Turntable stands

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:-).

I have my Teres 245/OL Silver/Shelter 501mk2 rig directly on concrete blocks, about two feet off the floor. The TT has three black diamond racing cones affixed to the bottom of the table. I think the concrete works well, but am open to other suggestions (maybe applying some additional wood or marble on top of the concrete??) I haven't experimented much with stands, so would be open to suggestions. My table is a heavy, unsuspended design (weighs something like 50lb, I think). I did however experiment with adding an AudioPoints Sistrum stand which is an expensive isolation using points on either side - I added this on top of the concrete, with the turntable suspended on the sistrum:
http://www.starsound.biz/SinglePlatforms.HTML
The results were not good. Suspending the table directly on the concrete with the stock black diamond racing cones gave a more rock solid performance.