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Rollerblocks under turntable ?

A year ago Roy Gregory in issue 52 of HiFi + described an interesting upgrade of his VPI TNT turntable by coupling the plinth to Ultra platform via Rollerblocks.
I was sceptic, but giving his fabulous audio knowledge I decided to give a try.
The results were very similar to his comments: the table recovers far more low level information,increased sense of life and presence in the performance, separation of the instruments markedly improved. After critics on another forum, I removed the tungsten balls to try the TT direct coupled to the platform and the sound was uninvolving and flat. So many people are convinced that side rocking of TT is very bad but in my experience it is not the case. Any thoughts?
jloveys
glory's avatar
glory
1,614 posts
 
HRS M3 is by far a better road to travel on than the UP with rollerblocks. Double the money and double the results.

Enjoy the UP with rollerblocks but in the future try and demo the HRS M3.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Based on my experiences I would say that with the rollerblocks you get more air around instruments but you loose LF impact. It is most likely that you are hearing artifacts that are less dis-pleasing than without the rollerblocks. A safer, and maybe better in this case, experiment is to try Stillpoints.

Why don't you just sell the VPI and buy a table with a properly designed suspension? Or, buy a better non-suspended table.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,468 posts
 
If it works for you, go for it. I manufactured a resonance control device called PonTunes that allow side motion and find them very helpful under the amp, preamp, CD player, power supplies, etc.
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