An Empire of granite: Tales of custom plinth/base building

[Big Bill]

Neat! That one came together nicely.

Bill, how did you find the place that did your waterjet cutting? I've got a chunk of slate in the back yard that I want to turn into a plinth or two, and the couple of places I've contacted wouldn't touch it...

What types of businesses should I be looking for?

PM sent!

That is just plain beautiful - a true "gentleman's turntable" (in the best sense). If it sounds half as good as it looks (which no doubt it does), you have an audio treasure there. Congratulations and well done! :thmbsp:

Thanks Arkay!

Gosh Bill, you really suck at building ugly turntables.

It's B-A-utiful.

Doug

Thanks so much Doug!

Id buy one !

Thanks Buzz!

I have talked about making a granite base for my delphi a few times now, did you do the stone work yourself?

I only designed it, I contracted the fabrication out.

Great work ! Love the Empires !

Curious tho', have you bolted the top plate onto the granite plinth ? Do you have a picture of the cutout ?

I replaced the studs on the bottom of the top plate with longer ones and through bolted through the granite and the base.

That stained base job turned out beautiful! I had the pleasure if hearing this table, and all I can say was it sounded wayyyy better than I was expecting. Sounds as good as it looks for sure!:tresbon:

Thanks Vince!

Gracious. That's damn near too pretty to play a record on. What cartridge are you putting on it?

I'm running the Empire 2000E that came mounted on it.

Cutting granite is no mean feat...wow...I will tell you what makes a good granite plinth, UBA TUBA

Thats a nice looking stone.

 

[mfrench]

Congrats, again, to you, Bill.
I'm really glad to see you step out with the granite plinth. So many times, too many, you'll see the repeated mantra of granite is too bright and ringing (from people that have never tried it). So, I congratulate you for that fairly bold trend-bucking step.
The only thing that has stopped me from using it in my stone builds is the hardness of the stone, and, my inability to work it myself without a substantial investment in tooling.
Now seeing your example, it might just be worth doing that anyway.
Beautiful.

 

[stoutblock]

Neat! That one came together nicely.

Bill, how did you find the place that did your waterjet cutting? I've got a chunk of slate in the back yard that I want to turn into a plinth or two, and the couple of places I've contacted wouldn't touch it...

What types of businesses should I be looking for?

Find a granite kitchen counter contractor.

 

[Divotdog]

You're killing me Bill! I've been working on the same TT project for months and you are putting out one a week! That looks great, gotta love the granite. :thmbsp:

 

[Ken Boyd]

As much as I loved the OEM looks of the Empires yours looks very nice, and looks like you took a lot of care in beveling the edges quite nice. Love those Empires and your modification is just stunning.

 

[70WR]

Hummm :scratch2:
Wife has a couple granite slabs - I once seen her rolling dough on one for making cinnamon rolls, other than that I'd probably put more use on one :scratch2:
Nice

 

[Big Bill]

You're killing me Bill! I've been working on the same TT project for months and you are putting out one a week! That looks great, gotta love the granite. :thmbsp:

Not quite that fast Mel, they've been in the pipeline for some time!

As much as I loved the OEM looks of the Empires yours looks very nice, and looks like you took a lot of care in beveling the edges quite nice. Love those Empires and your modification is just stunning.

Thanks so much Ken!

Congrats, again, to you, Bill.
I'm really glad to see you step out with the granite plinth. So many times, too many, you'll see the repeated mantra of granite is too bright and ringing (from people that have never tried it). So, I congratulate you for that fairly bold trend-bucking step.
The only thing that has stopped me from using it in my stone builds is the hardness of the stone, and, my inability to work it myself without a substantial investment in tooling.
Now seeing your example, it might just be worth doing that anyway.
Beautiful.

Thanks brother! I've read similar posts about granite myself. I was less concerned with the possibility of ringing seeing as how the 598 is basically a "self contained" system and really only uses the granite as a "perch" if you will. I hear no undo "brightness" nor ringing in this build and actually think the granite has helped to "shore up" the bass if anything. :yes:

 

[kbuzz]

Bill I know this is in an old thread, but why did you end of selling this beautiful work of art?

 

[Buppa]

I acquired an Empire 598 recently that was in extraordinarily good shape and after hearing it play, I knew I had a keeper on my hands. The factory plinth/base was in incredible shape as well but I felt this table deserved better than press board. I decided to go with granite for this project. I designed the plinth to compliment the lines of the aluminum top plate and had it cut on a CNC water jet rig. The plinths periphery was then machine polished. Next I mounted the Empire and its new granite plinth to an Empire 298 solid walnut plinth which I refinished with a dark walnut stain. I love the way this project turned out and I really love the way this table sounds mated with the Empire 2000E cart and stylus.

Thanks for reading, Bill.

Hello is it posible you have the DWG file for the water jet cutout would like to make my own plinth

Best Regards:Björn

 

[theophile]

Another Zombie thread reawakening. 8 years this time.