Nottingham resonance control

I have the older Mentor TT. It came with the heavy kit and Wave Mechanic.

I agree with Davt. In order of improvements:
1) Upgrade from VPI to ultrasonic record cleaning (at 80KHz)
2) Upgrade from Mentor tonearm to Trans-Fi air bearing arm
3) Upgrade from Tracer IV to higher end Koetsu
4) Upgrade plinth
5) Upgrade to new motor and latest (matched) WM
6) Upgrade power

I think you could get the most bang for the buck by putting some thick-ish plywood between your maple block and the TT. Preferably, Baltic Birch or even Panzerholz or slate, but ordinary 1" ply should prove the concept. Then replace the rubber feet on the turntable with the cheapest metal cones you can find, along with metal discs to prevent the spikes from cutting into the wood.

Those were among the most important elements of my plinth change, and they are all good physics. BUT, you have to listen to the system as a whole, and the metal cones might improve the resolution too much. Use your ears and your good taste will guide you.

You want constrained layer damping to minimize the contribution of your motor to the signal. One layer tries to move against the next, but cannot - it is constrained. The result is heat, not motion. Plywood or slate does this. Brazilian Rosewood does not (although it does look wonderful - a thought - veneer some onto Panzerholz). But prove the concept first.

I doubt very much if metal cones will ring, especially in response to an outside signal. They will, however, limit transmission of vibration. You need to specify shape (cone) not cost. But, they may not work with your system as it is now - I had to insert a cork layer to dampen the sound until I upgraded the tonearm, at which point the cork layers came out and the sound blossomed. Stay empirical, but begin with the physics.

Inna, you are absolutely right. The cones do reflect some of the energy back into the Panzerholz, where it can be dissipated as heat, and not transmitted, however indirectly, into the platter bearing. That is why I suggest a shelf of Panzerholz, or slate, or even ordinary plywood.

You bring up an excellent point. I suspect that the reason some of the exotic turntables sound great in one installation and lousy in another is just this - the refusal to engineer some important aspect of turntable design. But, as we are discussing, the refusal to engineer a problem doesn't make it go away, and we are stuck with trying to get the best sound from a partially engineered system.

At least with NA the main thing remaining to engineer is the shelf, and that is easy, and cheap.

Inna, I recently came across some data which suggests that Rosewood is superior to Baltic birch plywood, and to slate, but still much inferior to Panzerholz. I still like the idea of veneering Rosewood onto Panzerholz.