Turntable stands

Sayas, I think you are on the right track with the "rock solid" comment. However, we are really talking about rigidity there, and a nicely welded-up frame stand can be very rigid.

The reasoning comes from the way the stand interacts with the suspension of the turntable. The sprung turntables just sound better on a lightweight stand, but it has to be very rigid. Flexible-flyers need not apply. Since the mass-loaded unsprung TTs have no suspension, they sound better on a very heavy stand(or even solid rock) because they require the mass to compensate for no suspension.

You're not going to totally ruin the sound one way or the other. It is just a certain amount of improvement. When I used to sell Linn TTs, and a customer would call back complaining that it didn't sound as good as when he heard it at the store, the first thing I'd ask is "What kind of stand is it on?". Invariably the answer was on top of some kind of credenza or other heavy furniture. When we would take a SO stand out to the house and moved the TT onto that, the whole performance just improved noticeably. The same was true for the other suspended TTs that we sold. Eventually we just convinced people during the demo, what stand needed to be used for certain TTs, by showing them the differences in sound of stands during the demos.

This is the kind of thing that you just absorb over the years of experience. I learned this in about 1982.

Take a look at the stand I built in Virtual Systems. Easy to modify, quite heavy and rigid: "DIY Audio Rack ala Jeffloistarca" The trick (if you have an unsuspended table), as TWL says is to make sure you not only have a rigid structure, but one that is heavy as well. The rack I built is 24" tall, with 23x15x2" maple butcher block.

probably because the light metal (but still rigid) stand doesn't resonate at frequencies near the suspension resonance frequency. Also the higher frequencies are filtered out by the TT's suspension. BTW, airborne induced vibrations can act directly on the arm and cartridge (albeit slightly) and no amount of isolation, coupling nor massive loading of the TT can eliminate them, except distance, of course.

My turntable (Oracle Alex IV) is suspended from the ceiling on MDF board by four wires. Can't get a lighter "stand" than that!

Salut, Bob P.

I've had my Linn on both a low coffee table (which sounded great... there's an Ikea table that some recommend) and on a Mana wall shelf. I prefer the wall shelf only because the TT is isolated from my floor.

Sayas:

CPdunn makes a good point (wall mount shelf) if floor vibrations/footfalls are a problem.

I have always had better luck/sound with my sprung TT's when either locating them near a support wall (sometimes in a "centrally" located closet in older Spanish/Victorian buildings in which @ least 2 of the closet walls are support structures) or when placing them on lite/rigid stands.

Heavy massive stands can sound quite good when placed on solid slab floors, but otherwise I really do not care for the sound of them.

You won't know for sure until you try both and judge the sound yourself.

Airborne vibrations are a pet peeve of mine which is why I have rarely ever installed a TT in my listening room (prefer to have them located in either a closed closet or if this is not possible then in an adjoining room). Been doing this since the early 70's long before people were generally concerned with racks/shelves, etc., and I usually placed the TT's directly on a wood floor.

I was w/o a TT for approx. 15 years and this time around I am using racks/shelves. I did try placing my TT on a very heavy cabinet in the living room @ one point, but the sound kind of sucked. I have wood/plaster floors which do have some spring to them as the plaster is cracked in many, many places (more cracked than solid:-).