Turntable Rumble/Feedback


Hi All,

I have the following set-up:

Nakamichi Pre-amp

Krell FPB 600

Velodyne ULD-15 Sub

JVC PL-50 Turntable with Grace tone arm and Audio Technica Cartridge

Carver Amazing Speakers

I have been trying to unsuccessfully eliminate a low frequency audible feedback when attempting to play vinyl. If I turn the sub off completely I can play a record, but really no bottom end. The Velodyne servo control has a low pass filter that I think cuts at 85 hz before getting to the Krell. With the sub on, I can play very low volume. Turning the volume up causes an audible rumble that gets louder in a feedback loop.

I originally had the table on top of a rickety old component rack and figured that was a large contributor. I had racket balls cut in half under two layers of MDF and also a set of springs under the table feet to no avail.

I received a Pangea Vulcan rack for Christmas and filled the tubes with layers of wax, sand and wax to try to add damping and assembled it tightly. Just took it for a test spin and same result. I previously had a set of Vandersteen’s hooked up which behaved the same way in terms of feedback.

The sub is sitting on a layer of MDF that has Sorbothane feet under it. The rack and Carvers are sitting on a hardwood floor. The sub is only about five feet from the rack.

So, I’m looking for advice on how to eliminate this rumble/feedback. I read in another post about using a KAB RF-1 filter, but not sure it will work as appears the application is for woofer pumping subsonic. Was also thinking about a mat below the turntable, but not sure if that will help as if I tap on the Pangea shelf I am not hearing it through the speakers.

As a final note, the problem occurs not only when playing vinyl but also if the turntable is off and the needle is fist sitting in the groove, so should not be motor noise. Thanks in advance for any advice here!

Ken

 

ct-ken

Showing 1 response by mulveling

Ooof, I struggled with this on a couple VPI setups in a "tricky" room / floor scenario. The feedback sound can range from an audible rumble to very much like a ground hum (but not one). Definitely NOT the motor. It only emerges during high volume levels (and increases with it), and it can possibly hit a "runaway" threshold.

Best I can surmise, it’s the plinth and arm (or particular materials & design) which are energized by these frequencies. Interestingly, the metal VPI unipivots had significantly less feedback than 3D wands or Fatboys. Most footers (rubbers, polymers, hard cones, etc) had almost no effect. VPI’s HW40 footers with the really squishy / compliant foam layers had some positive effect, but didn’t fully solve the issue.

Clearaudio’s Innovation with the magnetic bearing didn’t have humble / hum feedback issues, but had the woofer flapping (subsonics) PLENTY bad (which the KAB filter does solve) - haha, what a torture test for tables here in my office rig!

I’m surprised your attempt at springs didn’t solve it? But they must have been the wrong springs / wrong loading or tuning. That’s the magic of SOTA’s internal suspension - in the same room & setup, NOTHING gets past my SOTA Cosmos. No problems at any level of playback. Of course, I don’t run a sub and that will pump plenty of bass back into the system. And you still need to ensure you don’t excite the suspension during playback (rigid rack mounting - you’d be surprised how easily most racks can sway enough to matter).

I think a Townshend platform or pods with the right load rating would solve your problem, but they’re a bit spendy - but then they’ll be way better here than some of the much more expensive "constrained layer damping" audiophile platforms. Which are generally pretty useless for "macro" scale problems like this.