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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.
noromance
noromance's avatar
noromance OP
10,187 posts
 
I use the level on the turntable plinth. Left to right, front to back -both sides. If the platter is not level and the table is level, something may be amiss.  
Can you reinforce the floor beneath your room? Lally columns will help.
noromance's avatar
noromance OP
10,187 posts
 
I would avoid wall mounting in a timber-frame house unless the wall is sitting on the external basement concrete.
lewm
13,764 posts
 
Platter and top surface of plinth should both be level, or both should be on the same plane even if not perfectly level. Otherwise, you might have an issue with the tonearm mount not being on the same parallel plane with the platter, which would mess up your alignment for sure. Ideally it should not matter where you put the level on the platter, unless you have a deliberately dished platter, in which case yes put it in the center of the platter.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
indranilsen, the devise that has to be level to prevent skating forces is the tonearm. So the best place to put your bubble level is on the tonearm board or plinth right at the base of the tonearm. If the platter is a tiny bit off it won't matter. 
It is absolutely possible to completely eliminate footfall sensitivity. It just requires careful engineering. Any of the suspended Sota's, SME's and Basis turntables will do this. I can take a Sota Sapphire put it on a collapsible card table on a wooden floor, jump up and down in front of it and absolutely nothing will happen other than the suspension bobbing just a little. If you put a MinusK platform under your turntable you will get the same result. Can you make a suspension that will work as well? Absolutely. But, you will have some work to do and you will have to spend some money. I have a design for a suspended platform in my head. The form is easy. It is getting the right spring rates for a given weight and applying damping that are the difficult part. I would use a quartz solid surface material laminated to MDF. This makes a very well damped panel for the base and platform. The spring hangers would be 1" aluminum laser cut to shape, drilled and tapped then anodized. These would be mounted on the base at the corners and the platform hung from them with the springs. On the bottom of the platform I would mount paddles at each corner which extend into cups mounted on the base. These cups would be filled with a viscous oil to provide damping. Soft rubber boots hung from the platform extending over the cups will provide a seal to keep dust out of the oil. There you have it. I should think it could be built for $500 in materials. 
cleeds
6,271 posts
 
mijostyn
... the devise that has to be level to prevent skating forces is the tonearm. So the best place to put your bubble level is on the tonearm board or plinth right at the base of the tonearm. If the platter is a tiny bit off it won’t matter.
Even a level pivoted pickup arm will generate skating force provided the arm has overhang, which almost all do.

The armboard, platter and plinth should all be located on absolutely parallel planes and if they’re not, there will be an issue. In mijostyn’s case, he’s mentioned several times that his pickup arm azimuth changes when VTA changes. That can be explained by a misalignment between arm/platter/plinth.
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