Back in the mid 70's a local audio dealer in Miami had a return and swap policy second to none. Having bouncy wooden floors and 4-5 turntables later(with a lawn mowing budget), I settled on a Phillips 212 electronic with it's internal suspension set up that wouldn't skip even if you tried. Funny thing, my older brother now in his 70's reminded me just the other day of the time my cat walked right across the disc while playing and it only slowed down momentarily as he moved on, friggin hilarious memory. I still have that very turntable, maybe I need to get it plugged back in.
In my limited experience I used layers of materials of contrasting densities to isolate my turntable from whatever surface it needed to sit on. Most important is to insure that the platter surface is perfectly level. One particular damping material that seemed to be effective in one of my previous setups was thick cork. Without any means of conducting scientific measurements and relying only on audible observations, the cork seemed to be effective and cost efficient. While cork does not have the properties of a medium like sorbothane, it is less costly and I did find that using a sandwich of sorbothane and cork was pretty effective in one of my setups (nothing involving anything approaching real high end quality gear) Great stuff Paul ….. as always.
I had that problem in our old house so I did something very out of the ordinary. I hung my turntable off the ceiling off an old light hook. Worked the charm.
You can build a floating platform down from your ceiling. Right through your joists. Not difficult to do....allthread works great, you can sleeve it with anything. Inexpensive solution!
I knew a DJ that used many rolls of toilet paper under his dual turntable setup, sideways of course to absorb vibrations, there could be 30 people jumping and dancing right in front of the tables and never a skip
In the 80s I bought some turntable platform with springs to isolate vibrations between my speakers and turntable. Instead of isolating the vibrations it amplified at some resonant frequency to cause an acoustic feedback and destroyed my speakers (woofers hit the magnet repeatedly and damaged the voice coil) as I was too slow to get the volume cranked down when suddenly the system became one big oscillator. Without that silly vibration isolation platform, I had zero actual audible problems, so I got rid of it.
Very good, practical advice, and explanation. Myself, I put a plate of 1/2 inch MDF board on top of my stereo cabinet belt drive turntable. Board was a bit short of width, so I have another slim MDF at the back.🔉🎵🎶
I took a marble cutting board and placed it on two small bicycle inner tubes that fit 1 inside the orher. The stone floated on the tubes. Then put my vpi turntable on top of the stone with diy pucks made of a sandwitch of balsa, dynamat, and cork. This was in a very old house with springy floors. Worked great.
Hi - greetings from the UK. Interesting experience outlined. I have somewhat springy floorboards to my house. I resolved the issue using a "Council" concrete slab (extremely heavy) on four large Michell (as in the Gyrodec turntable) aluminium cones (point facing down like a spike). I placed my rack (Townshend Audi seismic sink stand - the older pneumatic type) on top and I can (literally) jump up/down without my cartridge skipping/being affected in any way (to my ears). I have thought of placing a layer of inert/dense rubber (think "Deadbeat" sheets used for car audio insulation), but never pulled the trigger on that.
the base the MasterSounds and TPI do is quite good to alleviate that issue with my Technics. I used them with Isonoe feet too. My floor in Berlin is quite bouncy. On the other hand, my Thorens 126 doesn't care at all...because of its design it works like a charm on a bouncy floor
I just use a bunch of those inflatable play balls that you find in the toy section of any dollar store. They hold up my entire equipment rack. It looks rediculous but they completely eliminate any vibrations especially vertically. Best $10 I've ever spent.
Ran into this problem years back as i like big bass and large volume and cant afford any of the units i looked into. I went to a marble and granite company ( counter tops )and bought a scrap of granite about 20 x 20 . It weighs around 10 - 15 lbs. I then traveled to my nearest Big 5 and bought a pack of racquet balls and cut them all in half. I placed them under the flat stone cut side up ( round side down ) making sure the turntable was level. The base floats about 1/8 above my lp rack and works fantastic and only cost me about $20 U.S. dollars. 😎😎
Yes!! Regarding the squash balls (seriously), use the Double Yellow Dot type (they are the least "bouncy"), and try them whole (not cut in half). They can absorb more vibration this way. And I love the idea of buying granite "scraps", as they are of no value to countertop makers. Simple, cheap, and very effective!
When i was a boy my favorite record store in Downey ca. was Licorice Pizza. They installed there turntable on a platform from the ceiling and would hang suspended off the floor. It was well isolated and worked great. Just a FYI. Thanks Paul ;-)) 😄
Now that you mention it, I remember records skipping when I was a kid playing my dads and older brothers records. I think that is why they used a penny.
Yes, Paul, there is something out there. The Minus K isolations base. Used mainly for electron microscopes and other vibration-sensitive devices, it will isolate down to 1-2 Hz in both vertical and horizontal planes. Not cheap, but it works wonders.
Many good (some crazy) ideas here. What I did for my 80's Denon was buy soft safety matting for walking on ,cut it into the right size squares for under the feet. Works for me and cheap.
I made a heavy rack for my system. I also bought 4 dense cork feet and mounted them on a thick butcher block cutting board to use as a base for my Rega turntable. It seems to work well.
Also matters a lot if it's a suspended turntable or a rigid one like a Rega. Suspended ones are more susceptible to bouncy floors than rigid ones in terms of keeping the stylus in the groove, but obviously no turntable likes that kind of vibration or even physical movement. The wall mounting is the only thing that helps with bouncy floors.
Back in the 70s or 80s when I listened to vinyl, I bought and still have a set of four round springy feet made by Audio Technica. You can adjust the height of each one to make sure your turntable is perfectly level. Audio Technica included a bubble level in the package so you could see how to adjust the height of the feet. Before I got them, walking near my turntable was likely to make the records skip. These solved that problem.
I did use strong anchors, and used standard heavy duty brackets. I screwed good grade finish plywood on them, then I added rubber feet, and a second plywood. The turntable has three adjustable acorn feet, further dampening out just about any interference. I wrapped a skirt around the whole plywood area, and it is near perfect. I have zero pass-through of vibration. I do not have weak walls, nor bouncy floors though. Best solution for most issues as the video mentioned.
Precision measuring is often done on a thick granite (mass) surface plate. When extremely precise measurements are required those granite surface plates are sitting on special air bags designed to prevent the transmission of any vibration from the floor. I’m not sure, but perhaps a similar approach might help the transmission of vibrations to a turntable.
Two Ikea Aptitlig cutting boards. One upside down. They are bamboo which has good resonant properties. They have a groove routed around the edge. Then use 4 nice spongy rubber balls (depending on turntable weight), one in the middle on each side in the groove. You can even spike the bottom one to the table it's on. The top one will float.
I use the Auralex Acoustics isolation base and it's very good and inexpensive. Unless you are jumping on my wood floor, no problems. I tried wall mounting, but every time my kids slammed the front door my cartridge jumped out of the grooves. If you wall mount, make sure you are nowhere near an outside door.
Yes this can sure be a issue that I have had to deal with in the past. Fortunately, my current setup in in our basement on a cement floor that is covered with carpet. I have had no issues with the turntable here.
Back when I used to work on Telex machines (mechanical) at a telco, we offered customers these large heavy sound isolation boxes, I wonder how a turntable would go in one of these, greatly reduced feedback from the speakers etc. Not necessarily practical for most, but for those who spend everything to improve the vinyl experience.... (personally I just digitise my vinyl in a quiet place, then on digital playback I can crank the volume as much as I like)
The best turntable isolator that I have tried is from Home Depot. After trying pucks and the like, I found a foam kneeler by Husky Tools made from foam and neoprene that is slightly larger than my turntable. It works great! I no longer have vibration issues with my turntable. The best part, it only costs $12.
My dad did something similar to Stan. When dad broke the wooden floor by rolling on it, he crawled under the house, and put a 2x4 and a car jack to hold it up!
It helps to have a concrete floor like my basement system. My equipment rack sits on a Berber rug. Underneath is linoleum and underneath that is a solid concrete floor. So, no issues.
Ikea Lack table with SVS Isolation Feet. Works great! So well that I actually have a sub underneath my turntable. Of course I have SVS Isolation feet on the sub as well.
I’ve got the Auralex isolation platform. $87.00. I can jump up and down on the floor next to it and it doesn’t transfer to my Rega. Simple solution, but it works great! The old Sound Organization ISO tables were great. Wish they were still around
You need heaviness and mass in your isolation strategy if you can’t take it out of the equation entirely by a wall or ceiling mount. The isolation feet/cutting boards will sometimes lessen it but not eliminate it. Don’t be taken in by the “audiophile” solutions with their jacked up prices.
Stan had the right idea... and it isn't that hard to do ! The best floor to mount it on is 18" thick concrete like I have with special spikes that penetrate thick carpet 😃
Hi from Scotland 🏴. I use a few different items, my favourite is the SRM TECH SILENT BASE, they can be seen on my wee channel if you have the inclination. Jim 🏴
My problem is raising the volume pretty high and getting feedback. I’ve remounted my cartridge. Re-balanced the tone arm. Re-attached the grounding wire. Added isolation pads to the turntable with it sitting on a metal shelf mounted on the wall. The turntable sits about 3 feet above a sub woofer and Infinity speaker. Other speaker is about 7-8 feet away. Any ideas out there?
I built a box out of M D F and put 120 lb of sand in the box and put a piece of plywood 3/4 in thick on top of the sand and then place my turntable on that, there was absolutely no noise that affected the turntable even though the speakers where 3 ft from the turntable and I was at 100 decibels Plus with plenty of Base. I got this idea from a man back in the 80s who had wood floors and had speakers that were two subs with four 10s and each of these boxes the amount of bass that he was driving was immense. Anytime he would play music on his turntable before he built the box and put sand in it they need it would jump, and afterwards after the box was built and put the sand in it he could play the music as loud as he wanted
There *is* a solution; Minus K vibration isolation platforms. Although relatively expensive to buy new, they can be found in surplus medical equipment auctions from time to time.
Shades of improvement. Any heavy vehicle riding by near the house, can/will make the house rumble. Can have dampeners, and heavy granite top to weigh things down, but issue will not completely go away. If you live in area where the roads are like the autobahn, and your house is built solidly, then you may not have as much of a problem.
If you really want to throw money at this (and some really do) you can buy anti vibration tables. These are fairly standard bits of lab equipment used for experiments such as Micro injection of cells. The tables effectively float on air cushions and can absorb a good amount of vertical movement.
There’s one thing you can try that costs almost nothing. Wedge something between your rack and the wall so the rack can’t move back and forth. It helps a lot with my Linn Sondek and a suspended floor. Turntables are all different, so your mileage may vary.
That's a really cost effective way of getting that support from the wall. Next best thing to mounting a shelf on a wall. But it has to be a brick wall to offer rigidity. I don't have any experience with drywall behavior - we only use brick and mortar walls around here - but the way drywalls are constructed doesn't look rigid enough to cut it. Perhaps, however, getting the rack in contact with both the wall and the floor does the trick. Like two mooring lines properly located can make a large boat stand still.
This is the way. It works well even with drywall. Combines the strengths of wall and floor support. Audiophile feet and platforms fail badly where this "hack" succeeds at mitigating foot-falls on bouncy floors. Many of us have turntables perched atop "tower" style racks, and without that wall bracing they will rock like an inverted pendulum from the slightest disturbance. Even my SOTA, with an excellent spring suspension, was getting swamped by energy in this one room before the wedge hack.
I placed my super heavy turntable rig (over 200 lb) on a Minus K isolation platform & it works a treat, I can jump up & down next to the turntable without any effect. Since Minus K isn’t an audiophile brand so it wasn’t too expensive.
Hi everyone, I have about 36 6.5" peerless bass mid drivers and 40 titanium dome tweeters and want to build some impressive DIY speakers. With limited testing equipment or testing knowledge but lots of patience and enthusiasm what type of loudspeaker would you suggest I build? Any help would be much appreciated. 🎶🎶
Firstly you should get the recommended cabinet size from the manufacturer and whether it's recommended to be a ported or sealed design. If the manufacturer doesn't sell a crossover for the particular drivers then designing one from scratch would be difficult so maybe consider getting an active crossover and build active speakers anyway l'm sure you will have many hair pulling moments but I hope you enjoy the process and achieve good results.
Technics MK7 will solve any vibration problems. :p Other than that... Paul is right. There are really good turntable wall mounts out there...I'd try that instead of spending a lot on other tweeks and isolation platforms. You'll just wind up driving yourself crazy ;)
I have a wall mounted table which is made by a company called Target UK & this is great for having on a wall in my home .. but if you can't do this it can be a problem.
This is so basic to fix the vibrations. Buy the Minus K platform. They are used under Helix Turntables. They will absorb vibrations down to approx 5 Hertz. Not snake oil and definitely works. They are used under Atomic Microscopes and any equipment sensitive to vibrations in research laboratories. I can't understand why Paul couldn't answer such a basic question.
Paul, My situation. Small room downstairs (wife has office upstairs now). Finally got Carwin Vega's (huge) fixed. 65 this year and goal is to wear out my hundreds of old vinyl albums! I want it loud and get an awful, nasty, roaring feedback from my turntable. Not able to get it any farther away from the speakers. Is an iso platform a possibility? or have I wasted nearly $500 on gtting the CV's brought back to life? I'm on a low budget so will I need to find small speakers that can play loud and clear? Thanks. Great post.
I don't really have a bouncy floor, but I built an isolation base for my Rega P2 for less than $35 using 2 Walmart bamboo cutting boards and 2 packages of Home Depot rubber bumpers sandwiched between them...seems to work out fine - I saw something similar on You-Tube.
Wall mount is the solution regardless of using isolation bases (good idea imo) or not. however heavy the table, weight will not counter a bouncy floor.
All turntables must be placed on a solid stand that is on a solid foundation. Of course if your on a concrete foundation you have no problems. If it’s on a suspended floor or second floor then you have more of a challenge. If it’s on the bottom floor you can use jacks underneath the floor to stiffen up the floor. Or I have even seen for those really serious put a concrete base up through the floor. The biggest challenge would be on a second floor. Yes a wall mount would likely be the best option if the floor is not well supported.
Floor has too much give. Only works on concrete and even then, at higher volumes the stand or the tone arm or cartridge will still pick up sound. That's why back in the day before CD's we recorded an album right out of the sleeve on cassette.
IKEA chopping board is the least exspensive way to go. Called: Appetit and is made of plywood. U can even mirror them with 2 boards. The juice line against each other, where u can place some bearing (found), balls of any materiale, and u have a de connection between the 2 boards, kind of floating, with the bearing in place. Underneath it all u can use some Audiophile anti vibration feet, for u to screw om. I use it for my Rega P8 and it's not only looks great, it also works pretty damn' good and is the cheeper way to go, unless u have the chance for wall bracket? That's often No. 1 speciale with light wheight TT's like Rega or the smaller/cheaper Project and so forth. I use BDR (Black Diamond Racing) - cones/pit, and it just works 👍 ✌️❤️🇩🇰
My grandparents have an old Acoustic Research turntable from the sixties where the platter is suspended with springs inside the plinth and the tonearm is connected to the platter, not the plinth. It sort of has its own isolation built in.
Suspended design--precursor to the Linn LP12. The arm is not attached to the platter--the platter is the part that spins. On an LP12 the arm is attached to an arm board, which is also spring-mounted.
Yeah, I had one in the 70s. Then I got a Revox B790 turntable with the tangential tone arm. Still works today and tracks incredible well, even with warped and scratched records. I just use a very solid component stand and have no issues.
Mass. Look up the equation of natural frequency for a system. Square root of compliance divided by mass. Compliance is hard to figure. Mass isn't, Example: get a big heavy piece of marble to act as base for the turntable
I got completely rid of it. Welded up a wall mount that uses stand offs that mount it directly to and inserted into the stud. Can jump up and down with no problem. Doesn't touch the drywall at all. Down tube look like tubular bells. Couldn't help myself. Lol
Maybe im shooting myself in the foot, maybe its already been done, BUT why not design a universal-ish pizza box style TT base thats magnetically levitated. Kind of like that "touch of modern" brand TT, but for an everyday unit. My late 70's Hitachi TT has little spring loaded rubber feet that actually do a nice job in damping floor vibrations btw.
They shouldn’t be required for solid or concrete floors. But how would one escape from vibrations ( bass) caused by speakers specially if turntable is near the speakers? And the subwoofer? Ya, listen in vacuum😁
I agree that wall mount is usually best. And this also illustrates the value of a good dealer that is near enough who can recommend and loan for eval. Unfortunately many don’t have that luxury.
