Suspended vs. non suspended turntable

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!

I use a non-suspended Pro-ject RM10. It comes with its own highly effective isolation base. The plinth and platter are high-mass and the bearing has magnetic repulsion to minimize friction caused by the high weight of the platter. It has a very good 10" carbon fiber arm that mates well with highly compliant cartridges.

Ease of set up is one big factor why I like the non-suspended approach. My dealer moounted the cartridge and all that I had to do was level the isolation base and then level the TT itself. I was in business in just ten minutes. I'll not have to worry about springs sagging or anything bouncing around when I'm cueing the arm.

Oh yeah, my TT sounds great.

Dave

Isolation from footfalls, isolation from airborne musical feedback, isolation from motor resonances, evacuation of cartridge resonances and good sound are all interrelated but separate issues. How the designer handles all these issues is where the magic happens. And any well thought out theory can look good on paper. As usual there's no one right way to do it. Enjoy you choice!