Albert Porters after market panzerholz plinths

Jonathan Im well aware why a musician would want to play these irremplacable instruments. Im sure these master craftsmen centuries ago did have a method of tests but long forgotten.

Why not put them on display and have a new one built for a tiny fraction of the cost? If needed to try to replicate the tone of these old instruments, ancient wood is available to purchase today

I simply asked,please read above again and I,m not looking for a fight its just that I disagree about test methods.

250 pounds of mass loading with slate is one method to do I guess and Alberts plywood plinth for his sp10mk2 was the beginning of the end to his Walker table.

To have answers why these vintage tables react so positive to certain material and built methods would be of interest would it not?

To have answers why these vintage tables react so positive to certain material and built methods would be of interest would it not?

I have ideas about that.

First of all the Technics SP10 MK2 and MK3 sound good in their original Obsidian plinth. They sound good with the original Technics arm too.

The MK3 is especially powerful, expending a lot of energy keeping speed perfectly as set. I think any after market plinth, even one made only with multiple layers of Baltic Birch properly bonded, result in an improvement over the original Obsidian.

When you move into a plinth like Steve Dobbins builds, Oswald Mills builds and I build, you simply improve upon lesser methods.

Higher quality, heavier, less resonant materials push these tables up against the best out there, regardless of when they were built. I think belt drive is less sensitive to this but also result in improvement when heavier designs are implemented.

In other words, Mapman is correct

Heavy + rigid = better isolation.

Is it any more complicated than that?

As Raul frequently states, mating these tables (new or old) with proper arm and cartridge combo finishes the job we begin with table and plinth.

Albert, a question about the Boston Audio mat on a sp10 mk 2. Where you able to fit the standard mat-1 on the Mk2 platter or did you have to have one custom sized? I ask because the mat's diameter per BA is 293.5mm and the diameter inside the lip that I measured is 292.5mm.

Franks,

There is a Boston mat that does not completely fill the recessed "cut" area on Technics platter but works wonderfully.

In other words there were two sizes available when Boston Audio and I spoke on the phone, I ordered the slightly smaller than standard diameter.

Lewm, the audiolife platter might add a small amount of drag at start up, but frankly it could just be my imagination since the deck has so much torque it really is not discernable. As for the servo, I wondered (worried) about that, but never experienced any issues - maybe the rotational mass cancels out all concerns! I also wondered if that extra weight might have a deleterious effect on the bearing. Also, I use a brass record weight that weighs a good 1.5Kg - even so the deck performs way better with the extra tonnage than without!

Steve