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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
prof OP
1,741 posts
 
bdp24,

Tell me about it!

It's ironic you mention room acoustics:  One reason this has all taken me so long is that I'm juggling two newbie moments: setting up a new expensive turntable AND attempting for the first time to integrate two new subwoofers into my system.

It's been a whole other level of expense and hassle trying to "do subwoofers right" with opinions all over the place on that too.

prof OP
1,741 posts
 
Ugh, another bump in the road:

When I swapped the position of the additional MDF boards to above the Townsend springs (and under the butcher block base) I forgot that this means the entire weight of the turntable and wood base is now sitting only on the top, thin MDF Lovan shelf.  This is precarious as, being a 3-legged stand, the back portion of the thin MDF shelf is only supported in the middle of the shelf.  I can see the lovan shelf bowing to the side already due to lack of corner support.  I can imagine the shelf even snapping at one point and everything tumbling down.

So, in a panic, I put in a temp solution: cut some wood posts to hold up underneath the corners of the lovan MDF shelf.  I did this for the next shelf down too.   So though the corners on which the posts are stuck are themselves "unsupported" spreading the load among several shelfs clearly added great stability.

But for a more permanent and nicer looking solution I plan to add a sheet of steel under the top Lovan shelf to support the weight of the turntable.  Not sure what thickness yet.

Since the other lovan shelves are so flimsy, I think I'll add a layer of steel sheet to those as well (and damp them).

My QUESTION:

While I'm out buying sheets of steel, I thought maybe I'd thrown a sheet - maybe 1/4" or 1/2" - into the mix of the base supporting my turntable.
So, maybe in between the maple block and the thick MDF boards that are held up by the townshend pods.

Any reason not to do this?  If figure the more solidity beneath the turntable the better. 
prof OP
1,741 posts
 
bump for anyone to answer my last paragraph.
prof OP
1,741 posts
 

Well I ended up with this:

Lovan rack:  Top shelf reinforced with steel plate, bonded by wall-damp material.  Rest of lovan racks damped with wall damp material, and wall damp material/sorbothane in the rack columns.  That really deadened ringing vibration just in the Lovan rack itself. 

On top of the Lovan shelf I have: Townshend isolation pods (spring) holding up a sandwich two MDF boards, 1/2" + 3/4", bonded together by wall damp material.  Then added a layer of steel (really deadened things), then the 2 1/2" Maple block on top of that, on which sits the Transrotor Turntable.

This means the actual shelf the turntable sits on is very dead and heavy, while also being very well isolated itself from floor-borne extraneous vibration.

I FINALLY hooked up the Turntable last night (with JE Audio Phone Stage) and took a spin of a bunch of records.

Holy moly!

Amazing.  High fidelity vinyl playback!  Super dark background, liquid presentation, spacious, clear...in some ways the best sound I've heard out of my system.  I'm continually astonished at how transformed every record, and recording, is on this system in terms of being able to hear into the mix every nuance so easily.   Now I really get what the vinyl guys have been saying :-)


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