Isolation Platform for my Sota Cosmos?

The SME suspension towers are heavily damped, so pushing down on the plinth does not get it to oscillate. Likewise, the Vibraplane is fed by a compressor, so as soon as one corner is pushed down, the air bladders immediately fill up and so it does not oscillate either.

I have not tried to defeat the suspension of the SME and listened to it on the Vibraplane. I only compared the table with and without the Vibraplane, and it is better with the Vibraplane inflated. The motor controller isolated on the Vibraplane also makes quite a difference.

Thanks for your suggestions. BTW, I thought that if they are 180 degrees out of phase, they would cancel, and it is only when they are in phase that the cycles amplify to cause problems.

I suspect all is fine, because I have never seen either move and the sound has never been better. But I wonder if the isolation is redundant. I'm going to try to defeat the isolation on my the SME towers this weekend and give it a listen.

The Vibraplane and the VPI towers are almost certainly not tuned to the same resonant freq. The Vibraplane is most likely around 2.5 Hz in vertical, I suspect the VPI towers' resonant frequency is around 4 or 5 Hz, possibly higher. Even though the resonant frequencies are not equal the two systems can still interfere, when you consider the mass on spring device acts as low pass filter with attenuation characteristics analogous to electronic filter, E.g., 6 dB per octave. So they can still interfere.

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Hi All. Been awhile since i have visited this topic. And it has been for an interesting read. I should share with you all however an email i received back from Sota themselves regarding this topic. I thought at the time i may as well send them an email as they would perhaps know best what type of isolation works with their turntables and this is what i received in reply. I received the reply on 17th March of this year;


Thank you for your message and patience as we attended to show preparations and attendance.

Yes, you are correct in that the Cosmos has environmental isolation with the spring suspension. But, if you're looking for an isolation platform, maybe we can help. SOTA, or more specifically Kirk, designed an isolation platform for our entry level models. This platform can now be used for any of our models. It features characteristics similar to the Cosmos armboard in that it is multiple layers of acrylic coupled with hard and soft metals. We've added weight ratio polymer feet to finish it off. It's high gloss black finish makes it look sexy too. The platform sized for the Cosmos will sell for $750. I can't send a photo at this time ('cause my computer is too full to take anything more or it might blow up). If interest, just let us know.

Best regards,
Donna
SOTA Sales & Service
800-772-SOTA - (608) 538-3500



I just sent them another follow up email as Donna did promise to send me some pics. But i have yet to receive them and other priorities have intervened in the meantime.

regards Jeff