isolation platform for wooden creaky floors

[Thomas S.]

hi! first time poster here.
so i have a pro-ject debut carbon with a blue ortofon needle. it currently sits atop some iso pod sorbothane, hemispheres, all on top of a record shelf (a metal one! my wife is in love with it, so that's never gonna go). but as i have a house build in 1910, i have to be very careful walking to not skip the record. even walking in the other room causes a distinct rumble in the sound of a record.

I'm writing because i've read a whole lot about different techniques about isolation, from granite on squash balls, to ball bearings on wood on innertube, to sandboxes yadda yadda yaddda. Although i at some point will be at a stage that i want to entertain hi-fi sound isolation, my primary concern at this stage is just getting my feet and my two year old's feet to not cause massive hopping in the record. Which isolation platform is best suited for large vibrations in the floor. Also, wall mounting is out of the question for me, as i have plaster walls and that would require me opening up the walls. any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Lo-Fidelity]

The wall is the best and probably still the easiest, but if you can get under the house and directly support the floor where the turntable sits might solve the problem.

 

[captouch]

I’ve heard of people using partially inflated bicycle inner tubes for isolation.

I owned a Thorens that was really sensitive to footfalls. Some tables are just much more sensitive to that kind of bouncing. You can try a lot of different approaches, but a wall shelf really is the best solution.

I would think all walls have to have studs behind them. You just have to use a stud finder and make sure your shelf mounts go into the studs.

 

[4-2-7]

f (a metal one! my wife is in love with it, so that's never gonna go).

If you have to tiptoe around every time you put a record on you sure cant dance with her.

Which isolation platform is best suited for large vibrations in the floor. Also, wall mounting is out of the question for me, as i have plaster walls and that would require me opening up the walls. any help is greatly appreciated!

To tell the truth it sounds like you took all the right steps that help most people and are the cheapest.

Do you have a fire place in this room? That will be the most solid place to put your system.
If the system is on the ground floor you can go under there house and shore it up. A bottle jack, thick beams 4x6, cement blocks. Jack the floor up set support under it lower the jack.

Or you can start thinking of buying a SOTA Sapphire or Star Sapphire. In this vid I'm jumping around on my bouncy floors and well you'll see

 

[woodj]

All the things cited and others of the sort won't do a bit of good if the floor system is flexing/bouncing up and down.

 

[No Money]

Can you get under the floor and check it out? As suggested above, adding support to the area where the turntable is a possibility, but worth it to check that there is nothing more significant wrong.

 

[432HzBob]

Build a shelf.
Hang it with thin aircraft cable or strong twine.
Save you alot of trouble and a few years of trial and error like I did.
I tried the sandbox, 3 inches deep, tried 2 types of sand, 85lb, racquet balls,
tennis balls, sorbethane, rubber, various woods, foam, witch doctors and maybe an exorcist even
For a listening area upstairs in a woof frame house, wood bottom floor on wood posts,
8"x 14" laminate timbers on 8 foot spreads holding up 6in tongue and groove cedar for a floor.
Records skipped when a heavy wind blew, even worse while walking unless tinptoe like a ballerina.
Speaker feedback isn;t the problem. Plinths are easy to fix, but an actual non shakey floor is a key to funny things happening.
Full suspension tables and light needles need it certainly unless you are literally sitting down listening.
The washing machine spin cycle makes the needle and woofers jiggle type environment.
Building a simple 45x14x 3/4" shelf was very easy to make and hang.
And is wide enough to hold your basic 17in wide component, remotes and what not. essentially an unobtrusive shelf.
It's eventually what you might consider doing.
The only thing that's worked for me anyway.

 

[Thomas S.]

Thanks everyone for the hard bleak truth! I have to say I’m doing my hardest to avoid any hard installation work, although I have to admit everyone’s probably right and I just have to face the facts. At this stage I’m in denial and might want to try the granite on racquet ball thing just as a test cause it’s so cheap and easy to do. Seems like the difference between a granite slab and a sand box would be pretty negligible if it’s just for a test, right?

 

[majick47]

DIY wall shelf $50 in materials, screwed into wall studs not plaster, end of problem.

 

[parman]

It's not hard at all to mount it on the wall. Buy a stud finder at Home Depot and you'll just have to drill a few holes, boom

 

[rothwellaudio]

This type of question comes up a lot and there's often a lot of nonsense advice given about spikes of squash balls or whatever. To understand the problem you have to gain a basic understanding of suspension systems for isolation, so maybe a bit of time spent googling would be worthwhile. Basically, a mass on a spring will bounce up and down. The resonant frequency is determined by the mass and the springiness of the spring - Young's modulus to give it its scientific name. To isolate your turntable you would need a lot of mass and springs strong enough to support the mass and give a very low resonant frequency of just a few Hertz. It's not a trivial task and it may be something you would rather avoid.

The simple alternative is to put the turntable on a wall-mounted shelf if you have a wall which is rigid enough.

 

[gadget73]

If you can add some jacking timbers under the floor to stiffen it up that will help a lot. I have the same problem, but its upstairs so unless I'm willing to add beams through the middle of my kitchen (I am not) I'm sort of stuck with it. Wall shelf would be the solution except the construction of my house doesn't have wood on the outside of it so attaching it will not be easy. I actually retired the Thorens and have been running a record changer with the locking screws snugged down enough to defeat the suspension in the meantime.

 

[savatage1973]

As others have stated--sounds like you tried all the "basics"--so just bite the bullet, find the studs and bolt a shelf directly to them.

I am a contractor, and the "core" of my home is over 130 years old--if this issue is that prevalent (that you can "feel" the buckling of the floors), you have bigger issues to address than your TT--you need supports or jacks in your basement/crawlspace to stabilize the entire house. Not what you wanted to hear, I'm sure, but you might want to look at the "bigger picture".

Once you get a stable shelf, hockey pucks make great isolators.

Good Luck!!!

 

[DustyOldPile]

Wall shelf or hang it from the ceiling. You can't isolate against a bad floor. I know, I've tried. The bedroom in my childhood home had the bounciest floor ever, and I tried everything. Ended up with a wall shelf, and later, hanging from the ceiling. During college, I dj'd at a couple of clubs, hung the tables there also. It prevented skipping from drunks running up and pouncing on the dj booth.

 

[Thomas S.]

WALL mounting it is!!! Any pointers on good diy kits? Would make my life a whole lot easier in the convincing department if I could figure out a white shelf that disappears into the wall.
THx again folks

 

[DustyOldPile]

This type of question comes up a lot and there's often a lot of nonsense advice given about spikes of squash balls or whatever. T

Nonsense? I think not. There's no "magic bullet" solution for isolating a turntable, each situation will vary somewhat. The room, the system, the floor construction, whatever the turntable sits upon, all contribute in different ways. Squash balls might work fantastic for one person but terrible for another. I think everyone would agree that we try to avoid shelf mounts or hanging and save them as a last resort, because they're a pain in the arse. There's nothing nonsensical about trying to resolve the situation via other means first.

But in the case of the OP, probably best to just shoot straight for a wall or ceiling mount, judging by the description of the poster's situation.

 

[bobins08]

As others have stated--sounds like you tried all the "basics"--so just bite the bullet, find the studs and bolt a shelf directly to them.

I am a contractor, and the "core" of my home is over 130 years old--if this issue is that prevalent (that you can "feel" the buckling of the floors), you have bigger issues to address than your TT--you need supports or jacks in your basement/crawlspace to stabilize the entire house. Not what you wanted to hear, I'm sure, but you might want to look at the "bigger picture".

Once you get a stable shelf, hockey pucks make great isolators.

Good Luck!!!

Agree with this. You might get lucky with the right combination of balls and tubes, etc. Probably not, especially with a thin metal cabinet in play.

A properly installed and level wall shelf is best.

 

[Thomas S.]

Given my debut carbon is very light, do you think I could make do with a white mdf floating shelf? Screwed into studs and leveled of course

 

[4-2-7]

Normal turntable Isolation doesn't work with the OPs situation he has bouncy floors and that's not a small vibration, it sways like a earthquake. Put you turntable on a trampolin with what ever common fix and you'll still get skips. If it's high up on a rack it gets worse, attaching the top of the rack to the wall can help.

When you have a crawl space and a joisted floor the expanse can be 15-20 feet, the wall might not have raised foundation under it if it's not load bearing.

The very first thing that really should be done and it will help his house not only his turntable, support the floors from underneath. And this isn't just by the table but throughout the expanse every 6-8 feet.

I live two blocks away from where I was born in the same type house, my Dad did this to the floor because they bounce probably in 1959.



Because we had a family of 6, and a big extended family that would party and need to walk around and dance.

 

[gadget73]

I'd love to be able to get under my house to do that in the living room. Its not terribly bouncy but the one end shows signs that the floor has dropped about an inch from where it was in the 50s. Unfortunately they basically built the place on the ground, there is no access under the house short of cutting the flooring out. The wood flooring runs the wrong way too, so its not like I can just cut the tongue off one board and pull the boards out that way for access. Essentially if I want to get in there, I'm re-flooring the living room.