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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
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,480 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
142 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
818 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
1,092 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.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,753 posts
 
For a long time I had troubles with foot falls regardless of my turntable.

Bought a Sound Anchors equipment stand which helped the sound a lot.


But the foot falls were still a thing.


Then I got anti-vibration platforms to go into the stand, one for the preamp, one for the turntable. This helped the sound a lot.

But the foot falls were still a thing.

Finally I got a set of bearings which were placed beneath the stand on the floor. The bearings I got were Aurios Pro bearings which aren’t made anymore but I’m sure other bearings could be used. This helped the sound a lot.

It also got rid of the foot falls.


My house at the time was about 100 years old with hardwood floors and they were a bit saggy. But I could jump up and down in front of the equipment stand and not hear it. That was the biggest improvement. So I’m going with the idea that the bearings’ ability to relieve side to side energy is what is important controlling footfalls.
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