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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
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
@prof The vibrations that the turntable is most susceptible to ARE the low frequency seismic ones since the natural frequencies of the platter, cartridge, and tone arm are very low, around 10-14Hz. That is by design. The turntable is thus more affected by very low frequency seismic vibration (that includes frequencies 10-14Hz) than by other forms of vibration such as acoustic vibration - since it’s relatively immune to those higher frequencies, by design. Since most speakers cannot produce any significant energy in the 10-14Hz range the turntable is relatively immune to acoustic waves in the room.

geoff kait
machina dynamica
prof OP
1,741 posts
 
Whoah.  I just introduced myself to geoff's web site.

If anything confirms what I mentioned as the perils of asking for advice in the audiophile world, this was it. 


geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Nice reaction, Professor! 😃 Welcome to the big leagues! ⚾️
prof OP
1,741 posts
 

geoff,

On further consideration of your website, and a bit of research....I think I "get it"  (Poe's Law is always a hurdle).  ;-)

Also, I can see your point about the audiophile over-worry about ringing materials. Thanks for your response.


bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 

To isolate a turntable/arm/cartridge from higher frequencies (above about 10Hz) is easy; a suspended table does that very effectively by having mere springs acting as a mechanical filter. In contrast, very low frequencies "get through" the suspension---most table’s mechanic filters are effective down to only 10Hz or so. That is why seismic-frequency isolation is required by LP players for ultimate performance.

All kinds of material have been tried as very low-frequency mechanical filters---Sorbothane, Navcom, garden-variety rubber. Also cones and spikes of various sizes and shapes. Both of these do act as a mechanical low-pass filter, but their "corner" frequency is too high, rolling off rapidly also at about 10Hz.

The latest attempt to achieve isolation at low cost is with roller bearings---a ball bearing in a shallow cup. As very low frequency energy (vibrations) encounter the bearings upon which the table sits, they dissipate that energy by the ball bearing trying, in response to the wave of energy (vibrations travel through matter as a wave does in the ocean), to climb up the side of the bowl in which it sits. The energy, rather than being transmitted into the table/arm/cartridge, is turned into heat and dissipated by the bearing. Ingenious! Unfortunately, the roller bearing works that way in all planes but the lateral. In the lateral plane the roller bearing behaves just as do cones and spikes---not as an isolator, but as a coupler. If you add a lateral isolator---an air or metal "spring" of some sort---that is effective to as low a frequency as possible, then you can achieve good isolation.

Or, you can spend the $ necessary to get one of the electron microscope isolation table available, which start at around $2000. There is a third alternative, priced between the two, closer to the cheap side---the Townshend Audio Seismic Pods, which have been mentioned and discussed here lately. About $375 for a set of four when bought from England. Look on You Tube for videos of Max Townshend explaining their design and demonstrating their effectiveness.

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