Best rack for non-suspension turntable?


I have a Well-Tempered Classic turntable. For those unfamiliar, it does not have any internal suspension.

Does anyone have an opinion about the best type of equipment rack for this kind of table? My options are the Naim Fraim (I have Naim electronics, but the Fraim is obscenely expensive) which is rigid with glass shelves or the Isoblue which is composed of layers of different woods (so I'm told).

The Fraim supposedly is unbeatable with a suspension table like an LP12, but I'm not sure how it would work with a non-suspended table.

Any opinions?
turboglo

Showing 5 responses by audiavreseller

Hands down, Audiav turntable rack with Signature Platforms.

They even design it for free and are 1/3 of the price of Naim's.

The Fraim really is limited on size and is hard to work with other gear... plus they don't really do much for vibration, and do not control magnetics, ESP or interference.

The Naim Fraim looks great with Naim components though... but it better at $6k
Minus K work station good... falling into the Silent Running Audio's marketing- bad :)

Don't believe too much of the hype. The SRA is a solid-to-solid and only helps with anti-resonance through mass loading... that's it. No magic there... all of their layers are solids, so there is not high-low-high decoupling and relies on thickness for resonance control.

Getting a Minus K that is off the ground with a SRA will run more in the $8k to $9k... it's $6k to $7k individually. For this amount you can get Solid Granite Signature Shelves from Audiav in a Crystal or Diamond frame that has built in loading adjustment setups and offers about twenty advantages... but what do I know :)

I'm biased
I agree with Sdlevene... to a certain point. His comment is 100% true with regards to a spring system... if you use a spring or isolation material that bounces, particularly in few attachment points. If you use layers that are NOT springs and do not inherently contain bounce, then the opposite is true. A sheet of "insert your favorite material here" will have a lower resonance if adhesion covers most of the surface of which the isolating material and second sheet is affixed. This can be seen in thousands of examples of lowering resonance frequencies by attaching more mass. If two thin rigid substrates are held by springs... then both the upper and lower substrate will resonate at different frequencies AND be subject to bounce. However; if you glue the flat sides together covering enough surface area to couple to a different rubberized mass, the combination yields a MUCH lower resonance. A telephone pole has a lower resonance buried in the ground... a cheap plastic emblem glued to a brick wall has a lowered resonance, solidly glue a glass ball to your knee and the resulting resonance is lower :) Any material if affixed to more mass will lower it's resonant frequency. This is why the Symposium reference platforms are so amusing in interesting claims... they "de"couple using foam board which defeats the purpose entirely. They "de"couple the stainless steel layered masses with foam board, which is light and rigid... BUT light and rigid makes it into a great transducer. This gives a lowered resonance at very low frequencies, but actually amplifies high frequencies centered in sonic hearing. As an example NXT has made a mint attaching their products to this same foamboard/ gatorfoam material. Vibrations sent to a lightweight & rigid substrate WILL reproduce all the frequencies that it can given it's overall size and thickness. All transducers work this way. If your speaker cone had heavy mass, then it could not "vibrate" to reproduce the lower sound frequencies. The answer is properly decoupled mass like Audiav or advanced response servos like the Minus K... and the latter causes near field EMI... You don't have to believe me for this one, go buy an EMI/EMF meter to "see" for yourself how an active servo based solution actually induces undesired interference :)
The real answer: Neither is good for your application. Either way, they are both solid-to-solids and will carry vibration from the flooring and from/to other components. You should consider looking at different manufacturers, or possibly an on-shelf solution to actually make a difference.
My misunderstanding with the Minus K... there are so many different racks out there; I may have been confused. I think someone had mentioned them being active as many of the active platforms that we have tested and even on my data sheet has been errantly marked active. I could have sworn the Minus K plugged in, leveled and even displayed when vibration was present. I think I like the Minus K much more since they are not an active servo system... what a nice intro they have with the wine glasses from a passive device! It is very hard to control very low resonant frequencies and will be the FIRST to say that ANY rack cannot dampen 100% of the spectrum especially at higher than miniscule velocities.