TT to another room, no vibs, better sounds?

Hi everyone,

I have been reading posts here for years, not having much that is new and useful to say. Maybe some will find the following approach useful:

When renovating our home we added a combined work/listening room with a suspended floor with an opening near one wall. This allowed a one ton concrete base (for my equipment stand) to be poured on the ground and be separate from all structures in the room. Cabinets were then built along that wall thereby enclosing my front end gear. The equipment stand space is lined with foam absorption.

This way I get effective isolation from structure borne vibration (at least from within the room) and some transmission loss from airborne vibration. I guess the cabinetry would offer reasonable WAF also. Fortunately I do not live near heavy industry or main roads or freeways.

I could make improvements with extra mass lining the MDF walls and doors of the equipment space. My equipment stand is nothing special - welded steel with sand filling where possible. No doubt this could be improved also.

I use tube power amps for my main speakers and found benefits in reducing microphonics by placing these power amps in with the front end as well. Fortunately they do not give off too much heat.

I have been fiddling with a huge broadcasting idler wheel turntable all weekend. While adjusting it in the garage with headphones plugged into its integral electronics I was most perplexed by an intermittent drone with the arm at rest . Then I realised the Grace professional arm and Stanton cart was acting like a microphone faithfully reproducing every vehicle that passed in the street 50 yards away.

Now it may not be a Rockport but there are degrees of everything.

Good points by Swampwalker and Dan_Ed. Would a different room be better? Yes, since acoustic feedback is certainly an issue.

However it's far from the only issue and your mechanic was half wrong, or only half right. You should move your TT to an isolated room like Ianlane's AND use your isolation goodies.

A major source of vibrational energies affecting a vinyl rig comes from the stylus-vinyl interface. The earth's noise and other vibrations entering throught the floor and TT supports are also a factor, especially in very sensitive systems like yours. These will be a factor no matter what room the TT is in, even if it's in Dan_Ed's neighbors' house!

You can also use a ball bearing platform like the one Berry Diament recommends. He is a recording engineer who believes that very low level vibrations have a large effect on sound quality. I have used them and they do work. He has an interesting web site.

Its really what fits your listening method.

I went the other room route because it was just to much equipment and "fragging" cables in our living- dinning room area. I couldn't stand anymore. Moving the entire audio front-end into family room turned out wonderful. Four dedicated ac lines, acoustically sound cabinets, front and back doors for excellent access, got use same isolation tweeks and it ended up sounding better. Another plus, was that this was done when we made a major remodel to our kitchen - family room area. So the addition acoustical bracing and extra materials into the custom cabinets throughout fabrication and installation were minimal dollar outlays.

Two negatives that are always brought up, "getting up and walking" at end of record and "cable length." Well, the getting up you must done anyway. Walking 10' or 12' more is no problem - its healthy! This works for me because I listen to music on lp's all the way through a side 95% of the time. If I were making constant music passage comparisons it would be inconvenient. Cable length not an audio problem anymore problem except for the costs and believe me it can be expensive - Stealth Indra at 4.5 meters. But, it was all worth it!

Choices end end up as experiences - learn and pick what works for you.