Check this out

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.

Please, with all due respect, this is not a boat. In normal temperature and humidity environments that would be encountered in a high end audio home, this is not a problem.

Look, electronic circuits don't last long in salt water immersion tests either. I think we have to be at least semi-realistic about what we are discussing here.

Great care went into the design and manufacture of this turntable. Long term stability was one of the concerns, and it was dealt with in the best way possible. Given a normal environment, this will be quite stable.

I certainly wouldn't recommend this turntable for outdoor patio use in the tropical rain forests of Brazil. For temperature and humidity controlled indoor living room use, this will do just fine.

I'm sing-in' in the rain,
Just sing-in' in the rain...