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Help! Tweaking My Lovan Rack for new Big A**ed Transrotor Turntable!

Folks, some input would be mighty appreciated.

I’ve been using a hand-me-down (though very nice!) Micro Seiki dd-40 turntable for a number of years and finally got the upgrade itch (it helps the upgrade itch when your cartridge is going on 30 years old, and sounding like it!).

I went down the rabbit hole and picked up a Transrotor Fat Bob S turntable, with an Acoustic Solid 12" arm and a Benz Micro Ebony cartridge. All with only about 30 hours of use at a great price. Yay!

Though I have considered getting rid of my old Lovan Classic rack for a new custom jobby, I’m pretty much spent out and I think I’ll have to make do for now, working with the Lovan.

The Fat Bob turntable is 55 lbs of solid aluminum and built like Thor’s hammer.

I figure this will finally get me to fill my Lovan stands for a bit more rigidity - probably with rice. The stand is the old 3 legged triangular shaped bass, which means the thin MDF shelves can feel like they sit sort of precariously on top. But the stand itself feels quite solid.

I want to incorporate a wood platform base, as many do, because I really love the look of a nice wood slab.

At first I thought maybe I’d have 3 spikes drilled in to the bottom corners of the wood base to directly couple it to the rest of the Lovan frame, vs resting it on the top mdf shelf. But I’m not sure that’s really necessary. And I’d like to incorporate some isolation as well, I think. So I’m thinking of just laying it on the top shelf, with something in between.

My first thought is to place a Symposium Segue shelf between the top of the Lovan shelf and the wood base.

Other than that...I’m flummoxed as to all the other choices...roller blocks? Symposium Fat Padz? Vibrapods? Herbie’s Tendersoft footers? Voo-Doo Isopods?  What should I put between the wood platform base and my Lovan shelf?

Any comments of suggestions on the direction I’m going?

Thanks!

(BTW, I’m an resolutely NOT a DIY/Handy-man type, so I’m not trying to go to heroic efforts, wishing this to be as painless as possible).
prof
whart's avatar
whart
1,930 posts
 
Quick research says that this tree was resistant to Dutch Elm disease, but it does not dry flat if I’m reading this blog correctly. That, and its stability in retaining flatness would be a big issue in its use for a turntable platform as I read it. The durability factor seems to be less of an issue indoors: https://wunderwoods.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/siberian-elm-and-american-elm-leaders-of-the-elm-revolu...
The Janka scale rates hardness: http://www.globalspecies.org/ntaxa/838586

It doesn’t seem like a very hard wood, but I’m not sure that’s the sole factor, and you said that your wood guy claimed it was a hardwood. If you look at the ratings of the Janka scale generally, you can see what the particular rating above means in context of other woods.
Again, like everything else in this hobby, the measurements or one specification, don’t necessarily tell you how it is going to sound. Add to that the layers of different material and I think it’s even more complex- I would think you’d want something very hard on the surface facing the table bottom, some sort of polymer or deadening material like green glue and other materials from acoustic supply houses, sometimes along with mass loaded vinyl and then, perhaps a different type of wood. Others with more knowledge of acoustic properties of wood, and their combination, may be able to direct you better. Good luck.
jab's avatar
jab
450 posts
 

I have used Lovan Classic 1 and 2, many years ago. The top shelves were very tipsy being a tripod design, which did not change with new tops of any kind. I am a woodworker and tried oak, walnut, plys of many kinds, bdr shelves and in the end all were still sitting on a ringing metal stand. Its like a body builder if you put muscle on a weak frame it helps but does not match muscle and a large frame. If you look at many of the stands sold on this site they are 3 inch maple shelves with weak frames or no frames at all. That is why they need to use such thick maple, due to a bad frame. Out of all the wood I have tried in my 40 years in this hobby, and I have tried more than listed, the only wood that sounded better musically was maple. Is it he hardness of maple that makes it sound better, I think not because oak, cherry, teak etc. are hard woods but sound bad. Why?  

Since money is tight and you are going to keep those frames,(your choice, I sold mine) I would go the route of many on this site and try a very thick slab of maple on a bad frame.   

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
502 posts
 
I was in a similar spot for a while, running a 50 lbs table (Clearaudio Innovation Wood) on a Lovan Sovereign (three tiers of 7" shelves). These stacked modules are not particularly rigid, and the relatively small 3-point footprint doesn’t help on floors like mine. I filled all the tubes with lead shot, but that didn’t help at all with rigidity; it only damped the nasty metallic ringing.

The Sovereign was a poor solution for this very nice, mass-loaded table.There were definitely feedback issues, and it was very sensitive to footfalls, etc. The VTI-style stands are even flimsier. I added a Maple butcher block, which helped a bit. But honestly, I was just fighting the nature of things, and my old SOTA Star III was a more natural fit in this scenario (the spring suspension absorbed a lot of these issues).

You want something that has a rigid frame, not modules. 4-points and a larger footprint is also better. When I upgraded to the Innovation Master I knew the old Lovan would render this upgrade pointless, so I went crazy and got a Critical Mass Systems rack -- MUCH better, obviously (you can see the massive difference between these racks in my virtual system pics). But there will much better solutions than the Lovan for much less money too. As mentioned previously, some of the active isolation platform makers like Herzan will supposedly make a very nice (and rigid) custom stand for a reasonable price.

The Lovan/VTI stands are OK for digital sources and SS components.
prof OP
1,741 posts
 
jab, mulveling,

Thanks for the additional input.  I really appreciate it.

Having priced a custom rack, I'm still stuck for now with the Lovan until I can afford a new rack.

I'm going to have a maple butcher block made, I figure about 2 to 2 1/2".
The Townsend pods below that.

I'm still actually deciding whether to bother filling the stand with anything.    I don't really have to worry about some of the main vibration issues because my turntable is in a room well away from the listening room.  And I tend to listen when the house is quiet and no one is walking around.  So I'm not sure how much more the is to actually isolate the turntable "from."

One thing I've wondered:  Right now the Transrotor turntable is sitting on an MDF shelf.   The Transrotor has 3 shallow aluminum cone "feet" that it rests upon, which you can adjust to level the turntable.  I notice that, at least on the shiny Lovan MDF shelf, the turntable is fairly slidy - there is no grip happening between the point of the feet and the shelf.  So I'm wondering if there are any little rubber pads, or shallow cones or something that would be good to set those feet tips in - maybe to provide further isolation as well as gripping the shelf top better?




audioquest4life
401 posts
 
OP; Welcome to the Transrotor club. Your Fat Bob S will give you years of listening pleasure. I have a Transrotor Apollon with 3 motors and the triangle design with spiked feet going into cones with rubber feet, I think somewhat similar to yours. I too looked for wood but since the system was heavy, over 100 pounds, and large, I opted for a dedicated stand from Clearaudio, the MontBlanc. It’s really a solid beast with a plexiglas as the base, and concrete filled CNC polished stainless steel foundation. It’s more of a modern design, rather than the homey warm classic feel of wood. I have a zebra wood platform for my preamp power supply😀

My floor is basement, bamboo floor, and no vibration issues. Even with multiple subs blasting. I am a firm believer in rigid isolation with minimal bouncy isolation things for the turntable. I also highly considered the Finite Element stands due to their nice wood craftsmanship. Good luck.

Audioquest4life
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