Nude Turntable Project

Richard,
agree with you. i would also go for something between the spikes and the shelf. Harmonix has fantastic small plates to put the spikes on (not that much expensive). Does it change the sound? Yes, definitely!
Or you end up with putting the table on a Harmonix RSB-1 platform. Does it change the sound? Yes! Does it change your budget? Oh yes...

Halcro.
My TT uses one fixed duralium foot with a central tungsten carbide ball which contacts the shelf. This gives a point contact much like a spike. The other two feet are PVC discs 80mm in diameter with a rebate such that the circumference only touches the shelf. These are adjustable. See a pic on my web site www.krebsupgrade.com
The triangular TT where you can see the adjustable feet.
My view on this is that having multiple paths to a mechanical earth creates a smearing effect that is clearly audible. "Earth loop" was perhaps not the correct description. The common electrical paradigm is that a component must have only one path to earth. My view is that the same holds true for mechanical systems.

So, yes, if you use spikes only one should have direct contact with the shelf (earth). The other two should be coupled to the shelf with a slightly softer material than the spike itself. I am not advocating anything that would be considered compliant here, just something softer than the spike, maybe a hard plastic.

Simply another point of view.

Thanks.

Halcro.

Part 2.
The same reasoning would suggest that there should be only one path from the LP surface thru the chassis, shelf, to the tonearm and on to the stylus. Your present iteration has more.

Thanks.

Nice one Richard, makes pefect sense to me. Something I will keep in mind for future projects.

I have always found it difficult to find adjustalbe footers for turntables to my liking. I like the ones that trans-fi makes that I use on my garrard but they are just too large for most tables. He uses o-rings on the bottom of the protector disc so should be easy to try by removing one.

I would think your method would be easily adopted to a table with fixed armboard compared to a table with multiple pods. Suprised the market hasn't adopted this method yet that I know of.

Another design philosophy that one might consider is to minimise the number of joins and material changes, hence transmission speeds, between the LP/platter interface, around the loop to the arm and cartridge/stylus. Empirically it would seem to make sense that a join between dissimilar materials could do some damage to the integrity of this loop. This could include CLD techniques which, while very effective, should be implemented with this in mind.
Something for consideration?