Racks made of wood


Hello,

I recently got a new turntable (Audio Note TT2dlx) and am looking to find a piece of furniture for it. It's currently on a $20 IKEA table. A wall mount is unfortunately impossible, so I'm left with the option of a rack. It's a wooden floor. I'm interested in a rack made of wood because I think wood looks nice. I fell over the "Podium Reference" of maple from UK company Hi Fi Racks. Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you


fabsound

Showing 3 responses by bdp24

There is a way to mix the properties of high mass (with which prof has had success) with that of the low-mass Ikea Lack table. What the Lack does, by way of it’s low mass, is not absorb, store, and later release very low frequency energy, which is what a high-mass object does. The lower the mass of an object, the lower it’s energy storage, and the converse for high mass. In the 1970’s, Linn and other UK turntable makers started recommending low-mass platforms for them, feeling the low-frequency energy storage of high-mass structures presented the biggest challenge to quality turntable sound (it is low frequencies which are able to pass through the springs of a turntable’s suspension). Somebody designed a product he named Torlyte---a very stiff yet low-mass honeycomb structure, and shelves made of it became popular in the UK during the 80’s. I believe Russ Andrews still makes and sells them. I’m guessing the Lack table exhibits similar low-resonance characteristics.

To create a combination high-mass/low-mass platform for a turntable, you place a Torlyte shelf (mine have a little nylon screw at each corner for feet) on top of a high-mass structure (slab, shelf, rack, whatever), with a set of springs under that mass. Since springs provide isolation mostly in the vertical plane, a set of roller bearings between the Torlyte shelf and the high mass platform will provide isolation in the other (all lateral) planes. Another option is to use one of the Symposium shelves in place of the Torlyte, or the top of a Lack table. Short of a Newport or Minus-K microscope table, about as good as you can do, and a lot cheaper.

I, and others, bought some, installed them, and appreciate the difference they make. Have you? ;-). Not as effective as the Townshend Audio Seismic Pods (which I also have), or the rather-expensive microscope tables (which I don’t---they are all over $2000), but a lot cheaper. If your table does not contain a spring suspension, add a set of springs to the roller bearings for great isolation from very-low frequency vibrations for a pittance. Or don’t, your choice.
If your choice of table includes considerations of sound quality (your post doesn't say), Slaw's suggestion is a good one (no surprise there, ay?!). For less than a hundred bucks, you can get a set Ingress Engineering (Canadian) roller bearings to put under your table, or even the Ikea table itself. They will provide more isolation from floor-borne vibration than any non-isolation (microscope, etc.) table. Even if you get a nice looking wooden table (those UK Hi Fi Racks are beautiful!), you might want to consider adding an isolation product to use in conjunction with it. Turntables, if you haven't already discovered, are very sensitive to low-frequency vibration.