SP10 Mk II vs Mk III

Dear Hiho: I'm using the Audio Technica At-616 ( pneumatic. ), threee of them.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Dear Albert: Like I say I don't want to argue about but you can be totally sure that I have answers to your questions/dude, one of that answers is that my audio system perception habilities/skills/tools are different from yours: I can make/hear things that you can't imagine and not because I'm something " special " NO it is only that my audio self " training " through many years ( this is a discipline by it self. ) give me that kind of shiklls like I'm sure you have skills on many other audio " areas " that I don't.

Now, I'm not saying that you or any one is wrong I'm saying just: try it and if you don't like it then come back where you are today, is so difficult to understand this?.

I'm only sharing with you an opportunity to improve ( or not ) what you have now: is it a " crime " to share my experiences about?, you have a dedicated thread on the SP-10 subject where you are doing the same: sharing experiences.

Now, maybe you don't want to try it: that is fine not all people likes to take the effort to " explore " alternatives but like with the MM/MI subject there are people that likes to " discover " what is all about.
Albert I'm a person that does not like to have to many " holes " in my audio knowledge so if I can " sealed " some of those ( many ) holes " exploring " about then I will do it.

IMHO I think is worth to try it.

I respect your opinion about the " validity " of my comments where there is a difference with your comment: I already try /hear/herad the naked alternative ( like the no-naked ones. )and you don't.

The " validity " of any one experiences are a very controversial subject but there are some cases where that " validity " is more easy to confront/appear, example: at least two person in this thread ( you are one of them ) make statements/comparison of two different TT's ( same cartridge and same system. ) where the tonearm was different for that comparisons: which is the " validity " of those comparisons? , IMHO almost no real/precise " validity " here due to that " heavy " difference in tonearm in each TT.

Could/can this means that both of you lose the " validity " on your opinions?, certainly not: the " validity " of each one opinion is a more in deep subject that that kind of " faulty " opinion/TT-comparison.

Please don't be up-set with what I post/posted elsewhere, you can be sure that that never is my attitude.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Skills to pay the bills! That's what I'm talking about! do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight. Shioot 8^).

Anyhow enough silliness I have a sp10 mkII in the buff just hanging out, I guess I'll fire it up and see. It is slated for slate so it will be a nice comparison...that deserves another 8^)

Here's the thing. If you fire up your SP10 MkII while it is just sitting naked on a shelf, you will see that IT will "do a little dance" (altho I never saw one make a little love). It does a little dance because of Newton's 3rd Law of Motion, and because of the high torque generated at start up for which force there is an "equal and opposite" reaction, as Newton told us. The job of the plinth is to soak up that force and stabilize the system. After start-up, the torque needed to keep the speed stable will be much less, so Raul could argue that a high-mass plinth is not needed once the correct speed is attained. However, I think a well built plinth dissipates vibrational energy that can otherwise color the sound. However, there's no harm in trying Raul's idea.

I actually tried the naked approach before, about more than 10 years ago. I had a small piece of 3/4" particle board attached to the upper right hand corner of the stock chassis acting as a cantilevered armboard and that's it. The turntable was just sitting on the table by its belly with four stock small rubber pucks. It was pretty naked, think of a naked person wearing a right hand glove. I had an MMT arm at the time, I think.

It didn't sound all that hot because I remember later on the same arm was mounted on a McCurdy radio station metal frame type of plinth and sounded better than the previous set up. And my custom butcher block plinth also sounded better than the naked approach but I had a different arm so that comparison is probably not valid. I guess I can always try it again with a different tonearm, like one of my Audiocraft arms.

All I am saying is that I am not convinced no plinth is better than having plinth. Just from a pure physics stand point, the SP10 has so much damn torque that you would think you really need something massive to hold down the turntable to sink all that vibration. Didn't Mark Kelly tell us that Sansui experimented something like this about that return torque that's causing the turntable cabinet to color the sound? From my experience with the naked approach, the set up did have that typical Technics clinical sound so I would imagine having a massive plinth is the right approach to high torque DD turntable like the SP10. I am not sold on your approach but, hey, if it works for you, great, because that certainly saved you ton of money on plinth. But before I try the naked plinth thing again, I can't wait to mount the naked motor to a slab of slate!