playing records.

I'm awaiting my phono stage and then finally I'll be able to hear my new turntable.

Over 'n out for now.