Damping the analogue "setup"

String,

Judging by the photo on Joel Durand's homepage, one of his tonearms would totally rock your world. ;-)

Seriously, a bowling ball on top of my washer or dryer provides a similar benefit. The additional weight lowers the frequency and amplitude of spurious vibrations, and it has nothing to do with vibrations emanating from the floor.

Seriously, a bowling ball on top of my washer or dryer provides a similar benefit.

Now there's an idea.....
Perhaps a cricket ball on top of the turntable will solve all structure-borne feedback problems?

Hi Pani - just saw your thread.

interesting that you got the TT to sound fast as it was sounding slow on your other Verdier thread ?

wall mounts are great as long as what you are bolting into is indeed part of the load bearing wall - not just 2 x 6 wood studs screwed to the wall that have been put up quickly on a frame by the builder. These move, are flexible and a very bad solution. I have friends who tried bolting to the wood studs, it didnt work well - they declared the wall mount solution as no good - which is obviously not the case.

fwiw - I recommend you try something that I feel is easy to do minimal cost and time.
Go to the building supply store and obtain a small sheet of plywood to make a box big enough to hold the motor and TT, a sheet of plastic to line the box and some sand (in bags).

Put up a temporary sandbox with the shelf your Verdier will be on leveled on it. If it works for you then a nicer one can be constructed.
The building suppliers of the wood will usually make 4 or 5 cuts for free for you as well from the plywood sheet.
Just bring your measurements to the store.
The sand comes in bags and is labeled as to be used in playgrounds for kids.
I use an elongated sandbox with my vintage Platine Granito.
My TT shelf is 14 inches up from the concrete floor that has an underpad and carpet on top.
It works really well.

Cheers and good luck.

There is one problem with the use of ‘sand boxes’.
Their perceived benefit is not the sand itself….but the ‘voids’ between the sand.
In other words…..full sound transmission through the sand is hampered by the ‘air’ between the individual sand pellets.
Now initially this may work to some extent….but sand has a propensity to ‘compact’ due to gravity, heat, moisture, load and time and many of the ‘voids’ become smaller and tighter and many disappear altogether thus obviating the initial benefits.
When sand becomes fully compacted……its density approaches that of concrete. In fact before the discovery of cement…..compacted sand was used as a base for laying glass mosaics and with the discovery of volcanic ash and pumice by the Minoans, Greeks and then the Romans…..the addition of Pozzolanic lime to fill the voids in the sand mix together with water created the first ‘mortar’ and then concrete.
Even today…..a compacted mix of 10:1 sand to cement (to fill the voids) can often be used to bed brick, concrete and stone paving.
As there is no really successful method for preventing the slow but inevitable compaction of the sand within a sand box…….its efficacy will slowly deteriorate to become virtually zero.

As there is no really successful method for preventing the slow but inevitable compaction of the sand within a sand box…….its efficacy will slowly deteriorate to become virtually zero.

Interesting info Henry - in a grim reaper sort of way :^(

Annual sandbox maintenance - once a year.
Difficulty level - 2 out of 10.
Procedure.
With a buddies help remove TT with shelf from the sand.
Remove sand with scooper and place into a secondary container (bucket)
Carefully check sand when removing to determine if audiophile cat has used it over the course of the year.
Pour sand back into box. Install shelf and TT back into sand.
Level as required.
Time required. One hour depending on whether sand was soiled.

Does this suffice ?

I am curious how often the air suspension shelves (i.e. vibraplane) need re-levelling from bladders losing air. Especially any bought used on the internet ?