Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

Hi Mike,

Funny you should mention the middle of the room placement… Grant and I were just talking about such an idea the other night (he’s kind enough to humor me by listening to my wild schemes). He’s at the final design point for his plinth and is considering two or three arm mounts.

Well, in short order the brainstorming on the ergonomics of multi-arm use, got around to an “Island Altar” in the middle of the room (a phono pre by necessity in the pedestal base). Well, since neither one of us are bachelors, that ain’t going to happen. But it was nice to bask in the warm glow of that religious moment.

But seriously, the more I work with this marble, the more I find it to be an excellent isolator in upward transmissions (footfalls) and I suspect, in the other direction as well. If the double coriolis or free-range Lenco needs a third, decoupled marble round, so be it. However, I’m not sure whether I have a full handle on how coupling or decoupling in the footing realm effects “focus”. At what point does isolation become overdone and promote focus robbery? And if a degree of base coupling is needed for focus, isn’t there invariably some rattler down the line?

By the way, Mike, if you’re still in the marble hunt and 1- you still get back to the NYC area to visit family or friends: 2- have patience to wait out the next time I’m in the metro area doing the same, I can drop off a couple of slabs for you. (I find that marble as ballast helps focus my ’83 Rabbit on long distance cruises.)

Thanks Mario, very thoughtful - but I am actually from DC. No telling when I will get back to NYC. I didnt even look in the rear view mirror on the way out of town :)

That IS hilarious Mario! It must've posted just as I was last posting, wish I'd have seen it sooner. Now THERE's a use for belt-drives :-)!

To take this opportunity to correct a mistaken impression many seem to have, I do NOT hate belt-drives, any more than I hate science! It is many scien-TISTS I take exception to, I have total faith in science...assuming no rules of evidence or logic are being broken, and that the pronouncements/authority of scien-TISTS don't supersede the evidence or logic of science (as is often the case today); just as I take exception to many fanatical belt-drivers (which only three years ago meant 99.999% of ALL turntable users). People are a thin-skinned lot: if you say a thing is GOOD; then they take it to mean the other thing is consequently BAD and take offense. Again nowhere have I ever written belt-drives cannot make music or are BAD, only that idlers are incredibly GOOD, to me it is simply a matter of which is the superior system, period.

So, there are some belt-drives and belt-drive designers I admire, who think outside the box, as it were. I LOVE the humble AR-XA and if I were forced to live with one for the rest of my life, then I'd happily do so, and mod it to accept a Mayware and mount as Decca to that (a Totality which is mind-boggling). A brilliant design, one of the best suspended 'tables ever made, the suspension really works! Bill Firebaugh's Well Tempered record player is brilliant, truly original thinking and effective design, don't be surprised anyone if some day I buy one for my collection, out of admiration for the design. Another brilliant design was and is the Roksan record player, with its brilliant solution to speed stability and stylus drag: a motor which rotates about its axis, held in place by a spring to prevent the belt from stretching and then contracting! I've heard them and admire them, and if I were a belt-driver I would have owned one, had I not stumbled on the little SP-25 first. Then of course, the fabulous Maplenoll: what could this design not conquer were it to hit the market today?!? Imagine, a turntable which sold rather cheaply with an air-bearing tonearm AND an air-bearing platter!!! Now in my experience this 'table had dynamics, PRaT and bass and SLAM coming out the ass. There are a couple of designs now on the market I will likely buy in future, on that thoretical day I have money to burn on pure indulgence. One is the Opus Continuo 'table from Scandinavia, and there are others.

The problem is, the fundamental assumption on which all these designs were founded was and is incorrect. In fact, if many of the Sacred Cows of Western Science were investigated, we would discover they are indeed built on at least one of these unexamined assumptions, and in many cases a whole host of assumptions piled up one on top if the other like a house of cards. With respect to vinyl, the designers trusted the research/conclusions which had gone before, and built for the prevailing paradigm: that the belt-drive was superior. Ay, THERE's the rub.

Anyway, for the moment I am having great fun restoring an Elac record-changer, an idler-wheel drive of course. These are great machines, very well-built, and I actually used one as my main machine a few years back, and laughed every time the record player turned itself off, and sometimes - GASP! - I even stacked records on it and let them fall one after the other while I relaxed on the Listening Couch, Yippeee!! I think I'll mount a decent cartridge on it, and take it out and play Crush the Belt-Drive. Lighter than my Lenco too :-).

Hi all,
I just completed a really nice DIY table based on a VPI Aries Blcak Knight platter and JMW 9 arm. The plinth is based of two pieces of mdf sandwiched by three 12 guage steel plates and topped with black acrylic. It is edged with Bloodwood attached with a constrained layer. I also have made a SAMA motor with a turned steel flywheel.I am using a Clearaudio Maestro Wood cartridge with it. Building this was a leap of faith and fortunately it has turned out very,very nice.
I am a computer neophyte but would like to post a picture of my new creation. If anyone can let me know how to do this or if I can email them a photo to post let me know. Thanks all!

Jean,
I'm anxious to hear your thoughts on the Elac. You and I have corresponded in the past about these machines and I'd like to learn from your experiences. These seem to be more attainable than the Lencos in my neck of the woods. For now, I'm pretty happy with my unaltered Dual 1219, but I'm also on the look out for a reasonably priced step up or modifications that will help the Dual.

Steve