i have a garrard 401,i want to build a good plinth for the garrard. which is the better wood? I have the problem of which in Argentinean there is no baltic birch
@lewm Similarly, the old practice of using a rubber profile between TT chassis and wood plinth is now frowned upon
I assume you would include the Herbies isolating washers between chassis and plinth as well. Honestly, my plinth looks great and sounds better than I could have hoped, so I don’t understand any controversy in what I’ve done. I also dampened my Thorens underneath with a stick on rubber dampening product that I bought from Parts Express. Maybe there are variables when it comes to suspended tables versus other design types but the isolating material that I use between chassis and plinth gets the job done.
@orionpcgames If you find that you need to cut and join 45 degree corners. I’d advise taking your wood to a picture framer. The can cut a perfect miter joint.
I think you mean CLD (Constrained Layer Damping), not CLS. CLS was a great ESL made by Martin-Logan.
Mijo, The dogma would say you ought not to put any material between two layers where you want the impedance to energy sharing to be minimal. (IOW, you want to maximize the contact areas between the two materials to achieve effective CLD.) I refer to your warning to use felt between oak and metal. The felt might work to avoid staining of the steel, but it defeats the purpose of the layering. Similarly, the old practice of using a rubber profile between TT chassis and wood plinth is now frowned upon. Jean Nantais is among those who pointed this out.
For my SP10 I went the CLS way trying to follow the pathway of Jean Nantais. I used a core of MDF wrapped in a layer of 1/2 acrylic bonded with a flexible adhesive, then sandwiched with a Baltic birch plywood, and wrapped in a mahogany veneer. Was a very good plinth and an excellent table. One I should have kept.
The Link will offer very valuable information, this is the best place to start to draw from to start to select a shortlist of Materials.
For the record, MU 25 when used on a Plinth for a DD TT and the experiences being had, were comparing MU25 to alternative wood designs, did not show MU 25 as being 'much' improved over Marine Plywood. MU 25 as a engineered wood design is the better choice in place of Marine Plywood, but falls way short when compared against some of the other available engineered wood designs.
@orionpcgames Oak is loaded with tannic acid. It will turn any steel it comes in contact with black. You can use it but you want to make sure you put a protective layer of felt between the wood and the turntable. You would want to use quarter sawn oak if you can as it will not warp with changes in humidity. In this regard South American Mahogany is the best. It is pretty wood that is very stable. It is also available in 12/4 and widths up to 20 inches.
I built a tiger maple plinth for my table. I used Herbies washer between the plinth and the turntable chassis. The washers are in each corner. This combination works very well. I would recommend the washers, regardless of which type of wood you decide to use.
Jatoba (brazilian cherry) was not on his list, but would do nicely as would Santos Mahogany- both are very hard and dense.
I am not familiar with working with Eucalyptus, but shy away from thick oak boards. Laminate if you need to use oak as it often has internal cracks and/or voids from the drying process that you may never see. It is a common problem with 12/4 or 16/4 oak.
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