Turntable Isolation Journey

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. 

Pindac - 

The bottom line is Does It Work for YOU? Ingenuity and experience are often able to trump pure marketing hype and money when carefully accommodating the realities of the space you have to work with. 

When I picked up my Nakamichi Dragon a few years back, the seller was listening to it using equipment that cost much more than I would ever dream of investing, and the sound was very good - even though it was in the middle of an active clothing warehouse.  He had a small  table, a couple of desk chairs, some wine, and very nice jazz to listen to.   His point was that he can only demonstrate that the unit works well, but how it sounds to ME in My Home, is up to me - the system components and environment I choose to set up will make more difference than any one part, although each will affect the whole. 

I, and I believe you, will never stop being curious if this or that little (or big) tweak will make the difference we are looking for, but in truth, all we have is the enjoyment of the journey.  The road to Nirvana has no end except our own and it appears you have found a few things you can enjoy and be satisfied with (at least for now) along the way.    I look forward to discussing many aspects of aural enjoyment in the future with many "Gon" devotees, each with different ears, experiences and resultant recommendations.  My aging ears have not been golden in decades, but like you, I know what makes my listening area an enjoyable space.

@karl_desch

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. 

It’s very simply just a shim of flat material that you wedge tightly between the rack and the wall behind it. Just push the rack against the panel to hold it tightly in place - press & friction fit. For the shim I’d previously used a semi-rigid panel (the red backing in my 1st turntable pic above), but now I’ve ended up using a single 2" thick Auralex foam tile. I like the foam because its compliance facilitates good contact area for both the wall and rack frame, plus it helps reject vibrational energy in the wall itself.

The idea is that nearby footfalls (on bouncy floors) cause a ripple shockwave which sends your rack into oscillation, because it lacks infinite rigidity & mass. The maximum displacement from oscillation is observed at the TOP of the rack (normally back & forth, but could also be side to side), which is unfortunately right where our turntables reside. Such displacement can easily excite the arm + cartridge resonant frequency (even if in the "ideal" 8 - 12 Hz zone), which causes us so much angst. The idea with the wedged material is to damp & reduce this oscillation, by bracing the rack against the wall exactly where it’s needed. This significantly reduces both duration of oscillation and its maximum displacement. It works kind of like a constrained layer sandwich that "changes direction": floor > rack feet > rack frame > shim > wall. It allows your rack to leverage the strengths of both floor and wall.

Before this "hack", what I noticed was a sort of tradeoff with my Sotto Voce rack frame which was rigid but low mass: the rigidity somewhat reduced maximum displacement, but then this rigidity happily transferred more of the shockwave energy to the turntable. Meanwhile the Lovan lacked rigidity which resulted in a HUGE max displacement, but the frame itself was kind of lossy on overall energy transfer. The result was that both racks were roughly equally bad with footfalls, but the more visible displacement from the Lovan was quite disconcerting to see. The wedge / shim trick works well with both racks :)

I was looking at SolidSteel racks a while ago and almost went that direction. Quite honestly they look like a solid back-for-buck on a nicely rigid rack. I think if you can get enough contact area on the frame to brace them against a wall, the result should be quite excellent. And yes, HRS racks look amazing too but like CMS they are quite expensive and I’m still not sure they’re a complete solution on their own to combat these really bouncy floors.