Suspended vs. non suspended turntable

Thank you everyone for your response. My listening room is on the second floor of my house. The floor is of wooden floorboard on joist construction - i.e. not the most rigid. I have seen turntables with massive platters. I found that even rapping the equipment stand hard with my knuckles did not transmit any sound to the speakers. This made me wonder if I really need a suspended turntable or not ... or whether a high mass design would be enough. Or maybe a suspended high mass design.

I will go take a look at the white papers on the Basis website.

Rauliregas, I am budgeting about AUD$20k (US$17k) for the whole setup - T/T, arm, cartridge, phono stage, and stand. Should be enough to get me something decent, I think.

DCstep I only know what kind of sound I am after, but I don't know how to achieve it. I want something which is transparent, detailed and dynamic with good extension high and low. Dynamics are most important, because I enjoy a punchy sound. I do not need or want anything that sounds warm, mellow, etc. because my system already sounds warm and mellow. At the same time it should not be too etched or analytical. I listen to classical music and jazz, and I have been accumulating records without a turntable to play it on.

As for the budget - I forgot to mention that it has to include a record cleaning machine. I do not think that AUD$20k is that large a budget if it has to include all those things.

With respect to everyone, I am also wary of asking for equipment recommendations on internet forums because I will be inundated with suggestions with no idea how to evaluate them. I know that it's all good natured and helpful, but it can be confusing. I limit my questions to specific bite sized chunks that I can handle :) This thread has already told me that it does not matter if T/T's are suspended or not - it is the implementation that matters. Also, suspended designs or high mass designs may have an advantage if I have springy floorboards. This in itself is valuable information - at a stroke it eliminates a large number of turntables from contention.

Regards,

Keith

Sirspeedy despite living in the second largest city in Australia, the local dealers who are supposed to represent the brands usually do not carry demonstration stock. I need something a bit more concrete than what the dealer says. I think you can understand where I am coming from :)

Rauliregas, I do like the warm and mellow sound - but my system has enough of that as it is and I do not want any more. In fact I have been trying to "cool down" the tonal balance a little bit by tube rolling. As for the rest of my system - it is probably nearly as good as it gets. Minus a few issues, it is more transparent than any other system I have heard.

Rbatsch, your comment makes sense. Thank you.

Dan_ed, I have had a turntable before, but I sold it. It was a Sota Sapphire, with Sumiko FT-4 arm and Sumiko Blue Point Special cartridge. Nothing is left of my original T/T rig.

Sirspeedy I am familiar with both your friends because I know people like them :)

Nrchy I did love my Sota turntable and was surprised when it beat my friend's VPI HW-19 with Triplanar arm when we did a head to head shootout. I was using a Denon DL-304 cart, he was using a Sumiko BPS cart. It sounded fuller and more lifelike, VPI thinner and more analytical. But I think I would like to get something a bit different this time.

DCstep, I have been keeping an eye out for the T/T's on sale here, but the problem is that nearly all of them are in the USA. That means - 110V (240V over here), and expensive shipping. Both problems are not insurmountable, I could get a step-down transformer, but why complicate things when I don't have to.

Also - I know someone who can weld steel and has made his own T/T table. It's a massive thing, 75kg, and inert. I will probably ask him to make one for me. In the past, I DIY'ed my own sandpit and it helped tremendously. I might DIY another sandpit for this new T/T. We will see.

Dan_Ed precisely what I was thinking. If I am going to skimp anywhere in the short term, it would be with the cartridge and phono cable. Such things are easy to replace and I won't mind having a spare Denon cartridge lying around. BTW, RCM = record cleaning machine?

Dan_ed I am not thinking of DIY'ing my own turntable, I was thinking of DIY'ing my own turntable TABLE ... i.e, something to put the turntable on! As you can tell from my initial question, I know bugger all about designing turntables. I would rather pay someone who knows what they are doing :)

The learning curve I have in front of me is pretty steep, and i'm at the bottom of the curve :( Have been googling up as much information as I can find.

Piedpiper that was what we suspected when we did the comparison, because my table/arm combo was much cheaper than his. Unfortunately we did not repeat the shootout with a cartridge swap.