Turntable stand, steel, aluminum,shelves of ?

I use a Sound Anchors turntable stand for my Galibier Gavia table. The stand is made of welded steel filled with sand and PVC damping tubes. It is firmly spiked into the flooring with steel spikes. The table does not have any suspension and it rests directly on a plinth that in turn rests directly on the Sound Anchors stand. I'm not sure of the total weight of the table and motor assembly, but it's roughly about 100 lbs.

The plinth is presently 2 maple butcherblock boards resting on top of each other, not glued or otherwise attached to each other. Each of the 2 boards is 3/4" thick.

I have tried a number of other plinths including granite (damped and undamped), 3" maple butcherblock, mdf, Baltic Birch/mdf composite, and maple/aluminum/maple composite. I'm sure I've left some out. Each material has a distinct sound quality. Most have positives and negatives. My favorite (or the least objectionable) is the present setup of just 2 maple boards resting on each other.

The whole assembly is very rigid and stable. The Sound Anchors stand has room for components to be placed on two levels below the table. Unfortunately, I have found that anything placed on these steel supports affects the sound of the turntable adversely. Hence, the stand is now a dedicated turntable stand.

I have a separate oak stand with a 3" granite surface plate on top, that is immediately next to the turntable stand. This turns out to be the ideal spot for the battery that powers the Galibier turntable motor. The sound of the vinyl setup changes rather markedly when the battery is moved to different surfaces. It sounds best on top of the granite. So my battery now has its own dedicated stand, strange as that may seem.

Dave

Ken, The reactions to maple butcherblock are not all favorable. If you do a search of the archives on Agon or AudioAsylum, you will find a number of folks (including me) have found thick maple---3" in my case---to be too slow, thick and dead sounding.

There's just no substitute for trying it yourself so you can reach your own conclusions. However, judging from your system description, you're used to doing that anyway.

Good luck!

Dave

Dan, I don't use the buttons under my Gavia because I don't use the spikes. I have the turntable base sitting directly on whatever plinth I am using at the time. Same thing for the motor pod.

At various times I've tried the spikes Thom supplied, and I have also tried AudioPoint spikes. But each time I have preferred the sound without any spikes.

I am sure you will enjoy getting to know your new table. For such a simple looking device, there are lots of things you can do to tweak the sound to get it the way you like.

I had the privilege of visiting another new Gavia owner a couple days ago, and I heard the same Gavia/Triplanar combo. It sounded great! And the black anodizing looks terrific.

Dave