VPI SSM lacking bite

I've been thinking about your spring arrangement for some time, I'm willing to give it a try. Should be good experiment with my wall shelf and huge sandbox. The only issue is determining which springs to try, I will have somewhere around 300+ lbs to support.

While I can understand the negligible effect of the springs on the movement of arm and stylus, not reintroducing vibration into tt, and greater de-coupling from external forces. I'm still not sure that internal tt vibrations can travel down springs into the stable surface below that, seems to me vibrations would get caught up in springs, both external and internal generated energy would be fighting each other in spring. I would think those vibrations would have greater drainage through the very sharp spikes I'm currently using.

I suppose the greatest isolation I could muster would be wall shelf supports made from a more aborptive material than my present steel supports. This would both serve to better absorb energy from tt, sandbox vibration sinks, sandbox, maple platform, and de-couple from external energy.

"I'm still not sure that internal tt vibrations can travel down springs into the stable surface below that, seems to me vibrations would get caught up in springs, both external and internal generated energy would be fighting each other in spring."

Physics suggests that the instantaneous vibrational forces applied at opposing ends of the spring(or any other coupling interface such as points, cones, or balls) act as oppositional force vectors. The difference between these force vectors from above and below represents the instantaneous force acting on the spring. This net force has a single direction and quantity at each instant. The question is, can the spring resolve this force into synchronous motion? If a vibration creeps all the way through the spring and is conducted between the interfacing layers, then the spring is "ringing" instead of performing its useful mechanical function of dissipating the vibration into mechanical energy. One way to address this ringing is to coat the spring windings in damping material such as sorbethane or an elastomer dip.

As usual your arguments make sense, I will try the springs. Now, any suggestions about what springs I should order for aprox. 300 lbs divided by 4 springs, ie. aprox. 75lbs per spring?

The springs I use are McMaster-Carr P/N 96485K125. They are 1-15/16”D x 4”L and use .148” diameter wire ground flat at the ends. They compress 23.7lbs/inch, up to a total deflection of 2.88”. So a 50lb load compresses each spring about half way down and leaves .88” of unused travel before the spring binds. I use six of them to support 200 lbs. This elevates the load 2.5" and provides a soft low-frequency bounce of around 2-3 cycles per second. For damping the central windings are wrapped in cut sorbethane also from McMaster-Carr. If you take this approach, get one of the stronger grades of sorbethane, as the thin stuff tends to split and unravel.

A very effective turntable mounting platform can be made from multiple sheets of MDF. I have 3 3/4" sheets with Blutak between them at each corner fastened together with brass screws under my Aries. The platform rests on Audio Points on top of a TNT platform and works well. Noel at Skylan Stands suggested this to me.