Rumble is different than acoustic feedback. Rumble is noise from the turntable usually related to the bearing and can indicate a lack of sufficient lubrication or an issue with a worn bearing. Acoustic feedback is caused by bass energy being transmitted to the turntable system which results in a roar that builds upon itself getting louder and louder until you lower the volume. Acoustic feedback can be addressed by better isolation for the table like a wall shelf usually provides. What you're describing sounds like rumble, but if it's only on certain records it can be in the recording or on a worn record. The Harbeths may not have reproduced such low frequency info like your larger speakers do which made the rumble audible. Check the platter bearing of your table for proper lubrication or any abnormal play or wobble, and if it's belt drive also check the motor bearing.
Low Frequency Rumble from TT between songs
I'm sure it's in the songs too but I'm getting low frequency rumble now that I've switched from Harbeth 30.1s to some large base reflex studio monitors. Between songs and on the lead out groove I'm getting a rumble at mid to high volume. Is that an isolation issue or something else. Table on a wall shelf, about six feet from the BACK of the left speaker, so I'm not understanding why this would happen.
@dhcod , acoustic feedback occurs at a specific frequency and is a steady tone typically described as a howl. Rumble is very low frequency and lumpy for lack of a better term. It is low frequency garbage for either the bearing of your turntable or the bearing of the lathe that cut the Lacquer your record was produced from. If it is your turntable it will be consistent and occur with every record. If it only occurs with some records and not others the fault lies with the manufacturer of the record. You hear it now because your new speakers are capable of reproducing those very low frequencies. Rumble is one of the banes of vinyl reproduction like scratches, ticks and pops. |
It's definitely different on every record but still there on everything. I tried moving the speakers away from the table and that for sure lessens the sound. It's clearly an interaction between the two components. The bad part is we live in a small place and the speakers can't be moved and neither can the turntable. Are some turntable less susceptible to this interaction. I'm using a VPI Aries 1. What type of table should I try? Suspended? Idler? Or is the cartridge picking up the sound so it doesn't matter? |
Your disdain for analog is almost as annoying as your frequent childish rants about a certain speaker company. Remember which forum you find yourself in. Give it a break...... |
Which feet are you using on the Aries? Which wall shelf? Make sure your wall shelf platform is level and all contact points have even pressure. If all is well, a simple but not inexpensive solution is a Townshend component platform, if it’ll fit on your wall shelf. Another plus, you can always use it under another component in your system. |
I think this is something you will have to live with, with these speakers, but you may be able to reduce it. Is it "groove noise", rather than rumble? All turntables have some of it. Comes with the vinyl medium. Over ten years, I turned down the groove noise and improved the sound on my VPI HW-19, upgraded mk 2 to 5, ending up with a pyramid arrangement - stone rack, sand box plus air tube plus ceramic cones, beneath the VPI. With the magnetic bearing in the Hanss T30 turntable, no pyramid needed, the feet can rest directly on the shelf, and these problems were greatly reduced. |
Tubes of certain types tend to be microphonic. For example, every 6SN7 is microphonic to some degree. The trick is to find those that are less microphonic than average, or better yet to move your amplifier around the room. In any case, it is not totally surprising that a new set of tubes does not definitively cure the problem. Tube dampers can help too. Also, First Watt are great, be happy. |
This sounds very much like a worn bearing issue. I was pleasantly surprised when I had my VPI bearing worked on some years ago. I'm guessing you are writing about a used Aires. Am I correct? Do you know how old it is? The bearings of VPI TTs need to be worked on on a regular basis. First is the need for lubrication. Is your bearing inverted? Or non-inverted? Next is the possible need for the replacement of the ball and thrust plate. Have you inspected these? |
It left me missing air and walls. As someone who often records live instruments tangential to the music industry, the 300B comes closest to recreating the instrument AND the room that the music is being played in, which makes for more accurate reproduction of a setting. Digital playback can be music in a vacuum which to my ears doesn't sound like life. |
@dhcod , that is all fluffy subjective garbage. What I am trying to impress people like dhcod with is this is not subjective, it's what I like to hear stuff. That is an excuse to validate inferior equipment. There is accurate reproduction and there is everything else. There in only one accurate. Any deviation from accurate is inaccurate. People think that because accuracy is hidden from everyone that they can make up any definition of what accurate is, a definition that is of their liking. Sorry, doesn't work for me. Accuracy can be found but it takes a kind of persistence most of us do not have. Nor do they really want to. They have more important things to do.
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Are these the Isolation feet you installed on your VPI turntable? VPI Prime, Scout, Super Prime & Signature 3" Height Adjustable Turntab – Mnpctech |
@dhcod , sorry about the late reply. I was not aware of your post. My version of accurate has several facets. First is measurable accuracy, the stuff most audiophiles hate like the opposite political party. Frequency response, distortion of all types, signal to noise ratios. Slew rate, etc. Most systems fail right at the start because they do not have speakers that are reasonably flat with matching frequency responses in the room and position they are put in. It is not easy to be accurate. The second facet is subjective but not just my opinion. Others will hear the same features and usually agree. This is the ability to produce life like images and timbre with the right recordings across the frequency spectrum. A system that performs at this level will impress nine of ten lay people. If the people are very use to hearing live instruments that climbs to ten out of ten. I have seen the reactions to several such systems and they were extremely similar in content.
The problem for most of us, whether we believe it or not is that we do not fully understand or relate to what we have not experienced. Very few systems perform at this level and price is no indication at all. Go listen to a string quartet live. You want to put that in your media room. That is why I use "live" as a reference. You can not use anything else as a reference because most systems do not perform at this level and are a maze of compounded errors. It is also easier to hear a live performance than it is any one particular system. You want to know how a piano should sound? Go see a solo McCoy Tyner concert at a small jazz bar. |
