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The merits of slate plinths or not

Hi. Well, i have a lenco 78 that i refurbished and placed in a birchply/mdf plinth. Prior to this turntable i was using a systemdek table with a profile arm. I am using the origin silver mk3 with a denon 103 cartridge with the lenco. I find it to be very dynamic, good in speed, musical, natural and detailed. All in all i am very happy and satisfied. I would like to hear some dialog on whether slate would be superior to the wood plinth i am using. If someone through experience thinks they know what slate "sounds" like i would like to hear from them. I would especially like to hear from people who have tried slate plinths and have gone back to wood or some other tables. Slate is sediment compressed. If anyone has gone from a highmass wood plinth to a slate plinth , with everything else in the system remaining the same and preferred the slate, can you tell me what the improvements were and was the difference minute or quite significant. I have talked to people who have done some comparisons but havent been totally persuaded by their tests as it seems it wasnt a very controlled comparison.
vertigo
travbrow
276 posts
 
Hi,did you ever check out the lencoheaven.net website,there are a few who switched from wood to slate that would help you with your question.
hxt1
141 posts
 
I put a 2" slate top layer on my plinth, and I liked the sound more than my birch/cld plinth. ymmv, guess I could pull out an audio review or two and co-opt some wordy expressions as to why I like it better, but hey, I find AM radio very 'musical' when there's music playing, so I will just say I like it better!
shortly after adding the slate, I upgraded my cartridge with a soundsmith retip, and I have not touched a thing since!
I'ts been over a year, and I'm happy with it, I might look into another phono stage at some point, but I don't mind researching for another year!
A full year. And I'm not itching to change anything on that table.
Try it, don't let others ears decide for you.
vertigo OP
130 posts
 
Yeah, I have read in lencoheaven how some preferred their new slate plinths over their birch ply plinths but i guess i'm a little bit skeptical about how or why people come to the conclusions they do without any good test methods/ reasoning behind it. There can be other reasons that have nothing to do with sound as to why people think x is better than Y. So without some controlled testing or some A/B/A comparison , as i said i'm not totally persuaded. I have heard from one audiogoner , through a personal email sent, who said he felt the noise floor was lowered and dynamics increased but that i should not expect it to be a huge difference over what i've got. Only slight. His slated turntable was from a very reputable company but with all that nevertheless has gone on to sell the unit and told me if he could do it all over again he would just stay with the wood cause it is easier and more practical to work with, considering the slightly fragile and heavy nature of slate.
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