Suspended vs. nonsuspended TT?

I have a Rega Planar 25 on a Bright Star Airmass/Bigrock combo on top of a spiked rack and you can hop around without skipping a beat. You level the table simply by shifting the Bigrock and or turntable around on the Airmass. The only potential problem with a do-it-yourself suspension is that you may have to experiment to get the optimal spring/mass ratio. A suspended turntable presumably also has damping. Maybe the soft foam idea from above can give you damping that an inner tube can't.

Ejcj, I sympathize with the problems that you and your friend experienced with turntables that have suspension systems. And I agree totally with your approach to acquire the best sounding least tweaky table there is.

I disagree with the idea that all turntables with sprung suspensions require adjustments that are a major pain in the butt. This reminds me of the a car ad years ago, maybe it was Ford talking about the Escort. They said their car handled as well as a BMW as their car, like a BMW, had a McPherson struts. I guarantee that the Escort could not approach the handling abilities of a BMW. Likewise, not all turntables with spring suspensions act and perform in the same manner. The specific design and implementation of the design affect performance and long term stability. Some tables are designed by serious engineers, whereas other tables are designed by people who tinker at engineering.

As mentioned, I use a Basis Debut which has a spring suspension, actually it is a hydraulic spring suspension. When installing the ‘table, I adjust the springs in order to level the table. There is no tweaking or adjustments required after this point. Period. I just spin LPs. Due to the well engineered suspension, footfalls are thing of the past. In fact, while an LP is spinning, I can hit the platform that the Debut is on as hard as I can without causing any mistracking. Being immune to vibrations from the outside enables the Debut to focus solely on what’s in the grooves. Thus one gains very quite background, lots of low level details and delightful low level dynamics. Most other ‘tables cannot reproduce these things. Yes, tonearms are important also. But without a stable ‘table, using the best tonearm is a waste.

So I would circle back, Ejcj, to your sound approach to acquire the best sounding, least tweaky....’table. Let’s just not assume that all sprung systems act or perform in a similar manner. I qualify myself as not having any experience with non-sprung ‘tables. Though I’d have to believe that they are susceptible to structural and airborne vibrations and the problems that those issues cause.

Here is a wall mount alternative that I have used to great effect with my non-suspended Nottingham Spacedeck that will probably make some tweak meisters cringe. I looked at several pre-made wall mounts and found those within my budget to be somewhat flimsy.

I bought a pair of Stanley "L" shaped brackets with diagonal bracing (rated 1,000 pounds bearing strength) at Home Depot for $7 each. "Scuffed" them up with wet/dry sandpaper and painted them with a $4 can of textured Rustoleum paint (available in a variety of colors to match decor)to give them a powder coated look that matches my component rack. I then affixed 1/4" X 1 1/4" strips of a rubber/carbon material that I had left over from another project to the brackets where the they would meet the wall and where they form the support for the shelf. I obtained a 20" X 16" X 3" rock maple cutting board for $75 which I attached on a 16" center to the brackets using 1/2" X 1 1/2" lag bolts and rubber washers. Finally, I attached the whole unit to the wall with 5/8" X 2 1/4" lag bolts screwed into the wall studs (being very careful that all was plumb and level, of course).

For $95, I have a support for the Nottingham that is rock solid. As a test, I placed a glass of water on the shelf, STOMPED on the floor, and saw no movement whatsoever. Because the Not has no suspension, this is a "set it and forget it" application. After intial setup and fine tuned leveling of the platter, it is basically maintenance free. I feel that I have a support worthy of those costing MUCH more and can use the cash saved for my garage sale pursuits of more vinyl!

Sean ... Mrowlands answered my question. Sure it's easier with the Rega than with others due to relatively low mass and a relatively central center of gravity.

rega is a low resolution table.