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Subsonic Rumble Solutions

I know many of you have tried to address this issue. Short of buying or building a subsonic filter (that will/may negatively affect your transparency) - what methods reduce subsonics (meaning the pumping of woofers and subs when a record is playing)?

My system:
I have a DIY VPI Aries clone with a 1" thick Corian plinth, a Moerch DP6 tonearm and Dynavector 20X-H cartridge. This sits on a maple shelf. The shelf sits on squash balls. The balls sit on another maple board floating in a 3" deep sand box. All this on a rack spiked to a cement floor. The phono stage is a Hagerman Trumpet (no built in subsonic filter and very wide bandwidth). I use the 1 piece Delrin clamp on the TT. Yes, I clean records thoroughly and there are no obvious warps, especially after being clamped.

So my isolation is very good - no thumps or thwacks on the rack coming through the speakers. But if I turn the sub on I get that extra low end pumping on some records that hurts my ears. Mostly I leave the sub off when playing vinyl, but I would like to use it if possible.

There was some brief discussion of this on Albert Porter's system thread. I'm hoping to get more answers here.

So ... what methods have you tried to reduce subsonics that you have found effective?

Thanks,
Bob
ptmconsulting
ptmconsulting OP
1,000 posts
 
I have a Dynavector 20X-H cartridge on a Moerch DP6 red dot tonearm. Supposedly the correct tonearm for this cartridge (gotta love a Moerch, since you can buy and change armwands to match the compliance of the cartridge).

I was listening yesterday and, although there was some cone movement in the sub and woofer drivers, it didn't interfere with the music at all. I think I'm leaning more toward living with it than putting something else into the signal path that might negatively impact the rest of the sonic spectrum. Getting rid of this last little annoyance would not be worth compromizing any other part of the music.

Enjoy,
Bob
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,739 posts
 
"Perhaps you would like them better if the came in a 20 pound one foot square box with a ton of wires and capacitors and resitors and tubes and...:)"

Isn't that necessary to qualify as high end?
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,739 posts
 
" I think I'm leaning more toward living with it than putting something else into the signal path that might negatively impact the rest of the sonic spectrum"

Sounds like a good approach.

I know the positive attributes of vinyl and analog is worshiped by many here, including me to a significant extent, but it is what it is, almost a form of antique collecting at this point, and like most things it ain't perfect.

It only bothers me when I have some old rare favorite record that has particular issues and can't be replaced easily, but in most cases, I can either find a decent fresh replacement that is better somewhere either on vinyl or CD.
ptmconsulting OP
1,000 posts
 
Simpler is usually better, IMO. I'm even bothered by the idea that I would need a step up device if I were to get a LOMC down the road. Somehow I wonder if any improvement over the 20X-H (a very good cartridge in its own right) would be lessened by the step up transformer.

Thanks,
Bob
acoustat6
357 posts
 
Hi guys, I guess you dind't see the smiley face after the "20 pound one square foot..."

Bob#1, if you can live with it ........cool. Dont worry about it! Why correct problems, that are not there?

Though I think for $30 give it a try! It will still reduce the amplification of said freq even though you do not hear them, most assuredly your amps are trying to reproduce them and using up available headroom and giving your amp fits. Whether or not you speakers are able to reproduce these freq..

I tried last night and today with the increase in weight of the tonearm mass, to change the compliance, to lower the resonant freq., and saw/heard no difference. That is not my "problem". At least one that did not "cure" mine.

Bob
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