High mass vs Low Mass Turntables - Sound difference?

Shadore

You don't understand the design philosophies of what Rega and other low mass companies are trying to do.

There are really two major philosophies

High mass with the thinking that the additional mass is harder to get to resonate, however, the energy is slowly released adding coloration.

vs

Low mass wth the concept that the lighter weight materials will flex to absorb energy or bounce the enegy off of the table by virtue of the materials propensity not to be vibrated by certain frequencies, and disapate that energy faster leading to a faster less colored more nimble sound.

Personaly the best table I have ever heard did battle with a $40k high mass table and sounded nearly identical for 1/5 the money.

That table used a plinth of rubber laminates to absorb all energy presented to the table and turn it into heat rather than trying to deflect it low mass or absorb it or not be excited high mass designs, best table I have ever heard $7k beats most $25k tables.

Over the last 40 years I have worked with Sota, Linn, Vpi, Kronos, Rega, Linn, Thorns, SME, and many others. 

Troy
Audio Doctor

What kind of stability are you talking about? Are you talking about foot falls feedback or other?

The reality of it is quite simple to understand,  mass and rigidity = enegy being redirected but to where?

Low mass = flexture and dissipation.

Take a light weight pan and strike it with a fork two things will occur, the tines of the fork will vibrate and the pan will vibrate and then the energy will be gone.

Take the same pan and hit it with a block of wood, you still will get a sound from the pan, and from the block of wood,  however, you will feel the energy couple back into your hand as the density of the wood will absorb some energy while bounciing energy off and some of that deflected energy goes into your hand your hand being soft and complient will take the  energy and absorb it. 

Neither of this is good. High Mass tables reflect energy which still has to go somewhere. 

Light weight tables use combinations of mass, rigidity and damping to disapate that incomming energy and internally generated energy from the motor and main bearing.

If you were 100% correct, then all the lighter weight tables, Linn, Rega, Roksan would be considered to sound aweful and these tables have been lauded over the years as excellent sounding tables.

Many years ago we compared a heavy Basis table with an acrylic and brass damped plater, with a heavy acrylic bass and an oil damped suspension to a Roksan which was considerably lighter with a lightweight wooden plinth and frame, the entire table was much lighter  in weight and the Basis sounded slow, dead, and dreadfully out of tune compared to the Roksan. 

Tzh21y, you and I are hearing the same thing. The Rega has this incredibly clean, detailed and fast sound. 

I never liked the VPI arms either and they are a pain to setup.

Also the VPI drive system always has a bit of noise as you can hear the round belt riding in the crown of the pully unless they changed that I always thought that was a design difficency of that design.

I will disagree with you on your last part, the new Rega Alpheta 2 is a remarkably good cartridge, it is way better than the 1rst gen Alphea.

For the first time Rega is actually getting raves on their cartridges. 

The exact and bias do sound good for the money but lacked some of the midrange bloom of some of their competitors.

The new Alpheta 2 and the new Anima cart are really quite special.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ