Springs under turntable


I picked up a set of springs for $35 on Amazon. I intended to use them under a preamp but one thing led to another and I tried them under the turntable. Now, this is no mean feat. It’s a Garrard 401 in a 60pound 50mm slate plinth. The spring device is interesting. It’s sold under the Nobsound brand and is made up of two 45mm wide solid billets of aluminum endcaps with recesses to fit up to seven small springs. It’s very well made. You can add or remove springs depending on the weight distribution. I had to do this with a level and it only took a few minutes. They look good. I did not fit them for floor isolation as I have concrete. I played a few tracks before fitting, and played the same tracks after fitting. Improvement in bass definition, speed, air, inner detail, more space around instruments, nicer timbre and color. Pleasant surprise for little money.
128x128noromance
Bobby1945, in that situation the springs are not isolating the speakers or the floor from anything. It is a concrete floor. The speakers should be solidly on the floor with the midrange drivers at ear level by whatever means looks best to you. It is almost a purely cosmetic decision. 
@mijostyn 
in that situation the springs are not isolating the speakers or the floor from anything
I am interested - please explain further since the springs would be between the speaker and the floor.
  • @bobby1945, we recommend Townshend Podiums, they work with a large range of speakers and are available in different platform sizes and spring rates. Worth the investment imo. We use them with Cube Nenuphar’s. See David’s Cube Nenuphar thread for comments.
mitch2, The steel man argument for coupling is the speaker is vibrating and we want to hold it rigid to get the cleanest most dynamic signal for the greatest detail possible. So clamp it to the floor, especially if concrete, so it won’t move.

This works pretty good and in fact is what I did for years until learning it really doesn’t work that way after all. The speaker does vibrate, and no matter how massive or rigid so does the floor. It would have to, since otherwise if it didn’t move at all then all the energy from the speaker would reflect right back up the way all waves do. So the speaker is gonna vibrate no matter what. The question is how much and in what way.

Putting the speaker on springs allows the speaker to vibrate more freely and more independently from the floor. Nothing is ever truly isolated but this is a lot closer to isolated than coupled. As such a small amount of sonic energy is lost to the speaker moving more because its not supported so rigidly. But also it is moving a lot less because it is now decoupled from the floor. Even a concrete floor still vibrates, just at a different frequency and amplitude than wood. Speakers on springs excite the floor much less. Equally important, floor vibrations affect the speaker much less.

It hard to argue one over the other, but real easy to demonstrate in practice. The easiest way is to get the Nobsound springs off eBay for $35. These are adjustable for load to work under just about any speaker or component. Or you could buy some plain old springs for even less. Then try them and see.

When I did this it was pretty surprising just how much better springs are even compared to very good Cones. The proof of how they work is when used under subs. Putting them under subs not only improved the bass, it had equally as big an effect on midrange. How? Subs put out zero midrange. But subs energize the floor, the floor vibrates, vibrations reach the other components. The ear is much more sensitive to midrange details than bass. So putting springs under the subs cleaned up the midrange.

The difference is easy and obvious to hear. Try it and see.

@millercarbon- The debate between coupling i.e cones and isolation i.e spring/air/magnet/etc as an effective vibration measure will perhaps continue for ever. However I have moved from using Mapleshade brass cones under every component to spring/air isolation and couldn't be happier. Beside the positive impact what I love the most here is the consistency of these tools. They all sound very similar if not the same every-time I use them under any component, unlike brass footers.
Thanks.