As with most turntables of the era, the TD160 has a plinth that is effectively an empty box which forms a resonant chamber. Because of this the materials that make up the sides, top and bottom of the box have an effect on the sound. The TT2 is different in that the plinth is a solid block with a cutout for the chassis. This avoids the creation of a resonant chamber, and as a result the material of the base board has far less effect on the sound.

Now I’m going to upset your OCD! I saw a picture of your TT2 on another forum (can’t remember which one now), and saw that it has the threaded inserts for the original adjustable feet in each corner of the bottom of the plinth. If you want to be completely period-correct in your restoration I can tell you how to recreate the feet, which also means making a base board with the corners cut away, but if you want it to sound it’s best, just fit small rubber feet to the baseboard. We got rid of the original feet for a good reason! In fact I’m quite surprised that yours had them as I thought we did away with them after the first 200 or so.

Once the adjustable feet were done away with, we fitted three rubber feet, one in each of the front corners and one in the middle at the back. These were fixed with wood screws that went through the base board into the plinth. Three more screws were fitted int the rear corners and the middle of the front to stop the board from sagging.

As for whether the baseboard should be black or not, I don’t know! Mine isn’t, but it’s an earlier one than yours (s.no. 177). By the time yours was made it might have had a black one, but I couldn’t say for certain. I wish now that we’d kept a log of the serial numbers where modifications were introduced.