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Suspended Turntable-which one? Longish

I want to upgrade my old AR ES turntable-no mods, stock arm with the latest Shure V to something more modern (read dynamic/quieter), but since I have hard wood floors (newer house) i'm thinking i still should probably go with a suspended design to prevent potential foot fall noise and help eliminate acoustic feedback since my rack is pretty close to one of the speakers.

I've gone back and forth between used Linn, Michell, VPI HW and now Sota, and have realized I'm totally confused about the right choice. I've even thought about trying unsuspended desgigns just to see (VPI Scout, Music Hall MF-7, and Rega)

I listen to mainly rock and roll with a variety of bluegrass, old country, and the occassional classical thrown in, and get the impression that the unsupended designs might be better suited for this, but am concerned about the isolation issue.

As of late I was leaning towards Sota, but many postings say the Sota tends towards being dark and slow sounding with some reports of speed issues.

Any suggestions-direction? Budget <$2K

Signed,

Lost (Tder)

(Rest of system: ARC LS3, Sony SACD 777ES, Crown Reference Power Amp, ProAc 1s and ML SL3-to be replaced with Revel Studios in 2 weeks)
tder
4 responses Add your response
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
Hi,

If you are willing to place the turntable on a wall shelf then a suspended table will work fine. I've done that long ago with my Linn with no problems. If you aren't willing to mount a wall shelf then you will need a suspension-less table and a massive turntable stand. At least that's my thoughts on the issue, FWIW.
rbirke
144 posts
 
I have an LP-12 which is pretty awesome. However, until I got a Mana stand with a Neuance platform, I was getting a lot of airborne vibration. Cartridge/arm matching is also a big issue. I had a mismatch -- Grado cartridge on a Linn Ekos arm -- and the vibrations were audible even at low levels. I swapped out to a Lyra cartridge and it's been a huge improvement. Now there is no discernible vibrational noise, even at levels that are pretty high, and even with a REL sub in the room.
buscis2's avatar
buscis2
468 posts
 
Tder, I can provide you with a biased opinion. VPI HW. There has been so much talk of turntables as of late, I actually wrote following into the forum several months ago:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1054843589&openusid&zzBuscis2&4&5#Buscis2

I don't think the links I originally provided with this thread will work any longer because VPI updated their website. But you can jump on the VPI website and check out all levels of VPI upgrades.

Happy Listening, Ed.
johnnantais
621 posts
 
Not to throw a wrench into your works, but your AR turntable is one of the best-isolated decks out there, and is one of the best (if not the best) at communicating Prat. Mod it, and change the tonearm. If you want to get the most out of your Shure (a great cartridge) then buy one of the two Black Widow tonearms currently for sale on Audiogon. After buying one of these I realized that most who haven't heard a good MM on a low-mass tonearm haven't heard what they can do: the dynamics explode, as well detail, highs, bass. Another good low-mass tonearm which you can buy used is the Grace 707, which is probably not to the standards of the Black Widow, however. Changing the tonearm to something better will go some ways towards quieting surface noise, and an audiophile mat (but not too heavy) will make it quieter, as well as the usual cleaning and re-lubricating. Otherwise, the Linn is of course heavier-built and designed along the same path, and so also gifted at Prat while being more dynamic, but it is not as resistant to footfalls.
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