Opinions: Neuance Shelf for Linn Sondek Lp12 TT

Thank you all so far for a further enlightenment to my conundrum. To add to my explanation of the current condition. My living room set up has Coincident Total Eclipse speakers three feet off the short wall of a 15'by 26' space. My Atma-Sphere mono blocks are located next to the speakers on stands with a six meter interconnect to my preamp, phono amp, and TT. The TT and shelf is located on a short, non load bearing (?) wall adjacent to the speakers. It is next to my listening chairs about six feet from the back wall. The home is of 1926 vintage with beautiful but unstable hardwood floors. The walls are originally plaster lathe and have had an additional layer of sheet rock bonded to them. All in all the room sounds nice. Maybe this info will help in understanding my room better as some of the most helpful responses were predicated on some assumptions due to my less than compete explanation. Thanks again and I look forward to any new ideas.

Just drove back from Chicago today after seeing The Dead Can Dance closing their world tour at the Auditorium Theatre. That was beautiful! and guess what was on my door step? The new Neuance A platform. I have broke it out of the box and set my Lp12 Sondek on it. Now to wait for it to settle in and my remarks will follow. Cheers!

Perfectionist, How did you set up your platform? Spikes steel/brass? or did you try Aurios Pro's under platform or in between platform and deck?

Richard,
I from time to time feel your pain on the "particular" equipment bashing. You know well enough, Krell/B&W800's is a amp/speaker match made in heaven. Great synergy there. I think people still under estimate the complexity of amp/speaker matching.
As for the long wall, I have an old marble fire place in the mix that nixes that. Israel Blume of Coincident recommends that the Total Eclipses be placed a minimum of 24” of the back wall, 48” apart, 8’ from listener, and they’re 22” deep. So that doesn’t leave a whole lot left. A little side note. My experience proves he's spot on.
I had 9th row just left of center seats at Detroit Symphony Hall for years, coincidently. Thanks for the remarks anyway.

Lugnut,
Your good!
Thanks for not letting the nah sayers stifle your comment. I don't know if I could be called a classic Linnie in that I love my tube amps. Ivor has the source handled for my analog and digital. I also have an Ikemi CD player and I like it very much. Linn undersold that deck imo.
As for the Lp12, Suspension is not out of adjustment, not using a non-felt mat or any other tweak that couples the suspension/record. No clamp.
I think I’ll try the Neuance shelf and look to bolster up things in the basement under the wall. The thing is, the sound is pretty good. It’s just when I touch the shelf it self, I feel quite a bit of resonance. That can’t be good. Even if the table takes care of most of it. I just want to tweak out that last little bit! Thanks again

Perfectionist, Thanks for the heads up on Ken and Neuance. Summer is here and I can't blame a guy for getting out. I hope the Neuance works for you. I think I'll go ahead on one when Ken gets back. If it auditions good, under the CDP as well, maybe a second one. It will obviously be a while but, I will post my results for you and everyone else after I have had the time to evaluate things. I would be interested to hear what you think of yours. Cheers!

Thanks to all for the helpful comments. I have connected with Ken at Neuance and he is well rested and building a shelf for me and my Sondek Lp12 as we speak. I will follow up on this thread how things work out once it shows up and gets fitted. Enjoy!

Here is my take on Ken Lyons Neuance Platform 'A'.
First, I'll start by saying that like most components and cables there is a mandatory time needed for breaking in or settling, if you will. Too often we try to rush or just plain don't give a component the time to fit in. For me the wait has made all the difference and it has been just a little over a week.

The purpose of the Neuance Platform is to support a full-blown Linn Sondek Lp12 with Ittok LVII arm and Akiva cartridge. The set up I have is a wall mount rack of tubular steel with four adjustable steel points for the shelf. It is Italian in origin but it has been so long since my purchase (about 25 years ago) that I have no idea what the brand name is. Sufficed to say it resembles the Target single shelf rack or many others with one exception and that is that the steel tubular frame does not surround the shelf panel. It resides on a short interior wall of plaster wood lath (circa 1926) adjacent to the back wall of the speakers. For reference: I am running Coincident Total Eclipses with Atma-Sphere MA-1 Silver edition mono blocks, fronted by Aesthetix Calypso and Rhea.

My first impressions of the Platform during the week or so after it arrived by post was a sense of thick muddy bass, incoherent detail, and time smearing throughout the sound stage. Well, that was to be expected, as it had not settled. Not so amazingly, none of those less than audiophile characteristics exist now. As it found its feet I challenged it to some of my familiar vinyl favorites and some new releases. The Neuance Platform was superior to the MDF shelf material that my TT had been sitting on for many years. Showing no recognizable signature of its own. Its ability to let the TT extract detail without interference from my listening room vibrations was most impressive. The coherence of pace and timbre where spot on. Overall, I noticed a great sense of dynamics and air between acoustic instruments and voices that as it turns out was a huge step forward from my previous set up. As Ivor Tiefenbrun of Linn prescribes this table requires a lightweight, very ridged shelf for the best performance and the Neuance Platform adeptly offers that. A devise that couples mass and density is a big mistake in this application. I have not but fully intend on auditioning this platform under my CDP with soft footers (below the Neuance) as recommended by Ken to see if I reap equal sonic improvements. If so, and I feel confident it will prove worthy of an additional order. IMHO I would unequivocally recommend this platform to suspension turntable owners for its not so subtle benefits.

There are few bargains in High Fidelity. Don’t tell Ken Lyons, but at this price point, his platforms are definitely one of them. Happy listening!

Opps! big apologies to Ken for my mistake! His last name is Lyon with no 's'. Sorry

Yikes! I guess I can’t count my days or spell the word “rigid” either! Sorry

Ok, So I finally got around to checking out the Neuance Platform under the Linn Ikemi CDP for an extended length of time. The first thing I noticed in seconds after starting up the CDP was the similarities between what the platform did for my Linn TT and now the deck, WoW nice. Previously the CDP was on a Black Diamond Racing shelf and I thought it sounded great and it did. The BDR shelf kept out most all the nastiness of vibration and did an excellent job. In contrast the Neuance sounds a little less black and reveals a bit better timbre and pace in the music I felt. It has a little bit lighter feel and I like it so well I will be ordering an additional platform soon.
The CDP application is different than that of the TT setup in that the platform ended up on four small Bright star Isonode feet on top of a solid teak cabinet. After trying numerous other things such as cones, spikes, and other footers this compo sounded best to my ears. IMHO the use of the Neuance Platforms is a no-brainer Ken is a very smart fellow and has sorted out a nice sounding versatile product here and again I will sing it a great praise.
Unfortunately, it will be a while until I can move the platform(s) under the Aesthetix Calypso and Rhea as I have just recently employed Aurios Classic Isolation Bearings underneath these chassis with excellent results (one could say I’m still getting my bearing with these, sound wise. Couldn’t resist!) and because like all good things the platforms take a while to manufacture as they are all precision made by Ken’s hands, so for now I’m done tweaking (well…fat chance of that). Happy listening!