A Copernican View of the Turntable System

As I understood the manual, any armboard will do. Part of it will be drilled onto the pod and the part with the larger hole where the tonearm mounts into would protrude beyond the dimensions of the pod itself. So, this would be different than Ct0517's set up but would still work for pivoted arms. In fact, that's what I did the first go around, but instead of using a metal foundation, I used red oak.

My current pods are similar to Halcro's; but, sadly, far less cool looking.

Hi Chris, I think the decoupling offered by the wood plate is a very drastic solution, applied in desperate situations. My concern is about the strength & tightness of the surface that couples the arm pillar with the arm pod.
I'm sure it works OK, but from the theoritical point of view, I would be more comfortable if you choose a more solid upper fixed point, in order to modify the ET arm pillar, as if it is one piece with the first block of the arm pod. Even if it is applied at the bottom* (the decoupling by wood), may not be necessary -in your case- considering there is a film of air in between the arm tube & the arm pillar.
* Steel at the top plate, your own Al main block, Brass as a foundation or intermediate level. Especially the discs that rests the spikes must have great hardness. You can close the microscopic open moleculars between the metal surfaces simply by applying some silicone oil without bonding or bolts. Easy if you uplevel your main wood shelf with a second & preferably denser platform only for the TT and so, you will have the apparent hight for steel, brass & discs. Just a thought.

Dear Nandric,
I'm certainly not angry with you :-)
A little disappointed that you didn't understand my sense of humour about your 'Australia' remark which I found very funny :-)........so I thought you took offence?
I hope we're 'cool'?
Regards
Henry

High Density & CLARITY are BFF

Dear Geoch - thank you so much for your thoughts. You are absolutely correct - I can eliminate that wood layer totally and mount the ET directly to the armpod with the one bolt. The mounting post rides on air with 3 of its own couplers. The plate I am using is dried oak and it is firmly held on with 2 - 1" inch machine screws. I used the plate to allow for ease of changing arms but I will be making other pods for those arms so it is not required. Now the important part - how much will it change the sound by removing it.
I will think more about the second part. The adjustable AT616 footers are at their lowest point right now and they adjust much higher to accommodate a higher pod. My problem is at the pod side – I will need a taller one.
So for the interim I think I will replace the AT616’s with the lower mapleshade spikes I was using previously – this will give me the room to experiment with the pod and that layer.

Henry – My VPI 12 arm mounts directly on top – with phono cables out the side. It is very easy to drill a hole into the armpod to accommodate the bottom cables especially if aluminum. But it still won’t look as good as yours. Our imagination is the only limit here. Many ways to skin.