Not quite two years ago, I started this thread to explain the importance of controlling resonances and extraneous vibration to extract the full performance from a vinyl LP. Done right it will equal or exceed the dynamics of a CD and smoke it on subtlety, timbre differentiation, expressiveness, and nuance of the musical performance.
To illustrate, I showed a picture of my 1981-design turntable (before they designed for vibration control) with all the tweaks I'd added:
A couple weeks ago, I changed one thing. Can you spot the difference?
The elements and sequence are the same, the only difference is a much more massive butcher block cutting board than before. The new one is 2.6 times the volume of the old one and at least triple the weight, or mass.
Why the change? Well, as Quasimdo might say, "I had a hunch." I'd read user reports of Technics owners who'd gotten bigger cutting boards, or who had bought two of the type I'd had before (a cheap Ikea product) and epoxied them together for a noticeable improvement. So... swinging for the fences, I ordered up a 15" x 20" x 3.5", 30 lb. rock maple end grain butcher block cutting board from Overstock.com. It was $89 and would have been closer to $200 anywhere else.
Changing nothing else, I replaced the Ikea with this Michigan Maple monstrosity. I put on an audiophile repressing of the landmark John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman album and dropped the needle on track 1.
Holy $#!+!!!
Everything I ever liked about my playback rig was there times three, and anything I didn't like about it--slight midrange glare, slightly muddied inner detail, thin bass--was gone, Gone, GONE! The organic aspects of human voice and acoustic sax in the hands of a master completely overtook the artifice of electronic playback. Johnny and John were in the room.
For a sanity check, I called in my wife, an accomplished singer and completely results-oriented and asked if she heard anything new (without telling her what I'd changed). I offered to put on a record she was more familiar with but she said, "Don't bother, I can tell you right now. I can hear the singer move his head as he sings, and he sounds more like he's right there singing instead of playing off a record." Next I put on one of Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook LPs (which she loves) just to enjoy it and we both marveled at how much more fleshed out the music was, how much easier you could hear background vocals, Rod's vocalizations, the shimmer of the strings, the orchestral flourishes, the pluck and bloom of the acoustic bass, the shimmer of cymbals ... you name it, it was better.
Two things stood out regarding tonal balance: 1) the midrange was very natural and linear with no undue emphasis or "glare," and 2) the bass was easier to hear but tighter, more articulate, and more fully formed. I have a lot of jazz records which means I have a lot of recorded acoustic upright bass. With the new cutting board ... er ... platform, I could listen to just the difference wrought in acoustic bass for days on end, so profound is the difference.
The reason I'm sharing this is that if you are listening to a 1980's-era Technics, Denon, JVC, Hitachi, etc. direct drive turntable, or really, just about any turntable from that era, remove the stock feet (if they screw in), set the threaded sockets on a set of these (ball side up, resting in the threaded sockets), and set the whole thing on the most substantial end grain butcher block maple cutting board you can afford. I got this one. Pay attention to the dimensions to make sure your turntable will fit on it.
This also goes if you have a newer turntable design without a lot of built-in vibration isolation. In other words, if you turntable doesn't look like this ...
...you'll probably hear an improvement with the Vibrapod Cones sitting on a big-ass butcher block cutting board.
Question
JohnnyB
Not quite two years ago, I started this thread to explain the importance of controlling resonances and extraneous vibration to extract the full performance from a vinyl LP. Done right it will equal or exceed the dynamics of a CD and smoke it on subtlety, timbre differentiation, expressiveness, and nuance of the musical performance.
To illustrate, I showed a picture of my 1981-design turntable (before they designed for vibration control) with all the tweaks I'd added:
A couple weeks ago, I changed one thing. Can you spot the difference?
The elements and sequence are the same, the only difference is a much more massive butcher block cutting board than before. The new one is 2.6 times the volume of the old one and at least triple the weight, or mass.
Why the change? Well, as Quasimdo might say, "I had a hunch." I'd read user reports of Technics owners who'd gotten bigger cutting boards, or who had bought two of the type I'd had before (a cheap Ikea product) and epoxied them together for a noticeable improvement. So... swinging for the fences, I ordered up a 15" x 20" x 3.5", 30 lb. rock maple end grain butcher block cutting board from Overstock.com. It was $89 and would have been closer to $200 anywhere else.
Changing nothing else, I replaced the Ikea with this Michigan Maple monstrosity. I put on an audiophile repressing of the landmark John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman album and dropped the needle on track 1.
Holy $#!+!!!
Everything I ever liked about my playback rig was there times three, and anything I didn't like about it--slight midrange glare, slightly muddied inner detail, thin bass--was gone, Gone, GONE! The organic aspects of human voice and acoustic sax in the hands of a master completely overtook the artifice of electronic playback. Johnny and John were in the room.
For a sanity check, I called in my wife, an accomplished singer and completely results-oriented and asked if she heard anything new (without telling her what I'd changed). I offered to put on a record she was more familiar with but she said, "Don't bother, I can tell you right now. I can hear the singer move his head as he sings, and he sounds more like he's right there singing instead of playing off a record." Next I put on one of Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook LPs (which she loves) just to enjoy it and we both marveled at how much more fleshed out the music was, how much easier you could hear background vocals, Rod's vocalizations, the shimmer of the strings, the orchestral flourishes, the pluck and bloom of the acoustic bass, the shimmer of cymbals ... you name it, it was better.
Two things stood out regarding tonal balance: 1) the midrange was very natural and linear with no undue emphasis or "glare," and 2) the bass was easier to hear but tighter, more articulate, and more fully formed. I have a lot of jazz records which means I have a lot of recorded acoustic upright bass. With the new cutting board ... er ... platform, I could listen to just the difference wrought in acoustic bass for days on end, so profound is the difference.
The reason I'm sharing this is that if you are listening to a 1980's-era Technics, Denon, JVC, Hitachi, etc. direct drive turntable, or really, just about any turntable from that era, remove the stock feet (if they screw in), set the threaded sockets on a set of these (ball side up, resting in the threaded sockets), and set the whole thing on the most substantial end grain butcher block maple cutting board you can afford. I got this one. Pay attention to the dimensions to make sure your turntable will fit on it.
This also goes if you have a newer turntable design without a lot of built-in vibration isolation. In other words, if you turntable doesn't look like this ...
...you'll probably hear an improvement with the Vibrapod Cones sitting on a big-ass butcher block cutting board.
Highly, highly recommended.
22 answers to this question
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.