TT damping system ideas/thoughts

bwagss

bwagss

Active Member
My highly anticipated Technics SL-1500c arrived. I purchased a decent quality turntable stand that is heavy, solid, and spacious for my needs. Upon set up and turning LP's I've discovered sometimes (if I'm not careful) that the slightest movement by me in my living room ie walking by, sitting in furniture etc I'll get a skip in the stylus due to vibration. It's only happened twice, but that's too many times to me.

I have original hardwood floors in a 12ft x 30ft listening space room. Sound vibration obviously travels well in my home. I've looked for TT stand noise damping mats, TT mats and so on. Amazing the options and prices are all over the place. I'd like a stand mat that is sturdy yet spongy to hopefully absorb the upward vibration. Or even a TT base mat that will do the same. I'm open for ideas. Thanks!
 
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Have you ruled out a wall shelf?

The footfall isn't causing up/down movement. Your table is atop a tower, and it's moving sideways.

Maybe an inner tube sandwiched between a board and the stand, under the table?
 
Wall shelf. If that’s not possible, there are some spring type footers that may work. Iso-something iirc.
 
Dig a 1' deep 18" square hole in the dirt in your crawlspace. Cut a 12" hole directly above it where you want to put your turntable. Then get one of those 12" concrete form cylinders and start it at ground level in the crawl space up to the height that you want your turntable. Fill with concrete. Fasten a nice top on it and place your turntable on that.

It'll be awesome!
 
As others have said, the floor moves and so the table follows. In lieu of a wall mount, if the turntable stand is near a wall, you can sometimes stabilize the stand with wall braces, kind of like we do out here in earthquake country. The braces would be near the top of stand, tying it to the wall studs, and will filter some of the movement.
 
Get a heavy board to place turntable on top of, and place a half inflated inner tube (14 - 16" is good) or 3 or 4 racquetball halves underneath. For even better performance, place this all under a pair of concrete blocks.
 
Wall mount all the way! I hang all my equipment off the wall whenever possible. I support some heavy stuff and never had a problem, just make sure that you have a solid backing to drill into. I installed 3/4" ply behind the decorative wall for support. I also made sure to anchor the studs top and bottom, sometimes when they build energy walls in the basement, it's not very solid sometimes and they skimp on the nails. Works great and my TTs never skip a beat, pun intended:)

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Hardwood floors on a 2nd floor is really hard to deal with. A shelf on a load bearing wall is almost your only option. I tried the inner tube, sandbox AND racquetballs and none of those helped much. I have a full basement and ended up adding a support under the floor to fix it.
 
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Back in the day we used to hang a platform from the ceiling and put the TT on that. Sometimes.

But I'm still goin' with the concrete pedestal coming up from the gound. ;)
 
If the floor really moves, even inner tubes, etc. likely won't help. They dampen feedback/vibration, but typically didn't solve shaking from spongy floors.

Wall mount, or hanging from ceiling were the only reliable options that we found in the 70's. Lived in a student apartment that was nothing more than an old army barracks set on cinder blocks. Floors were like trampolines.


Supporting the floor from underneath, concrete pedestal going down to ground level, etc. to stop floor movement would of course also work if you are able.
 
KevinB said:
Wall mount all the way! I hang all my equipment off the wall whenever possible. I support some heavy stuff and never had a problem, just make sure that you have a solid backing to drill into. I installed 3/4" ply behind the decorative wall for support. I also made sure to anchor the studs top and bottom, sometimes when they build energy walls in the basement, it's not very solid sometimes and they skimp on the nails. Works great and my TTs never skip a beat, pun intended:)

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Holy ****, absolutely insane collection of turntables. Wow.
 
Yeah, some obvious but likely expensive options would be jack stands under the floor at some strategic places, but often this might not be an option for a number of reasons.

And certain Isolation Stands might lessen some vibrations, but not totally solve your problems unless it was maybe something like the old and fairly expensive Seismic Sink. Or others like from Silent Running Audio, and they aren't cheap either, ask me how I know, I have one.

But if I jumped up and down if my system was on a wooden floor, trust the Arm would no doubt fly right off the record, they only can do so much. Such like the Silent Running Audio Bases more address micro-vibrations, but not a Sumo Wrestling Match. LOL

Something under the table, some form of isolation might be obvious, but might not be addressing the root source of the problem.


What kind of turntable stand? Can you be more specific? Is it a basic multi-shelved rack stand where your Amp-Reciever, and other components are placed upon?

If so, how much weight total do you estimate the stand and components are? Does the stand have spikes?
And how many legs does it have? Four, or more?

You might be a candidate for a product from Herbies Audio Labs. Like his Big Round Dots, or such.
And such would be placed under the legs to help with vibration.

Further descriptions might help to somehow lessen your issues.

https://www.thecableco.com/herbie_s_audio_lab.html
 
RobRoy said:
Dig a 1' deep 18" square hole in the dirt in your crawlspace. Cut a 12" hole directly above it where you want to put your turntable. Then get one of those 12" concrete form cylinders and start it at ground level in the crawl space up to the height that you want your turntable. Fill with concrete. Fasten a nice top on it and place your turntable on that.

It'll be awesome!
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Ha! Apparently that's what mastering legend Bob Ludwig did in his studio in Maine...literally concrete pillars running from an upper floor, through the building into the foundation.
 
KevinB said:
Wall mount all the way! I hang all my equipment off the wall whenever possible. I support some heavy stuff and never had a problem, just make sure that you have a solid backing to drill into. I installed 3/4" ply behind the decorative wall for support. I also made sure to anchor the studs top and bottom, sometimes when they build energy walls in the basement, it's not very solid sometimes and they skimp on the nails. Works great and my TTs never skip a beat, pun intended:)

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Just gorgeous!
 
Hoytis said:
Ha! Apparently that's what mastering legend Bob Ludwig did in his studio in Maine...literally concrete pillars running from an upper floor, through the building into the foundation.
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Though my post was a little tongue in cheek, I'm sure there are a fair number of members who have six figures invested in their system, so that is not all that crazy, unless they are in an upper floor condo in Manhattan. Then it could still be prohibitively expensive, as well as an annoyance to the neighbors in the floors directly below them. :)
 
Hyfi said:
My floor moves some. My racks are hollow. I have my TT on a lower shelf, 1 up from the bottom. I have 4 2x2x1/2 pieces of Sorbothane between the shelf and a 1" Granite slab. My P3 is on top of that.
It takes a lot to make it skip.
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I think the granite slab is a great idea and almost suggested it in this thread, but I think that is mostly effective against feedback as opposed to the floor physically moving due to someone's weight walking across it. The granite can bounce around as well as everything else. ;)
 
RobRoy said:
I think the granite slab is a great idea and almost suggested it in this thread, but I think that is mostly effective against feedback as opposed to the floor physically moving due to someone's weight walking across it. The granite can bounce around as well as everything else. ;)
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That is why it is coupled to the shelf with Sorbothane.
 
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