Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II


“For those who want the moon but can't afford it or those who can afford it but like to have fun and work with their hands, I'm willing to give out a recipe for a true high-end 'table which is easy to do, and fun to make as sky's the limit on design/creativity! The cost of materials, including 'table, is roughly $200 (depending, more or less), and add to that a Rega tonearm. The results are astonishing. I'll even tell/show you how to make chipboard look like marble and fool and impress all your friends. If there's interest I'll get on with this project, if not, I'll just continue making them in my basement. The next one I make will have a Corian top and have a zebra stripe pattern! Fun! Any takers?”

The Lead in “Da Thread” as posted by Johnnantais - 2-01-04

Let the saga continue. Sail on, oh ships of Lenco!
mario_b
Super-density isn't necessarily a good thing. I recently discovered that the ipe (Brazilian Ironwood) armboard I had made from my replinthed Lenco was dulling the sound to an extraordinary degree. Replacing it with an oak (and now purpleheart) armboard did wonders to open up the sonics. I wouldn't have believed it. Dave
John, Apology not necessary. I just wondered whether anyone HAD applied a scientific approach to this otherwise completely subjective and empirical endeavor. There are many reports from various sources that suggest that Panzerholz is a great material for plinths, etc. For example, Albert Porter has made some Panzerholz plinths for the Technics SP10 that are said to sound excellent.
As Dopogue indicated, I got a similar response from Johnnantais as well that panzerholz may be too dense per se for plinths. My friend Moritz says that Boomerang was one of the best TTs he's heard (and he's sold some Clearaudio panzerholz' as well). Both of these are sandwiched aluminum panzerholz models. I suspect that both were also 'tuned' with instruments, be the one with its curvature and 'parabolic' width whereas the Clearaudio looks like the panzerholz is milled. One needs sophisticated machines to mill this material. And the Boomerang was perfected in Berlin where the German equivalent of "UL" is and Moritz happens to know a hi-fi crazy who works there...

I saved the Albert Porter plinth website for future reference. I noticed that the panzerholz was cut into strips and re-glued. This changes the structural composition. I've used blocks of Panzerholz for cone bases (like ebony, carbon, etc.) and always turn them this way too.

Anyway, my project is to build a new plinth for a Sony PS 2500 and I am saving my panzerholz board as platform for my SS amp. I'll be following Albert Porter's guidelines and likely use sandwiched 2 x 48mm birch ply with 1 x 38mm solid 100mm laminated birch [kitchen counter top] board with 1 x aluminum and maybe another layer of this or who knows. I certainly will incorporate the bronze bearing mechanical 'ground' into steel. This is a far better solution than my attempt 25 years ago to ground a Kenwood KD600 (ball bearing coupled with a slab of Plexiglas).

Anybody know anybody who can give me some ideas or inputs? Should I document my work / DIY?

BTW, I do have a Clearaudio "Accurate"-like TT PS (the German CS PSN), as well as a 'vintage' TDK power filter that came, was rescued from a defunct refrigerated warehouse.
I have my doubts or questions as regards inserting a layer of alu or other metal midway in a wood plinth. The danger is that one may be creating an internal reflective surface that will bounce energy back up toward the turntable, instead of permitting it to dissipate in the nether regions of the plinth. (At the interface of two dissimilar materials, energy is transmitted, absorbed, or reflected, depending upon how the two materials interact with each other. This effect is governed by a constant for the two materials that is called the "coefficient of transmission" or something like that.) It all depends on what happens at the panzerholz/alu interface. And that I do not know.