in need of some turntable support !

[fletchdirect]

Afternoon all,

Please could I ask for your help?

Thanks to a less than understanding wife and a small house, if i want to play my vinyl the turntable has to be banished to a cramped spare bedroom upstairs.

I think there's only just enough room as it doubles as a storage room / home office so I could fit a 60cm wide rack in there - but the issue is the wobbly vibration leaden floor as the house is a 2003 barrat style home and not built like a fortress - at least the top floor. The floor is concrete downstairs, but the non concrete floorboards are pretty thin and vibration prone upstairs to the point that you can hear people when they are upstairs, from the lounge downstairs.

Its a bit of an all or nothing scenario and there's just enough space for an equipment rack to house a turntable and an amp for headphone listening.

The turntable in question is a Toshiba SR-370 / SME 3009 / Shure M97XE. Pre-amp is a Kenwood L-1000C and the headphones are Sony MDR 850. (I do have a 1200 in storage, but my preference is to use the Tosh which has a heavy composite plinth).

What should I do? I see my options are

1) Get rid of the turntable for something more lightweight like a Rega. Would this work better in this scenario, or am I better off with something where the plinth has some heft and weight to it?
2) Improve the vibration isolation of the Tosh further by fitting some alternative feet to the Toshiba. The original ones are a bit 'iffy' and I know its a non standard screw thread - BUT I can solve that and fit something like Isonoe, or the sort of things that Technics 1200 users are upgrading to?
3) Then the rack itself - which way should I go? Basic table and fit loads of big marble slabs, or small and lithe quadraspire table or something from Atacama with spikes on the bottom, to spike it to the floor? My feeling was that this would carry the vibrations up into the turntable more, but I am not an expert.

In which scenarios are a spiked table best anyway? Concrete floor?

I have a 6yr old and I will be using this anyway while she is asleep, but the top floor of the house is so vibration prone - more interested in the sound quality suffering vs the needle actually jumping in the groove.

What do you think?? HELP!!!!

Cheers
Julian

[Stryder5]

Wall mounted turntable shelf?

https://www.audioaffair.co.uk/apollo-wt1-se-turntable-wall-shelf

Something like this.

Gary

[fletchdirect]

Wall mounted turntable shelf?

https://www.audioaffair.co.uk/apollo-wt1-se-turntable-wall-shelf

Something like this.

Gary

sorry forgot to mention, the walls are pretty thin - I dare not risk something like this, it would have to be floor mounted really. I know the answer is change the house and/or convince the wife otherwise, but its not happening. To be honest, being on my own upstairs listening to vinyl in the quiet isn't a bad option, its just how to do it.....

[fletchdirect]

I have enough room for something like this....

https://www.audioaffair.co.uk/apollo-storm-6-oak-2-shelf-vinyl-storage-unit

question is whether this will be up to the job, and how best to implement it (spikes/add a layer of granite on top/ditch the tosh for a rega which may not be as vibration prone?)

[CageyH]

The problem may be footfall related on a normal rack.
My listening space is on a mezzanine floor, and my SL1200 would jump if someone walked across the floor, without being soft footed.
My advice would be to get a wall mounted support fitted if you don’t fancy doing it yourself.

[CageyH]

The HiFi racks support I have takes six fasteners and spreads the load nicely.

[fletchdirect]

anyone got a non wall support based reco? Our walls are like cardboard with a thin layer of plaster, we don't even have pictures hung on them let alone a 15kg turntable. I know that I would have to locate the internal structural joints of the wall, I just don't fancy enduring all of this. Keen to try and make a table work somehow?

[Made in 1968]

Dont you know where the Studding is i the wall?

[fletchdirect]

Sorry no I don't. I don't really want to get into a wall shelf. I'd prefer to work with the a stand and am isolation platform.

Apart from wall shelves, am looking for some advice on how to correct this by still being able to put the turntable on a floor stand - even if it fixed 70 or 80% of the problem

[Made in 1968]

All i can say is stack Platforms with Sorborthane feet attached. You know like the old Mission Isoplats. The very early isoplats had ceramic cups bonded to the sorborthane feet to stop them sinking.

[Audio Al]

Change the wife ;)

[fletchdirect]

changing the wife has crossed my mind on many occasions - rather seek some solace with my vinyl first though!!

[Made in 1968]

Not in great condition

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MISSION-ISOPLAT-PRE-OWNED/383450807781?hash=item594772fde5:g:IAkAAOSwNllePCc x

[Jac Hawk]

The floors they use on new type houses have I beam joists i think they are called and basically have a sturdy bit of wood top and bottom with something like stirling board on its edge in between, this makes for a deeper, cheaper joist and means you need less of them to spread the load of the floor, the problem is as you have said that even someone creeping across the floor sounds like a herd of baby elephants downstairs and they tend to have a bit more flex in them which isn't great for hifi especially turntables. To deaden the sound you need to whip the floor up and fill the cavity with something like rock wool or have a contractor in to blow insulation in there.

Regarding the turntable you may need to screw a pattress to the wall 1st if it's an internal partition type wall, basically the pattress is a rectangular sheet of wood, we use ply at work and you screw it to the wooden wall battens the plasterboard is fixed to then screw your turntable shelf to it, trust me it will hold the weight, we regularly hang 75" screens on PB walls like this no problem, if the wall is dot and dab which is basically PB stuck to a solid brick or block wall, you could use hilti bolts but be careful not to over tighten where there is a hollow section as it could damage the wall.

[Made in 1968]

I was gonna mention a pattress when i asked about locating the Studs, but the o/p made it clear he wants nothing of this.

[CageyH]

He is going to need one hell of a floor standing rack then.

[Mike Reed]

If you must have a table (or stand), a basic used Target (or similar) one would be a cheap experiment. There might be slightly more isolating tables out there, but essentially they'll couple to the floor in some way. It's a pity that you've eschewed the idea of a wall-mounted t/t (which would surely solve problems, ESPECIALLY if you're listening on revealing cans). One decent batten firmly screwed horizontally into two (or more?) studs at operating height with an 18mm ply or similar support board secured to this wall batten with two further vertically angled battens connecting the top of the skirting board (or, failing that, where the skirting meets the floor.) These are affixed to the front of the t/t support with a reinforcing batten glued/screwed to the front.

I had this arrangement in my bed-sits in the early seventies. it held a Garrard 401/SME 12" etc; firm as a rock and all cheap DIY.

B.t.w., this is the first time I've come across the word 'pattress' applicable to anything other than electrical boxes; I have 8 of these for my hifi connections.

[Made in 1968]

What they used to fix to the wall before fixing the Consumer unit.

[paulf-2007]

I have a 65" plasma screen with a wall bracket screwed to the timber uprights through the plasterboard. I took my turntable to scalford one year and luckily I took my two tier table made from an oak kitchen worktop. I remember the year before they couldn't use their turntable as it jumped every time someone walked across the room. Mine didn't miss a beat. If you use a wall bracket you could put a support from the front to the wall lower down for peace of mind.

[paulf-2007]

What they used to fix to the wall before fixing the Consumer unit.

Osb?

[Pigmy Pony]

I have a 65" plasma screen with a wall bracket screwed to the timber uprights through the plasterboard. I took my turntable to scalford one year and luckily I took my two tier table made from an oak kitchen worktop. I remember the year before they couldn't use their turntable as it jumped every time someone walked across the room. Mine didn't miss a beat. If you use a wall bracket you could put a support from the front to the wall lower down for peace of mind.

Something like my clever drawing? (viewed from the side). I reckon that would work a treat :)

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[Made in 1968]

Osb?

Yeh Sterling Board

[paulf-2007]

Something like my clever drawing? (viewed from the side). I reckon that would work a treat :)

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l /yes that's about it