Interesting about Stillpoints and Nottingham. Yes, $800 for the base is too much for me right now, which is not to say it wouldn't be worth it, I suspect it would. One day perhaps, I am going to keep my Spacedeck for a long time, at least for five-seven years, until I possibly upgrade to Hyperspace deck.
Davt, what did you upgrade your Nottingham to? |
I could also tear off that rubber and put Audio Selection steel cones in its place. They have the adhesive and are adjustable, $10 each from Audio Advisor. I am thinking about it. Should be an improvement, but you never really know until you try. Walker discs might work too, both with rubber feet and steel cones.
For now I ordered one Walker disk and am going to experiment by putting it on different pieces of my system and see if I can hear any difference. This won't answer the question about their effectiveness with Nott., I know, but I am curious. |
Sorry, I saw Audio Selections cones on Music Direct site. |
Davt, you treated your Spacedeck very well, did everything for it to sing.
I think, my first upgrade will be either Nottingham Wave Mechanic or better interconnect from the phono stage, depending on opportunity. I currently use Purist Audio Maximus but would like to jump to either Proteus or Dominus. Then maybe SRA base or Heavy Kit, though I read that not everyone liked the Kit - they felt that something was lost while other things were gained.
I will never get rid of the analog, temporarily maybe if I have to, but I'll be back. |
Terry9, thank you. Yes, I have doubts about metal cones, they might give me ringing.
Why Baltic Birch and not, say, Brazilian Rosewood or Cocobolo? Or Ebony? In any case, it's an interesting idea.
I am not going to replace arm or cartridge soon - I prefer to jump when I upgrade not to move in small steps. Tweaking and tuning the system is another matter. Ultrasonic record cleaner costs thousands. I might have records cleaned by ultrasonic machine by someone else, but I will not take a risk by mailing my most valuable records, but I can send others. I don't have many records.
I just had an opportunity to upgrade the interconnect from phono, from Maximus to Colossus, but I didn't receive it yet. I think, I will try Walker discs too. I recently got just one 1/2" disc, and the biggest difference for the better it made was by sitting on top of my Nakamichi deck! The deck in turn sits on Boston Audio tuneblocks. So, maybe I should get two more and put them on the maple block - one near tonearm and another near motor. The discs are not expensive and can easily be returned. |
I see. Brazilian Rosewood won't work. Great wood for making guitars, that's why it came to mind.
Not so simple with cones - they remove the vibration at best, then they return some of it. Yeah, shape and material matter. Audiopoints were good cones, no longer made. They work well with my integrated amp.
Probably Vibraplane would be best, but you never really know until you try. Still, you can't try eveything so to a degree you have to guess.
Physics, of course. But at times the laws of physics are so inconvenient. |
My goodness, The Wave Mechanic is double the price of what it is if you get it from the UK. This is quite bold.
For this kind of money, a bit more, I would get Walker. |
Fourwnds, how easy was it to remove the feet? Were they glued? |
There is a reason why Nottingham has a cult following, both here and in Europe. Especially Spacedeck because it is not very expensive by audiophile standards.
I am not really familiar with exotic turntables. You are probably right about why they may sound so good and so bad.
Neuance shelf? I'll check it out too, thank you. I have Boston Audio Mat-1.
I am not really in a hurry, I like tuning and fine tuning the system. These things take time and patience. |
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Without doing anything else yet I put one smaller Walker resonance control disc on the maplebblock next to the motor. The disc doesn't touch anything. This increased clarity, it was neither subtle nor profound and definitely worth it. I'll get another disc to put on the other side next to the motor. Could be too much, though I doubt it, I'll see.
What I like most about Spacedeck is that it is very alive not a sterile machine.
After adding the Walker disc I had a chance to get Purist Colossus ferox interconnect. It replaced Maximus. One step up, significant improvement. And the Colossus is not yet fully burned in after Purist filled it with ferox. It has 120 hours on it, and Jim of Purist Audio says 200 hours. He is right, I can hear it. |
Shakeydeal, what did you find in Well Tempered that Spacedeck couldn't do ? |
Tubehead21, thank you, you add Symposium as yet one more possibility. |
'depends on what you are trying to do' is an excellent point. I advocate the approach of tuning the system and controlling the resonant energy not eliminating it altogether. Hard to accomplish and requires a lot of experimenting, including trying different woods. I would start with woods used for making instruments, ironwood is not one of them. Brazilian rosewood, spruce, cocobolo etc. In the end it might come down to personal preference, and that's good. For example, I like the sound that is deep and a little on the loose side but not much. |
I wonder, if it would make the deck sound better, at least to me, if I put it on Brazilian rosewood block instead of maple. Ebony doesn't seem very appealing. Indian or Honduran rosewood might work too. Brazilian rosewood block of high quality would be difficult and expensive to get.
Ironwood is very 'stupid' wood, makes nice knife handles but even for that that's not what I prefer. African blackwood, which is not ebony, I have no idea of.
I think, Tom Fletcher should've experimented with plinths made of different woods. Maybe he did, but that's not what materialized. |
What springs? I didn't quite get it.
My mind is not set on anything, only on the need to experiment and listen. |
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