A Copernican View of the Turntable System

Dear Halcro, don't just think of "plinth" as a wooden "cage" around the bearing and armboard. Take plinth rather as the "common ground" of both - bearing and armboard - and you have the answer.
Again - if you are looking for real arguments, do seek shelter in the arms of our good old mother physic (at least as long as we are standing on this good earth...).
It may still not really sound tempting to all or most, but the already cited force vector diagram will shine more than just a faint light here. It will fully illustrate the position of raw physics and the depending of the individual parts of the system to the whole and to each other.

Cheers,
D.

DT, Sometimes, I don't get it. Show us how to derive a force vector diagram for a turntable. Then we will believe. I think the crux of the matter is that there are subtle forces, apart from the obvious ones, that make a critical difference. And for any specific example, those small forces will be different.

Dear Lewm: And not only that even with that force vector we can't be sure how it will perform on true playback. So this is faint statement too: theory with out any test that prove that " all " is solve through that plinth.

We have to take in count that we are " playing " with induced resonances/distortions at " microscopic " level not in the " macro " domain.

We need to know which kind of resonance/vibrations, at which intensity, at which frequency range are pick-up by the cartridge and how we perceive it through playback in our system.
Not an easy task and certainly can't be solve because of that " force vector diagram ". Complex because we need to separate ( totally ) those resonances/vibrations coming from the TT body and if we are using a plinth we have to separate the plinth ( stand alone ) either as the ones coming between the TT body and the plinth.
We need to separate from the other focus of TT/tonearm/cartridge system own resonances/vibrations, we need to identified and determine each one specific influence in the cartridge overall quality performance level and then decide how to " cure " if need it.

Is this faint?, certainly is and with out a serious scientific " process " the best we have is to try the non-plinth ( naked. ) alternative and judge about against the plinthed one: easy!, other " theories " as Lewm posted somewhere are only useless speculations, facts is what we need and the naked project is a non-scientific fact that at least put some light on the subject where each one " theories " can't do it.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

A What?

Dear Lewm, it is just a plain force vector diagram - nothing that would require anything specific.
And no, the fact that for specific examples of different TTs ( moving mass, static mass etc.) some individual factors will show different values, does not alter the value nor validity of the complete vector model for TTs.
In any case, grown up men in general and audiophiles in specific don't want to be lectured in public.
So - those really interested in the background on the physics of TTs will do the vector diagram themselves.
The others...... well .... business as usual.

A FV-diagram will clarify the topic.
There are much more complex machines then turntables out there which likewise are explained and researched (designed ... ;-) ...) on the firm ground of force vector models.

Cheers,
D.