Albert Porters after market panzerholz plinths

i notice that albert has the armboards attached to the plinth but other designs have them seperate. what are your feelings on this? have you experimented?

Nealw, What "other designs" are you referring to? It seems to me that the integral armboard is most usual with plinths. Outboard pods for mounting the tonearm seem to be the exception rather than the rule. In principle, I don't like the idea of a totally separate arm mount, and I have stated my reasons elsewhere. But in practice, such arrangements could possibly sound very good; I wouldn't know.

Mosin, I wish I had known in advance about that "shoot-out" in the DC area. It would have been fun to get in on that. Would you really say that the Continuum tables have no plinth? I see that the works are enclosed in a rectangular box-like structure, rather than mounted on the box as per a conventional plinth, but I would think that the box has an effect on coloration of the sound, be it good or evil.

It seems after the conflicting "scientific" data in the attachment to my previous post (slate = MDF in resonance test) and the points Mosin offered, we are almost back to the drawing board. Meaning you must pick your material, build it, and see if it pleases you or not. The only "short cut" I see is if you have an opportunity to audition a specific design and like it, be it slate, Birch ply, Panzerholtz,or whatever, then you may proceed to buy or build one like it with some assurance.

So now I'm wondering how much sonic difference the plinth material can make once you select one of the apparent "better" choices, such as any of the three just named? Will not your cartridge choice or maybe even the tonearm have a larger imprint on the final sound?

Tim, I think a suboptimal plinth can do negative things to the sound that cannot be corrected by choice of tonearm or cartridge. So, first of all, it is important to be happy with the plinth. Ah, but how to define "happy"?

One thing for sure, those old and often somewhat austere tables sure look a heck of a lot better in a nice, shiny, big new plinth! That alone is worth something!