Suspended vs. non suspended turntable


Hello all,

I am ready to begin my foray into the world of vinyl (again). Looking at the turntables out there, it seems as if there are two types - those with suspension, and those without. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Keith
amfibius
Hanging the table removes a lot of vibration issues from the equation.

As does mass. I don't believe I've missed the point at all. I've owned suspended and non-suspended tables. Some within the same line of manufacturer: Basis Audio. I don't buy into the garbage anymore about one type being necessarily superior to the other. This is nothing more than two approaches at solving the same problem. In the end the only thing that really matters is how the music sounds to you.
The "only" reason I stated that one should read the Basis White papers,is because the arguements made(there)seem logical,and make the most sense to me.Of course each person makes their own buying decision.The more educational ammunition,the better.
Thank you everyone for your response. My listening room is on the second floor of my house. The floor is of wooden floorboard on joist construction - i.e. not the most rigid. I have seen turntables with massive platters. I found that even rapping the equipment stand hard with my knuckles did not transmit any sound to the speakers. This made me wonder if I really need a suspended turntable or not ... or whether a high mass design would be enough. Or maybe a suspended high mass design.

I will go take a look at the white papers on the Basis website.
I found that even rapping the equipment stand hard with my knuckles did not transmit any sound to the speakers.

This is another issue that comes up often that I admit I just don't understand. My table is in my finished basement (concrete floor) and my DIY stand incorporates sandboxes, thick hardwoods, granite shelves and Stillpoints. If I wrap on a leg of the stand with the stylus down I can hear a thump through the speakers. Same thing would happen back when I had a Basis 2500/Vector tonearm.

But I have to ask, "So what? Why would you do that?" I'm not in the habit of doing this while listening to LPs. And I don't know anyone else who does this. So I'm at a loss to understand why the vinyl-phile community seems to bring this up as some sort of test to prove or disprove something.

Now, if you can hear your footsteps through the speakers as you walk around the room then I'd agree there is an issue. ;-)
In years past I've owned three suspended tables; two Sota Stars and a Basis 2500. The Sota suspension worked extremely well with heavy footsteps, the Basis system didn't work worth a damn. Even walking softly anywhere near the table created problems.

My next table, a mass loaded Nottingham Mentor, sat on a rack and while not as good as the Sota when it came to footfalls, was still better than the Basis.

Now I've got a very heavy Galibier Gavia sitting on a very sturdy wall shelf that I designed. Problem solved!