Chakster, the plinth will have a direct effect on the sound but not knowing anything about your Taiwanese base you might be trading in the best one for the looks of another! IME the best SP10 base was the Obsidian one built by Technics, the rest are hit and missÂ…
Win, that's an attractive looking base, reminds me of your Saskia.
Crubio & Geoffkait, I see nothing in minus K's literature or design to suggest any beneficial attributes for Chakster's SP10, do you care to expand on why you're recommending the minusk platform?
david |
The Minus K certainly looks great on paper. It's the old Newport Sub Hertz Platform of yore repurposed. |
It's highly effective and no compressor.
http://www.minusk.com/products/bm8-vibration-isolation-platforms-bench-tops-isolators.html
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The minus k comes in at about 40 lb, no air, no electricity. Contrast with
say, Vibraplane that tips the scale at a little over 100 lbs due to the 100 lb steel ballast located below the air bladders. |
Hey C, this minus K looks massive.
http://www.minusk.com/content/in-the-news/TheSci_0907.html#indexisolator |
Dear Chakster, I realize you're discussing plinths, but I was merely pointing out the undesirability of Sorbothane, which actually you mentioned in your OP, something about a sandwich of Sorbothane and some other material. |
I have a two part OMA Plinth for my SP10 MK2, It has been great. `Previously had a wood plinth, made from butcher block. The OMA plinth made a huge difference in detail and soundstage layering. I currently have it on a Minus K platform, but only because my floors are wood and suspended, my house is wood frame and build in 1918.
I like that the tonearm mounting isn't cantilevered and simple to adjust.
C |
Well Geoffkait, if you experienced with hemorrhoid cushions you can start your own thread.
We're talking about plinth here, sorry |
If you're bound to use Sorbithane just get some Sorbothane insoles, or better still, hemorrhoid cushions. At least that's what I've been told. ;-) |
Geoffkait, that's interesting point.
Anyway those sarbothane pads are cheap as cheeps and easy to remove.
The main question is still the actual plinth for SP10. Someone like Raul use his SP10 in "naked fashion" and swear it's better. I never tried as i don't have any kind of tonearm pod (and SP10 without plinth looks a bit ugly).
Some plinths are just plinth (teak wood of whatever), but some of them must be a "rocket science" of plinth like those from Dobbins or OMA (according to the price).
It would be nice to look on OMA and Dobbins plinth in user systems on pictures (if someone could share right here).
this is the one from OMA, but it's not the budged single layer version, it's actually double layers plinth (looks great): http://oswaldsmillaudio.com/technics |
While preferring not to contradict anyone on stuff I cannot refrain from saying, in my own opinion, that Sorbothane, while seeming to be a perfectly good damping material, is actually not. Now, someone might possibly find some place where Sorbothane improves the sound, but I have found in most situations it ruins the sound. Like many rubbery, gel-like, soft materials Sorbothane appears to allow energy to be stored even more than it would be with no damping. |
Mr. Deacon it's alwasy nice to read your posts, you're right, forgive my english, i just tried to say that my stand is Heavy and Stable. "Well damped" was incorrect word. It was not specially designed, just a custom build heavy big metal stand with thick glass on top of the sarbothane pads.
As far as i know Teak Wood (which my current plinth is made from) it a good damper along with sarbothane.
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My stand is well damped with glass, metal and sarbothane in between. Glass and (most) metal are not damping materials. Glass and metal typically reflect higher frequency energies at the boundary layer. Imagine a room consisting of a big steel box with large glass windows. Stand inside and play your violin loudly. Would those windows, walls, floor or ceiling "damp" the sound? I think not. Lower frequency energies which do cross the boundary layer into a glass or metal layer tend to be propagated rather than damped. Closing a window attenuates birdsongs because their high frequencies are reflected, but the low frequency growls of the garbage truck pass through the glass and are still easily audible. Some materials do damp vibrations. The dense hardwood of your Reed tonearm is one such and that contributes to its quietness. But glass and metal typically do not. By design, phono cartridges detect and amplify vibrations. Therefore, any energies reflected or propagated toward them will be interpreted as signal, which raises the background level of sonic mud. Including sonically reflective or propagative materials in either the TT stand or the plinth raises the system's noise floor. Of course you should buy whatever plinth you like for whatever reasons you wish. Just thought it might be helpful to clarify some mistaken assumptions as regards sonics. |
I use all-slate plinths for my Lenco and Denon DP80. I am very pleased, particularly with the Lenco in slate. But in some respects this is a subjective judgement. For my SP10 Mk3, I added a hardwood layer to the base of a large slate plinth, firmly fixed to the bottom surface of the slate. This was done empirically, but it actually did seem to make the turntable more neutral sounding when a priori I heard no real problem with the all-slate original version. |
Lewm, any mods outside of my country is impossible for me, shipping cost too much. I can only do it here (such as recaps etc), but now all original sp10mk2 just works fine and i already find local vendor for recap work in the future if needed. Actually Dobbins plinth (and the price quoted here) is a classic one to fit original sp-10mk2. Removing chassis is another story and different plinth he use for his own Kodo The Beat turntable design at much higher price. What i like about removed chassis is the abbility to use any tonearm with it, with original sp10 chassis it's not always possible with short tonearms as you know. Anyway i'm gonna stick to my Reed "12.
It would be nice to read opinion of OMA graphite late plinth users, seems like it's less popular plinth and different technology, but looks great. Sad that i'm so far away and can't check it myself in real life. |
If you want to squeeze the most out of your Mk2, I would vote for the Dobbins plinth PLUS the Krebs upgrade. The Krebs mod is very reasonable in cost (about $700, I think) for the level of improvement it affords. In fact, if cost is a major issue, I would advise just go for the Krebs mod and use your existing plinth until you can afford a Dobbins (or Artisan Fidelity, etc). My reason for preferring the Dobbins is that it gets rid of the SP10 chassis. Artisan can do the same. Possibly OMA can do that too. (I've lost track of the latest and greatest.) That's the way to go, IMO. |
Chris, your Garrard plinth is amazing and i love it pretty much, this design is one of my favorite aesthetically , but it's a different shape and not for SP10 unfortunately (and SP10 is totally different design itself). So don't get me wrong and thanks for your comment. |
Chakster, Bear in mind Artisan Fidelity posseses the ability to craft a plinth using any specific predetermined dimensional or aesthetic criteria you desire. In terms of the Sp10Mk2, this applies to a conventional type layout or a direct motor coupled design. To address your question, yes, the plinth does make a significant difference in sound, and certainly does play an especially critical role in mass loaded turntable designs. All aforementioned manufactures offer quality products, however, they will all differ to a degree not only aesthetically, but also in terms of tonal attributes and playback characteristics due to the various materials and design architecture employed. |
