The arguments just go round and round like a record.
Most of us manage to get good sound and most of us have no idea why.
Most of us think we have things figured out as to why our systems sound good to the point we will pick up our figurative sword and vehemently argue our point on boards like this and yet what we won’t admit is that we are always looking for the change that will make everything better.
I don’t claim to be an exception. I fit all of the above.
That said, I think that a cast iron or similar inert plinth weighing 200 lbs or more will NOT make a motor unit-bearing-platter-tonearm interface sound better. If someone gets good sound with such an inert massive plinth it is by fluke, not design. I am thinking of Oswald Mills cast iron plinth for the SP10 as I write this. It might very well sound great with that particular direct drive deck but I doubt the same would hold true for most other designs, particularly idlers.
I like to give this example-John Atkinson can measure loudspeaker enclosure resonance and predict the impact of same on the speaker’s sound quality til the cows come home and Mike Fremer can tap on the plinth while a record is playing and tell us what he thinks this means until the swallows return to San Capistrano but neither test means squat. And further, a totally inert loudspeaker enclosure built like a sarcophagus of poured concrete will likely sound.....dead. Aluminum rings and yet people listen to Magicos and swear to themselves that with all that expensive space age technology and expense and machining, well they gotta sound good. I don’t think they do but if you do, I would suggest it is despite the space age aluminum enclosure, not because of it.
Vibrations have to be tuned and managed, not eliminated. Just as a microphone transducer vibrates, just as a loudspeaker driver vibrates, just as soundwaves emanate from vibrations, so too does a stylus/cantilever. No one argues that those vital vibrations need to be deadened, but then many try to deaden everything else.
Fremer gave Rega’s latest top turntable a rave review. He quoted them as stating their design principle was to keep in mind that a turntable, at the end of the day, is a vibration measuring device. And then out of habit he rapped his hairy knuckles against the plinth and noted it was ’lively" Arghhh. When will we ever learn? Harbeth, Volti, DeVore, Audio Note, and many others have this figured out when it comes to loudspeakers. I am not a Rega guy but Rega has if figured out. But on and on it will go, round and round.
Most of us manage to get good sound and most of us have no idea why.
Most of us think we have things figured out as to why our systems sound good to the point we will pick up our figurative sword and vehemently argue our point on boards like this and yet what we won’t admit is that we are always looking for the change that will make everything better.
I don’t claim to be an exception. I fit all of the above.
That said, I think that a cast iron or similar inert plinth weighing 200 lbs or more will NOT make a motor unit-bearing-platter-tonearm interface sound better. If someone gets good sound with such an inert massive plinth it is by fluke, not design. I am thinking of Oswald Mills cast iron plinth for the SP10 as I write this. It might very well sound great with that particular direct drive deck but I doubt the same would hold true for most other designs, particularly idlers.
I like to give this example-John Atkinson can measure loudspeaker enclosure resonance and predict the impact of same on the speaker’s sound quality til the cows come home and Mike Fremer can tap on the plinth while a record is playing and tell us what he thinks this means until the swallows return to San Capistrano but neither test means squat. And further, a totally inert loudspeaker enclosure built like a sarcophagus of poured concrete will likely sound.....dead. Aluminum rings and yet people listen to Magicos and swear to themselves that with all that expensive space age technology and expense and machining, well they gotta sound good. I don’t think they do but if you do, I would suggest it is despite the space age aluminum enclosure, not because of it.
Vibrations have to be tuned and managed, not eliminated. Just as a microphone transducer vibrates, just as a loudspeaker driver vibrates, just as soundwaves emanate from vibrations, so too does a stylus/cantilever. No one argues that those vital vibrations need to be deadened, but then many try to deaden everything else.
Fremer gave Rega’s latest top turntable a rave review. He quoted them as stating their design principle was to keep in mind that a turntable, at the end of the day, is a vibration measuring device. And then out of habit he rapped his hairy knuckles against the plinth and noted it was ’lively" Arghhh. When will we ever learn? Harbeth, Volti, DeVore, Audio Note, and many others have this figured out when it comes to loudspeakers. I am not a Rega guy but Rega has if figured out. But on and on it will go, round and round.