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I would agree with several others above who have expressed their scepticism about the stability of a wood base over time. Wood is notoriously uneven in density and swells and shrinks tremendously with changes in humidity. In the Northeast, the average home is drier than the Sahara in the winter. Even if treated with chemicals, I don't think you can make wood perfectly stable. Woodworkers who make carved bowls often soak the wood in a chemical called PEG which replaces the water in the cell structure and limits the wood movement but even that can't eliminate it 100%. So why build a base from solid hardwood? It's just marketing hype IMHO. Acrylic or MDF with a pretty wood veneer would be better.

Jyprez, after using many TTs with MDF or acrylic bases, I might agree that they may be stable, but they don't sound anywhere near as good. This was really shown to me in a big way, when I upgraded my Teres from the acrylic base to the lead-shot loaded Cocobolo base. Everything else in the TT remained the same: same bearing, platter, feet, arm, motor. All I did was replace the base on my existing Teres 135 with the base of the 245 model. Even the thickness and shape was the same as the previous acrylic base. The difference was too much to believe. Simply the material choices created such a staggering improvement, that I understood forever how much these materials play a role in the sound. I'll never go back to an acrylic TT.

Jyprez,

I live in New Hampshire, so I completely agree with your assessment of the changes in relative humidity and the effects that has on wood and furniture. However, I would say that the wooden bowl makers that you mention have a restriction of what treatments they can use in that these treatments must be non-toxic. There is no such restriction on boat building, which is where this process comes from. I don't have near the experience in woodworking as 4yanks, but it seems to me that if the process completely soaks the wood in epoxy then the platter may not be subjected to changes in relative humidity at all as would the plinth. Another thing to consider is that not all species of wood change exactly the same way due to humidity. Having said all this, I too am curious to see how these platters hold up.
The possible improvement of sound due to a hardwood base seems plausible to me since many instruments are made from highly selected wood samples and are themselves very susceptible to tuning changes due to weather conditions. But I admit I have never heard a solid hardwood plinth.

Dan_ed,
It's hard to believe it until you hear it. Heck, it's hard to believe it after you hear it, I'm still in rapturous shock nearly every time I spin a record. If my 265 turns into a 60 lb. potato chip in ten years, they'll be the best musical ten years I've ever known. Hey, I'm slowly turning into a 60 lb. potato chip myself, might as well enjoy some tunes along the way. :)

Jyprez,
I'm in Connecticut so I know what you mean about the weather. AC in the summer, humidifier in the winter, de-himidifier in the basement all the year round. The land of steady habits is also the land of a most unsteady climate.

There is lots of information on the internet on the dimensional stability of wood. Here is one quote from http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/waac/wn/wn06/wn06-2/wn06-201.html

"There is no known coating which adheres to wood and is also completely impervious to water vapor. Even the most effective coating will permit the eventual equilibration of a coated wood object to the relative humidity and temperature conditions of its surroundings."

So don't take my word for it. Buyer beware! I don't doubt that wood will sound good at least initially. But you won't have a stable platform and that is trouble. Boats, on the other hand, are made to swell with the absorbtion of water. This is taken into account in their design. The swelling of the joints is what makes them tight. I used to have a wooded lapstrake boat (this is where the hull is made up of overlapping boards rather than one sheet of material) It would leak like heck when first put in the water at the beginning of the season but then tighten right up after a few days.