Using Maple Butcher Block Under a Turntable

@tooblue : "I start out with my trusty, fully loaded with lead shot and sand, Lead Balloon by Arcci then I place my maple platform directly on top of the Lead Ballons turntable support shelf which has adjustable spikes to level things out"Just wondering why you are not using the original lead bars that Arcci supplied for placement on top of the support shelf. These were intended for the turntable feet. Did you find the maple platform to be a better platform for the TT? I still use mine but am wondering if I'm missing something.

@tuzarupa, I have long abandoned the Lead bars supplied by Arcci, found them to rob the liveliness from the table and I also tend to find brass and carbon fiber to have the same negative effect when it comes to setting up my tables. 

I abandoned the Arcicci lead balloon 🎈 a long time ago, too, especially after I came to the conclusion that lead as a material is just plain bad for the sound almost anywhere and in almost any amount. Yes, I know what you’re thinking - “but it’s such a good material for damping, not too soft, not too hard, and very dense. Just right.” I also concluded that the tall members of the Arcicci stand are too tall and therefore prone to moving at low frequencies due to seismic forces. As are many racks in general. That is coincidentally about the time real vibration iso stands came into vogue. Townshend, Mana, Bright Star, Vibraplane, etc.

@tooblue, thanks for the information. I happen to have a 1 1/2 " thick slab of maple from my sisters kitchen remodel; countertop. Should fit the bill for an experiment. Not sure if I'll hear a huge change as my TT is a 1985 AR with a SME III tonearm. Not quite the instrument you have in your setup but I dearly love it. I'm thinking the AR suspension may cause it to be less sensitive to a number of environmental factors.
But, one can never be sure until one actually experiments. So I will give it a go.

@tuzarupa, small world, the table I had in play when I purchased my Lead Ballon was an AR EB101 and it seemed to work well for that set up, but what did I know. I just pulled my Arcci LB out of the attic a few years ago when I bought my Prime to replace a Scoutmaster that was inside my Salamander cabinet and the Prime would not fit, I sandblasted it, powder coated, added a middle support for a shelf at dead center and installed  2" maple shelves to support my tube mono amps to let them breath also adding mass to the structure by their shear weight also replaced the Iso Physics tone cones on the bottom with Herbies Giant Threaded Stud Gliders finally loading the legs of the stand with a mix of sand and Lead shot. Although I was just looking for a temporary set up to get me by the results have been stunning allowing me to move on to other things.