Slate or Granite for the 301?

[Wakefield Turntables]

Is it a hollow plinth?

I have looked at these options. I have also looked at the option of using Sandstone. I have a 75mm thick slab of the stuff sitting in the garage, it weights over 100kg I did intend having one made out of that

[Jimbo]

Granite has a denser mass than slate so presume this would make it more inert.
However this fact may not translate into it being a better material for resonance isolation. The only absolute way to be sure would be to try two plinths made up from each material.....ahh expensive experiment:

[The Grand Wazoo]

Well, the received wisdom is that slate is superior because its structure is similar to that of the commonly used constrained layer wood plinths.

The received wisdom about slate is mainly utter, utter loblocks!!
This is what I understand to be the case:
It is not a layered structure, despite what people think. It is laid down as sediment in a random fashion and not in layers. The reason it is easily cleaved along a relatively flat plane is not because of naturally occurring layers, but because when you split it, the shock waves travel along the line of the force that you apply. In this medium, you get a good clean, flat split because the particles that were deposited were laid down under a relatively even force and they are of a relatively similar diameter due to the force of the water carrying them.

That's not to say that it's not a good material to make a turntable plinth from. It's not to say that the way slate is laid down is not good for making turntable plinths from either, but sometimes people base their pseudo scientific theories on misinformation.

[Dingdong]

The received wisdom about slate is mainly utter, utter loblocks!!
This is what I understand to be the case:
It is not a layered structure, despite what people think. It is laid down as sediment in a random fashion and not in layers. The reason it is easily cleaved along a relatively flat plane is not because of naturally occurring layers, but because when you split it, the shock waves travel along the line of the force that you apply. In this medium, you get a good clean, flat split because the particles that were deposited were laid down under a relatively even force and they are of a relatively similar diameter due to the force of the water carrying them.

That's not to say that it's not a good material to make a turntable plinth from. It's not to say that the way slate is laid down is not good for making turntable plinths from either, but sometimes people base their pseudo scientific theories on misinformation.

I was chatting to a turntable manufacturer recently. He was telling me that slate is okay, but you need something like silicon at it outer edges for it to dump the vibration into.
I'm contemplating having my slate plinth modified.

[Marco]

Neither. Quality wood is best:




http://www.layers-of-beauty.co.uk/Page2.html



I still like slate, and consider it a good material from which to make a turntable plinth, but I'm coming more to the conclusion now that high-quality wood, executed in the right way (preferably with some other material sandwiched in between), is the way to go.

That's probably the way I'll go when I buy one of Audio Grail's grey hammerite finished fully-restored 301s (as a second T/T)! I want some nice ebony

Marco.

[Dingdong]

That does look pretty. From what I've read I'm not sure wood and an idler would be the way to go. Maybe some fancy bit of technology under the wood would be good.

Neither. Quality wood is best:




http://www.layers-of-beauty.co.uk/Page2.html



I still like slate, and consider it a good material from which to make a turntable plinth, but I'm coming more to the conclusion now that high-quality wood, executed in the right way, is the way to go.

That's probably the way I'll go when I buy one of Audio Grail's grey hammerite finished fully-restored 301s! I want some nice ebony

Marco.

[The Grand Wazoo]

My thoughts are that wood combined with slate could be very good indeed and that's the way I'm heading with my G99 plinth. The wood part is mainly done but slate will be 'bread' for the sandwich.
So as I tried to point out above, I still think it's a good material but sometimes it winds me up when we are so ready to attribute our (perhaps misinformed) theories as explanations for differences in sound quality.

[Marco]

My thoughts are that wood combined with slate could be very good indeed and that's the way I'm heading with my G99 plinth. The wood part is mainly done but slate will be 'bread' for the sandwich.

Those are also my thoughts, Chris! Have some Currywurst and a Warsteiner on me

Marco.

[synsei]

Neither. Quality wood is best:




http://www.layers-of-beauty.co.uk/Page2.html



I still like slate, and consider it a good material from which to make a turntable plinth, but I'm coming more to the conclusion now that high-quality wood, executed in the right way (preferably with some other material sandwiched in between), is the way to go.

That's probably the way I'll go when I buy one of Audio Grail's grey hammerite finished fully-restored 301s (as a second T/T)! I want some nice ebony

Marco.

Ebony rings like a bell though

[Clive]

I tried birch ply CLD plinths in various configuations. All had something special but all had dowsides too. I'm sure wood with extensive development and auditioning would work well with a 301. When I tried slate it was immediately "right". Maybe this was luck but I suspect slate is simply easier to get right first time.