2. analog
  3. 167379-151430

How to isolate turntable from footstep shake or vibration

Even while the Oracle turnable that I use has a built-in springs suspension by design there is a low or even sub-low frequency boom every time someone walks in a room. This becomes really bad with the subwoofer’s volume set high as the low frequency footsteps make straight to subwoofer where they are amplified shaking everything around. It seems the cartridge is picking up the footsteps very efficiently as even a lightest foot down becomes audioable. What can be done to attempt to isolate the turntable from the low frequency vibrations? Interesting, that the lower the volume of the subwoofer, the less the footstep shake is evident and with the subwoofer turned off it is a barely a problem at all. 
esputnix
polkalover
115 posts
 
Go buy Solid-Tech Feet of Silence.  Solved the same problem. The turntable is actually suspended in air.  I also used a 3/4 in thick cutting board to rest TT on and then placed the feet of silence at the 4 corners of the cutting board for stability.  Ingenious design
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
mglik, the advantages of isolating a turntable are rather obvious but a preamp? If electronics were sensitive to vibration F22's would be crashing all over the place. For those of you who do not know what an F22 is it is a fighter jet that can not fly without computer control. The pilot tells the computer what he wants to do and the computer does it for him. The control inputs are to complicated for a human. There is no manual option.
shakira
148 posts
 
Get a piece of 2x4 and place it between the back 
of the rack where your turntable sitting (center)
 and the wall .That should take care of footfalls.
oregon
820 posts
 
A big 2x4 works for me. Every time I think of new speakers, turntable…my wife shows me the 2x4.  My listening room was a work shop originally and the floor is like a big spring -wobbling and shaking. A wall mount took care of that problem. I’m using the Pagoda Wall Mount. 
sokogear
1,095 posts
 
When I first treated my table for vibration control, I got a Townshend seismic platform which really improved the sound, but it actually created foot fall problems that didn't exist before because according to Max Townshend, the frequency was very low and the suspended floor vibrations were amplified.

He said to get a wall shelf or tread lightly or go back to inferior sound. I was able to get sign off on the wall shelf by the assumptive close and now have the table on top of the Townshend platform which sits on top of a Project shelf. Nirvana.
More to discover