How dose your plinth sound?


Iv been thinking about the materials that turntables are made out of and have a few questions. It seems that much of what is desirable is a material that will not resonate with what ever vibrations it is exposed to ie: floor, motor, styles and arm resonance ect. Yet many tables are made of materials that are very resonant ie: aluminum, glass, brass and.......wood. Wood can be very resonant depending on the type. This brings me to my questions. I see that the Teres is offered with different plinth materials, acrylic, plywood and solid wood(glued strips). It is also offered in different kinds of wood, cocobolo, jatoba, wengi and such. i cant help but think that the sonic signature between say ... acrylic and cocobolo is very different. When cut and shaped right cocobolo is a choice wood for marimbas, as is wangi. Acrylic just sounds like a dead chunk of plastic. Off the top of my head i would think that a wood like cocobolo would be a poor choice for a plinth or a platter(saw a picture) materiel. Teres wood plinths are laminated so this would cancel some of the natural resonance of solid piece but still. I will stop rambling on and just ask ..... what is the relationship between the plinth and the tables sound? If you had three acrylic platter Teres one with an acrylic plinth one with a cocobolo and one with a lead what would happen and why ........

Bill...
bkcme

Showing 2 responses by nghiep

This forum encourages me to make a plinth out of solid slap 2x9x21 inch cocobolo. This plinth beats the VPI HW19 MK III badly. Then I added 15 lbs of lead to the plinth. This even provided tighter more defined bass, extended highs, more present mids, better focused image, darker back ground. I also used cork footing to reduce the sound echo from cocobolo material.
Dougdeacon, my theory is in the tuning of TT. Whatever materials of the TT, one has to tune it to sound right. The tuning of TT is also matching it with the rest of the system. The shape of the TT is for looks. I like to make mine simple and listen to it first then gradually tuning it. That was why I didn't load lead first so I know how much improvement. Even with lead loading, one has to experiement with the location of the lead and how much. This lead loading may depend on the shape and size of the plinth. I am still experiment with the sizes and shape of the plinth. I am getting more cocobolo for my plinth. It's been fun experimenting.