2. analog
  3. 1270344817

TT to another room, no vibs, better sounds?


Hi All,

A few years ago I thought I'd build a Turntable that is still about a year from being finished. The thought was mass is where it's at. If it's heavy it will take more energy to get it excited and vibrate.

After I picked up a few thousands dollars in parts my machinist asked me what I was trying to accomplish. My response was," The heavier it was the less it would vibrate."

He said, " Take it out of the vibrational environment and save money." I can do that soon and wonder if anyone else had the same thought and realized a cost effective improvement instead of spending more money on a better TT.

"Out of the mouthes of babes," Your thoughts,

ken
kftool
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
Yes, you are on to something as the acoustic vibrations created by the speakers will excite all the objects in the listening space. I isolated all my equipment in a adjoining space when I built a custom media room. The results were a significant improvement in the performance of all my components. Nothing is immune to air-borne vibrations of the speakers acoustic energy. I've been working with a friend in making an 'acoustic screen' to be used around an equipment rack. Hopefully it will come to market early next year.
hevac1
812 posts
 
All of my equipment except my amps are in a closet that opens to the listening room front right corner. The closet is on the other side of one of the houses main carrying walls. This does 2 things, I can play basketball in the listening room with no effect on my turntable or other equipment and I have no feedback issues regardless of bass levels in the room.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Ah, Mafuta! A man after my own heart. There is NO getting way from my two bass horns. They easily energize the entire house. I'd have to move my table about 100 yards to the neighbors, but I don't trust them with my gear or my records. :-)

With due respect to Ken's machinist, there is much more to this than simply moving the table elsewhere. As others have mentioned there are the loses due to extended length cables, inconvenience, matching the load on the far end of the long cable to ensure the optimum transfer, etc. There are issues to address with this approach if you don't want to lose resolution. I have been trying to move to a setup more like what Elizabeth describes. However, for me that move would be to simply move the table closer to where my butt hits the chair after the stylus drops. It would be real nice to not have to walk back and forth across the room. I have worked through all issues on paper but what really holds me back is finding a 20-30' IC that will maintain the sonic presentation I enjoy now while not requiring a second mortgage to buy it.

I hear no feedback in my mass-loaded Gavia which sits right in between my horns. It may well be possible to get most, if not all, of the benefits of moving the table to another room by employing a sandbox under the table. It works very well for we Galibier owners.
Post removed 
mikelavigne
2,216 posts
 
i've had my Rockport recorded with the speakers at high volume and then while monitoring with headphones. at least with redbook level recording there was no audible difference. but that's the Rockport with SOTA isolation designed into the tt.

my other 2 tt's are sitting along the sidewall next to one speaker. my Grand Prix Audio Monaco stands and Formula shelves use passive decoupling to isolate floor borne vibrations from gear. it works pretty good. every 9 months to 1 year i renew the sorbothane discs under the shelves, and i can hear the improvement.

i do have a 6" concrete floor, and my speakers are sitting on decoupling footers. so floor borne reasonance is dealt with at the source quite well.

as far as air borne resonance affecting a tt; it likely depends on the tt, and the amount of mass in it's plinth. both my other tt's have high mass plinths (75 and 110 pounds) and i doubt are affected by mid and and high frequency air borne reasonance. i don't think tonearms are affected by air borne reasonaces. i would grant that any sound will have some affect. the question would be; is the affect audible? could you record it with and without your speakers playing and hear a difference? i doubt it.

my opinion would be that the complication of having a tt in another room, both in cable lengths and usability, would far outweigh negatively any potential benefits assuming a reasonable level of isolation in your rack, and solid floor, and a high mass plinth.

and then there is the main issue; you will listen to less vinyl if it's a pain in the ass.
More to discover