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My thoughts on TT isolation methods.

I have done extensive research on isolation platforms and with help from the Audiogon community plus many hours of listening. Its not scientific and I did not measure results but here it goes. I have tried MDF board, Granite with both and alone and cork and or neoprene rubber and truck bed material as sandwich material. Granite and marble are beautiful and mass loading. It would probably be OK for a suspension loaded TT but not as good a choice for a mass loaded TT like mine. I finally invested in a 4 inch maple slab and 4 cork rubber sandwich supports that is common in industrial machine dampening. Its better and doesn't give the sound as much detail. With detail. =harshness. Its the best I have found. With less edginess and no harshness but more neutral detail. You can use 2 MDF boards which come close. Ok, if you want the absolute best for an expensive TT get an electron microscope isolation device which costs in the thousands. You could get one for a much cheaper TT but at that point you should just invest more in a TT for more bang for the buck. I think thats what Michael Fremers 100k plus Caliburn TT comes with. Look at one of his videos. The other very low cost option is a sand box. I heard a TT in one before and it sounded great but that was a 30k Clearaudio TT. I almost went with that. I thought about suspending it from the ceiling but mine is 80 lbs. I hope this helps!
128x128blueranger
danvignau's avatar
danvignau
935 posts
 
I have the best turntable isolation.  The TT's (and electronics) are in a different room.  no vibration at all.  It was my laundry room, and has a dedicated 30 amp outlet... actually two from the old dryer outlet, which is now a duplex 110.  It cost well under $5.
tuberculin
78 posts
 
@blueranger Sorry I'm late to the party. I too use the 4 inch Maple blocks and am very happy with them. Mapleshade makes the best ones IMO.
everest
13 posts
 
1 1/8" granite glued to 1/8" blue vibration damping material glued to 1/2" ground steel plate ... all sitting on 4 - Townshend Seismic Pods which are adjustable for leveling turntable.
This constrained layer platform on top of damped spring Seismic Pods works beautiful with my Brinkmann Balance.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,223 posts
 
@townsend-audio, I'm afraid that would be difficult to do. I do not even have 1/4" worth of room. If you look at my system page you will understand. As for the subwoofers, I have four of them and each one weighs almost $250 lb. That is a lot of jing for an experiment. 
prof
3,450 posts
 

As I detailed in my long turntable isolation shelf construction thread:


I tried tons of materials, pucks, sorbothane, woods, you name it, including Townsend Seismic Pods, to see which would produce the most isolation from exterior mechanical vibrations. I used seismometer apps to measure and record vibrations. Nothing else came even close to the objectively observable effect of the Townsend spring based pods, placed underneath the turntable shelf. Stomping on the floor without the pods, I could feel with my hand and measure large ringing spikes of vibration on the shelf. Once the pods were put under the shelf, I could stomp the floor (sprung wood floors) and feel nothing with my hand on the shelf, and measure almost no vibrations getting through!


I have no idea if this in fact contributed anything to the sound quality of my set up (my turntable is in a different room than the listening room).But it sure is useful insofar as I have a son who walks around like Godzilla, and who used to skip my records just passing by my turntable (doesn’t happen any more).

I actually, for the heck of it, ended up throwing a bunch of materials together since I had them. So my Transrotor turntable sits on a 2 1/2" thick maple block, then a sheet of 1/4" steel below that, then two layers of MDF, different thicknesses, bonded together by wall-sound-damping material, and then all that held upon the Townsend pods.





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