Turntable Isolation Journey
Nearing the end of my journey to solve footfall & feedback issues in my small-room "home office" system with very bouncy floor and flexible walls. Turntable is the only source here -- and it’s a Clearaudio Innovation Compact with no suspension or special isolation feet. This system always sounded good, but was rendered nearly unusable at higher volumes due to turntable isolation that was inadequate relative to this room’s challenges. The worst artifact was when structure-borne feedback from the speakers would cause amp clipping on bass-heavy tracks. This clipping would manifest as an extremely loud singular POP sound, especially hitting the tweeters. It only occurred during the loudest parts of track with bass-heavy elements, and was so loud it was still significantly above the level of the music -- much louder than a POP you would hear from vinyl surface defects. The POP sound was startling, and clearly very bad for tweeters (fortunately my Tannoys seem to have survived several of these incidents). For a time I thought these POPs were from static electricity discharge, but they were NOT. In my quest I tried many solutions and tweaks over a few months, and I’d like to share a rundown of what worked versus what didn’t.
What Helped (MVP products & tweaks):
What Underperformed:
What Was Worthless (Don’t waste your money like I did):
I’m not going to bother expanding upon these; suffice to say they had no discernible positive effect.
OP,
Absolutely. SRA is for micro vibrations, not foot falls. It is for top notch turntables, not to make up for bad environments or substandard tables. This string is too long to re-read every time I run into it again. For excellent tables that already have good isolation SRA will raise performance another level. |
@mulveling -- this thread and your excellent research could not be more timely! I recently changed turntables and arms, moving to a Kuzma Stabi R and the new Safir 9 tonearm. The change is significant, however I immediately began suffering from footfall inducted skips. I never had this with my Palmer, but they are entirely different systems, so I am on my own journey. I added the Kuzma isolation feet and that has helped, but not completely. My next step is to try the bracing you describe, although I can't get my rack as close to the wall as yours. My dealer suggested this bracing and so we will see. I am now going to order some hockey pucks for my rack and will see how that goes. From there, I had looked at the isolation platform you suggested, so that could be next. I am also thinking of a Vibraplane, but hoping not to spend the extra dollars right now after the Safir... Thank you for the research and for sharing your experiences. I will post back how it goes for me. |
Bracing a rack against a wall could certainly be a good idea, IF the wall itself is not prone to pick up airborne energy from the speakers or vibrate in tune to some local appliance, like maybe a refrigerator if kitchen is next door. In cases such as those, you are deliberately coupling to another source of spurious energy and then hoping the Auralex (sp?) is protecting you from the deleterious effects. Best not to use such a wall as a brace in the first place. My equipment rack backs up to a wall that supports the stairs leading to the second floor of my house; I am quite sure it reacts to footsteps on the stairs, and I would not use that wall as a brace. |
@thr1961 There is a decent sum of money parted with to get to the TT>Tonearm>Cart' now in use. To produce a support structure that can be very satisfying does not take large amounts of monies to begin with. Have a look at Barry Diament Audio (some claim he gave Townsend Products their earliest ideas to go to market with), some of the methods seen on Diament Audio are now evolved, where it can be seen others are utilising his suggestions/variants of the suggestions on other forums, it will be speedy to see ideas can be put in place for small monies. Hockey Pucks and other simplistic footer methods can be compared. I have revisited my evolvement through materials and it was a material referred to as Sorbofoam that superseded my use of Squash Balls. Sorbofoam is available in different thicknesses and densities. I chose a Hard Foam as I had at the time devices that has substantial weight. Sorbofoam was later shown to have a worthy alternative, which is a Pipe Lagging Material from the Company Armaflex. I have both of these foam materials in my possession today and still utilise them during trials and keep them in use if they are the preferred material. To experience any of the above is not going to impact on the finances, the real requirement is making time to change materials and evaluate how they are offering a change for the better/worse, or just a tweak to the sonic seasoning. Any change of material will create a change to the sonic to manifest, the better trained the ear, the quicker the sonic change will be detected. The assessment is for the best, when it is being identified that a new manifestation n has developed. Quite simply, a certain area of the frequency range becomes improved and as a result details from within this frequency range become more evident. Once there is feel for it, there becomes the intent, to produce a presentation from the frequencies that are the preferred choices for the end user. As stated, I like Transparent/Lean, which to me is a Tight, Clean Rolled Off Bass Note (No perception of Overhang). This base condition, enables a well Project Upper Mid' and High Frequency. Then there is the quirk, I don't want this for all Genre listened to, like the perception a Rich Tone is present, I can achieve this instantly with a couple of minor changes. I have had an experience as a result of working with structures and Platter Mats, where a Backing Vocalist on a Track was quite subdued and fixed in the Background. Following toying with Structure and Platter Mats, this Vocal changed to the point the Backing Vocal was prominent and almost on parity with the lead vocal. I have no doubt in my mind for that the Vocal during this part of the recording, was what the engineer was wanting, the vocal was intended to become that prominent. Small Monies and a fair allocation of time enabled that experience to manifest. |
@thr1961 No rack should be rickety but bracing yours will probably not help. I suggest you do not waste money and go right to a low profile MinusK platform. You have a fine turntable and it deserves more than 1/2 baked solutions. The MinusK will stop the foot fall problems and give you a black background like you have never heard before. You will wind up there eventually, there is nothing better. |
