Turntable Isolation Journey

The Kuzma, like the Herzan, are active units and based on my discussions with Franc Kuzma and Mike Lavigne, respectively, neither product is designed to deal with footfalls, which the Minus K is capable of absorbing. Instead, those active units maintain a sort of constant balance through a feedback loop (my description may be crude but I understand similar tech is used to keep centrifuge floors level).

I’m running 245 lbs worth of TT, including HRS plinth it sits on- the Minus K has a metal top so you want something between that and the table/plinth unless the latter is already able to deal w/ a metal interface.

I use the largest bench top model- they are spec’d to load and you want to load them close to max to get the most out of them. Since I’m in an old Victorian wooden house with wood floors, the Minus K wasn’t an extravagance but a necessity. If you pursue the active isolation tables, make sure you have a stable base already because given my understanding above, they aren’t meant to deal with wallowing floors and the sort of resonance created by footfalls. I’d say the engineered slab is the start.

@whart 

I'd love to try a Minus-K some day. Amazing tech; they truly look like magic! Though, I do feel this particular system is "well enough" solved for now. Perhaps my opinion will change in the long run. 

Haven't tried an active platform either, but I've read enough -- like the problem with footfalls -- to give me pause on them.

I have my old Dual CS-7000 sitting on my file cabinet.  Some would expect it to ring like a bell, but they don't understand that in addition to providing storage for media and cables, it is also a 700# fire safe on steel wheels which have only a very narrow line contact point with the floor. it even has spoke wheels for better isolation!  For $50 at a surplus office furniture store it has a cost/benefit ratio that cannot be beat.  At about 5 feet high, it puts the platter above the line of fire from the main speakers and just about the perfect height for me to check stylus condition and positioning.  

For name-droppers, the cabinet is a 4-drawer Remington Rand "Safe-File", made in the USA some time in the 1940's. Many thousands were made, but you will do better looking in an office surplus store than an audiophile shop.  I frequent both but only locally as shipping can be a bear in both categories.  

                   "Precisely calibrated feedback can be of great value..."

I n my present listening environment, I have a Robust Design for a Cantilever Wall Mount Shelf that is set up to be used.

This can take substantial weight. I have used it with a Tiered Sub Plinth Set Up built of it and also have had a Sub Plinth Suspended from it.

Either of these methods have presented quite similar, their are small differences, as is always the case when a variant of a Support Structure is produced.

Due to Source Equipment Security concerns the Cantilever has not had the weight loaded in a manner I usually put in place on top of a Rack Structure. 

The Cantilever Shelve is used for the Digital Source and the Rack is used for the Analogue Source.

When creating the Structure under the Rack, producing methods for the Bracing of the Rack (dense foam as separator and tension strap the Racks together), along with the methods used to produce the TT Supporting Structure above the Racks Top Shelve. The assembly has proved to be very good for creating interesting discoveries and continued reconfigurations of the Structure has really honed the presentation to one I do not want to be without. 

The Racks come with a cost, but it is bespoke produced for me by a now deceased friend who's hobby was wood turning. Footers are going to cost varying sums of money, there is a need to Spend that is difficult to avoid or Clone, this will be needed if the better experiences are to be had through using certain types of footer. The combined cost of all the materials and footers collected over quite a few years is probably less than a £1000, the recent acquirement of Densified Wood Board has been £500, but I do see more of this to be purchased as it has impressed so much. For me, I have paid to learn a variety of lessons, certainly not the type of monies a dedicated Isolation Platform will command. I have been hands on, enjoyed the curiosities and thought processes used, the monies have been well spent in my view. 

What is the outcome of working with the different interfaces that can be produced as a equipment support and for the management of energies thar are being transferred. For me the system that commenced being built approx' 20 years past and much of the early acquired devices that remains in use, is a keeper.

The system mounted on a well thought through structure has enabled me to have identified items used in the system that are in my assessments functioning as constraints.

The more recent choices made for the replacements of items recognised as constraints are pretty much showing to me, the system as built over many years is a superb experience and a is to be kept. 

Run parallel with this the non-EE Skilled interfaces that can be put in place and there is something very special to be achieved. I certainly don't consider needing new anything at a get on board fee of $5k, 10$ or up to $50K, I have demo'd A/B against items up to these values, and am not feeling there was something amiss from my end.

Thanks for this @mulveling ! 

My main system is in my living room on a suspended wooden floor. My new Stabi R is on the top shelf of a SolidSteel 3 level rack.  It sits on a Symposium Svelte platform which covers a Vibraplane. I bet the Symposium svelte shelf would work nicely on top of the Townshend Seismic Isolation platform, not for footfalls but for higher frequency vibrations. This is the advantage of the pricey HRS platforms. Their footers absorb down to very low frequencies and their constrained layer damping platforms absorb higher frequencies generated by the component.  I use HRS shelves throughout my system. If I could only afford their racks as well...

I use the Townshend Seismic Platforms under my Vandersteen Quatro Woods. A vast improvement over Herbies gliders. 

I am wondering if you could expand on rack bracing and use of the Aurelex foam.  Not sure I understand what the foam is doing here and how the rack is braced.