Where is Your Turntable?

OK, so here's my little prepared speech concerning the ergonomics of TT placement: everything else aside for a minute, I would like my TT as close as possible to my listening position, so that if at all possible, I can be seated when the stylus hits the first recorded groove. I actually had the ideal situation once upon a time when all my source equipment was in/on a very stout 5 foot wide, 20" H x 20" D low slab table right in front of the listening couch. The floor was a concrete slab of course with floor outlets right by the table and a raceway in the floor to get the long IC to the amps. Fabulous!

Now I'm on a second story (not a concrete slab), so the TT is on a target wall shelf lag bolted to a concrete block wall directly to the left of my listening spot. Once I know the stylus is safely settled into the lead-in groove, I can usually get seated in time to capture the magic.

But if you're into analog, absolutely nothing beats being able to do it all while seated in your sweet spot. (Drinks go on a narrow table behind the couch!)

Mthieme, RE your ringing granite shelf: The rubber buttons are making the ringing worse. A little tip: when you put a heavy material like glass or granite on a another surface or shelf, place a sheet of thin 1/16" foam between them (you can find it anywhere they sell packing supplies.) It mates the two surfaces together uniformly and damps out any vibration between them.

Glass and granite do have a high frequency sonic signature and they need to be uniformly damped/mated to a substrate like wood (or even another slab of granite!) which is accomplished easily with a very thin sheet of foam. It would be even better to spread a layer of contact cement and laminate the two surfaces together, but that gets a little messy as a DIY project, and foam gets you 80% there.

Neil

4yanx -- is there another wall, right behind the first one your wall shelf is attached to, that joins it at a right angle just to the right or left of where the wall shelf is?? (I hope I'm right on this one!!) What might be happening is the horizontal vibration in the first wall (created by the sound waves) creates a twisting motion (rather than just back and forth) around the point where the perpendicular wall joins it from behind, creating more motion out at the front of your wall shelf than at the back where it joins the wall. Placing the wall shelf right over that point would be the best place. Just a wild guess!! :~)

Although I'm an advocate of wall shelves for TT's, a big, expansive stud wall, using 2x4 studs 16" apart can vibrate like a bee's wings! Then, the only usable location is near a corner or adjoining the fireplace (unless you can figure out how to brace the wall from behind.) In those cases, if you're on a concrete slab, I say get a great sand-filled turntable stand with spikes biting right into the concrete.

Well then 4yanx, there can only be one other explanation -- termites!!