Suspended vs. nonsuspended TT?

Sean, how would one go about leveling something like that ? Some tables have both great mass and weight that is not equally divided amongst the footers. I can see the potential for GREAT problems using that method due to all of the variables involved. Sean
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Well, I have a Michell gyrodec and I love the sound of it, but I was ready to sell last week as it needed adjustment. Damn those spring suspension systems. A lot of it probably depends on the design itself but adjusting a spring suspension system is a major pain in the butt. I am thinking about switching to an Aries and or Nottngham for that reason alone. My listening room is in the basement on a concrete floor so I don't have to worry about vibration much but I know a guy that has a spring suspended table and it's on hard wood floors that are so sensitive he has to tip toe and at times crawl on the floor to get to his table without it freaking out from the vibration. If I were buying today, I'd get the best sounding least tweaky table their is. But also think about the kind of arms that fit with it and try to get some experience with some of the tone arms you might actually use. Some of them can be quite tweaky as well.

Thanks, all! I'll let you know how I proceed.

Matt

I have a Rega Planar 25 on a Bright Star Airmass/Bigrock combo on top of a spiked rack and you can hop around without skipping a beat. You level the table simply by shifting the Bigrock and or turntable around on the Airmass. The only potential problem with a do-it-yourself suspension is that you may have to experiment to get the optimal spring/mass ratio. A suspended turntable presumably also has damping. Maybe the soft foam idea from above can give you damping that an inner tube can't.

Ejcj, I sympathize with the problems that you and your friend experienced with turntables that have suspension systems. And I agree totally with your approach to acquire the best sounding least tweaky table there is.

I disagree with the idea that all turntables with sprung suspensions require adjustments that are a major pain in the butt. This reminds me of the a car ad years ago, maybe it was Ford talking about the Escort. They said their car handled as well as a BMW as their car, like a BMW, had a McPherson struts. I guarantee that the Escort could not approach the handling abilities of a BMW. Likewise, not all turntables with spring suspensions act and perform in the same manner. The specific design and implementation of the design affect performance and long term stability. Some tables are designed by serious engineers, whereas other tables are designed by people who tinker at engineering.

As mentioned, I use a Basis Debut which has a spring suspension, actually it is a hydraulic spring suspension. When installing the ‘table, I adjust the springs in order to level the table. There is no tweaking or adjustments required after this point. Period. I just spin LPs. Due to the well engineered suspension, footfalls are thing of the past. In fact, while an LP is spinning, I can hit the platform that the Debut is on as hard as I can without causing any mistracking. Being immune to vibrations from the outside enables the Debut to focus solely on what’s in the grooves. Thus one gains very quite background, lots of low level details and delightful low level dynamics. Most other ‘tables cannot reproduce these things. Yes, tonearms are important also. But without a stable ‘table, using the best tonearm is a waste.

So I would circle back, Ejcj, to your sound approach to acquire the best sounding, least tweaky....’table. Let’s just not assume that all sprung systems act or perform in a similar manner. I qualify myself as not having any experience with non-sprung ‘tables. Though I’d have to believe that they are susceptible to structural and airborne vibrations and the problems that those issues cause.