End Game Turntable suggestions

I noticed you put new speakers in there. While there are no set rules.. there are some really useful generalities. This particular one I fell into very quickly many decades ago… speakers first.

If you think about them as the most sensitive and important instrument with which you judge your components… it has to be first. A new set of speakers will set the stage for evaluating anything you put into your system.

Let’s say speakers present sound differently and better ones are more resolving.. Then if you get your final turntable, or DAC or whatever… then upgrade your speakers… suddenly all sorts of nuances you were unaware of come to light… suddenly your system doesn’t sound right and you have to start swapping upstream components.

It is just a lot safer and less expensive to start with a speaker upgrade. Then survey your system for weaknesses… so, for instance your preamp could be the next weakness (and effects all components). If that is up to par… then I would think the Phonostage or Turntable could be your next concern. But it is appropriate that your phono stage is a similar investment level to your Turntable or you are not likely getting the best out of your Turntable.

Your budget might stretch to a pre owned Clearaudio Innovation plus arm (arm choice dependent on budget). The standard PSU is just a wall wart which would leave the option of upgrading to the Professional 24v supply if you move to Europe.

@lewm

Aside from several after market plinths custom built to accommodate any of several different vintage turntables and optional arm wands offered by Reed, I don’t know of any company using P’holz in their commercial audio products. That’s perhaps unfortunate but it does suggest there’s no widespread trend toward P’holz.

Mentioning Clearaudio, they’ve been active with the use of Panzerholz in their upper end plinths for several years now including options on mid-tier ‘tables as well. In addition to the dense “P’holz” material, they also use additional internal ballast damping.

Panzerholz is a Trade Name for one Type of Densified Wood.

Densified Woods produced to a Similar Structure to P'holz and using a Phenolic Based Resin are available from a variety of Brands.

No Company has to declare the Materials it is using, it can also apply their own in house name to the Material to protect their IP.

If I were a Commercial Entity, I am not too sure how open I would be about supplying to competitors how the R&D has given the edge, and the Sharing the  information about Bespoke Material choices that has been crucial the the evolvement.

On the Flip Side, if I have nailed the Market and am a 'go to' Brand, the way the Product is described might be a little bit more informative to show the commitment to creative design.   

I have received an inquiry from a US Forum Member only yesterday and have made known to them, Five Brands and the design for the Board that is needed to be a similar Board to P'holz B25.

 The following is a few question and answers from a individual with a Very Long Career at the Cutting Edge of Mainstream Industries.

Their Career started many years past, at Siemens working on solutions to control vibration.

This individual has a ongoing Career in Mainstream Industry and Created a Company that has been producing Speakers that are highly appraised in the Audio World. 

Additionally, the individual remains a Consultant to Industry, especially the Automotive and is employed as a visionary for their future planning. 

There are other Companies that are using Densified Wood, it is to be found mentioned as a Material used in Speakers, which makes sense when seeing the following from the very respected Speaker Producer.

The Individual who created this Company and is very involved in the design for the Product Range, is an Advocate of Densified Wood and its unique properties for managing transferral of energies created during replays of a recording through a Typical Type of design for a Audio System. 

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So what is the benefit of tankwood?

Tankwood is very dense and stiff, it has almost the same Young modulus like aluminium (standard not air craft grade). And it is an inhomogeneous material. It starts a 1,4 mm beech veneers slices which are bonded together under enormous pressure and with some 2 component resin.  So there is a correlation to carbon panels, which are carbon fibres embedded in a resin. Here we have wood fibres embedded in a resin.

You can order different alignments between the layers which have different properties to address what kind of mechanical stress (push-pull, bending, torsion) you have in your panel. Most interesting feature compared to homogenous materials like MDF, HDF and aluminium is that the speed of sound in the material is different in each direction. Why? See, the speed of sound in a rigid  material is the square root of Young modulus divided by density.

The young modulus is different in the 3 directions but the density is constant. Therefore the speed of sound is different in each direction leading to a high dispersion of energy so that resonance can not build up so easily.

Please tell us more about your unique internal design? 

All internal braces and panels are designed to have different eigenfrequencies.

We use several approaches to do this, one is to design some dimensions according to the Devine ratio (“Golden ratio in nature”) the other is about modal spacing where we try to use Fibonaci algorithm. 

Furthermore we are implementing an acoustic labyrinth with a billion of possible transfer paths in the critical areas.

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More importantly over the past years of Trying out Plinth and Sub Plinth Materials, I have not been able to discover a description of a Material as is described in this individuals words about a Densified Wood.

I have seen a variety of  data on offer for testing that is done on Densified Wood.

It was the Test Results that encouraged myself away from Granite and Slate and other Timber Composites.

It is the descriptions that are rarely found like the above, from a Specialist in such matters of controlling a transferred energy that is ensuring I made a valuable decision for my own situation.

It is no secret, I have encouraged others to experience Densified Wood, and the reports being returned along with the report returned form others across the globe is one more confirmation the material delivers something that is quite attractive and wanting to be maintained.  

@terry9 You have been investigative with your usage of P'holz. The venture into the unknown has certainly delivered and the good impression made from the use of the material is once more out there to be seen.

I added a info in a previous post that was a mistake, in relation to a Densified Wood the individual was keen to try out who I encouraged to produce an Arm Wand.

I stated Pico Wood, this is a Company in Spain that does a Phenolic Densified Wood.

Now I have seen how investigative you are, I am off the view the wood I should have stated may have an appeal. The following will give a Good Description for your pondering.

The Link is the Brand of Densified Wood I should have stated for an alternative Densified Wood Arm Wand Material.